Climbing Rangitoto

We finally got the chance to climb the volcano that we look at across the bay everyday from our beach in Takapuna.
It was a 25 min. ferry ride over and 1hr hike to the top of the summit. Fairly easy walking for the most part. A little slower with the kids. Extraordinary views of the city from the top. The big crater where the lava emerged 6oo years ago was neat to see and is now all forested (see pic). The lava rubble through the trees was so incredible. There were many different caves to explore and trails you could take to explore the large volcano mass. We found a really neat, dark and narrow cave that we explored. apparently if you take a torch (flashlight, they call flashlights torches) you can keep going through the cave and come out on the other end. We didn't have one and were limited in time to catch the ferry back so we only went so far. Me, being a little claustrophobic, was very happy about that :)

Our adventure proved to be a beautiful good friday morning spent out doors as a family.
this evening we visited another famous volcano, One Tree Hill, but the weather turned bad so I didn't get any pictures...this time. We'll have to go back. The view from there was spectacular as well.