During the last three weeks of our stay in New Zealand, we did a few more day trips to explore Auckland and surroundings. Auckland is built on an active volcanic field, with approximately 53 volcanoes so far, some of which we have already explored – we windsurfed on Lake Pupuke, the oldest volcano, and we walked up the North Head and Mount Victoria, both in Devonport, and spotted Mount Eden and One Tree Hill (yes, the song from U2 is about that hill) from the Skytower. The interesting (and scary) thing is that this volcanic field is still active, and it could erupt at any time and any point. Apart from at Rangitoto, the youngest volcano, it has never erupted two times in the same place, so it could happen anywhere in Auckland. Imagine that…

Rangitoto

The most recent eruption was about 600 years ago, on Rangitoto, which is the island right across from Narrow Neck beach, which is a 10 minute walk so it’s in a lot of pictures. I took the ferry there twice to have a walk, once up to the top and once along the perimeter to the only beach on the island. While the island looks fully forested from a distance, there are actually quite a few places where there is a lot of bare lava-rock with vegetation growing in between – it reminded me of Hawaii. The interesting thing is also that there are not that many birds on the island because the forest is still very young and there are virtually no streams on the island – it gets very hot with the black lava rock. Nobody lives on the island, though there are some ‘baches’ – short for ‘bachelor pad’, which is the kiwi ‘summerhouse’.

Black sand, a fossil forest and crumbling cliffs

We also went for a day trip to Piha beach, which is completely stunning. Its black sand beach is famous for surfing, and the giant rock in the middle is what is left from the cone of an ancient volcano (16 million years old). I was also surprised to recently discover a fossil forest pretty much on our doorstep, at Takapuna beach. It is next to the Pupuke lake/volcano, and when that erupted, the lava flows encountered a forest. The lava flowed around the trees, cooled down where it met a tree and then set it on fire. So what we now see are round forms of lava with a hole in the middle, where the tree used to be. Really cool! It’s also very interesting to see the black and red lava rocks at Takapuna, and also the red and grey cliffs closer by, here at Narrow Neck, for example. The Māori called it Paringawhara or ‘The place of the crumbling cliffs’. We’ve been looking with interest on all these houses built on top of them. They obviously have fantastic views, but when you see the many places where a slide occurred, you also wonder about how this is going to look in 50 years…

Jurassic rocks and wine at Waiheke

And then when you take the ferry to Waiheke Island, you get to a very old piece of land. Most of Waiheke island is made of rocks dating from 145 to 158 million years ago. The island is known for its many vineyards – we sampled three of them on a wine tour with the whole family – and on another day, I rented an e-bike to tour the island. It was very good that it was powered by electricity, because there is a crazy amount of going up and down there. Very enjoyable with a bit of ‘e’ to help you along!