We arrived in Auckland this morning, got off the ship, left our luggage at the Grand Millennium Hotel and took off for the ferry port. Auckland is a big city with big Christmas decorations.
We caught a 10:30 ferry to Rangitoto Island, a volcanic island, Auckland’s most recent volcanic eruption (600 years ago). The island is a nature preserve that was declared pest free in 2011 and is now a sanctuary for native birds. The ferry leaves on the half hour form the ferry terminal, but the ferries back are less frequent (12:30, 2:30, 3:30). We climbed the volcanic trail up the mountain, a steep one hour climb.
Pahotakawa trees (Christmas bush) were growing out of the lava. Bring sandwiches and plenty of water because there are no services on the island. The ferry does sell sandwiches if you’re in a rush.
Although there are a number of trails on the island, we were told that the 2.5 hour Beacon Lighthouse trail is flat, boring, and has no shade. We chose to go back down the way we came up.
The ferry ride is about 1/2 hour each way.