Yesterday, I took a ferry ride over to Rangitoto Island with 50 other international students. Before boarding the ferry, our bags checked for any pests or animals. Rangitoto is a conservation island where they are trying to bring back native birds.
Rangitoto is a volcanic island which erupted only 600 years ago. Archeologists have evidence that Maori people witnessed the eruption. Drawings from surveyers of the island show that the trees and vegetation that now cover the island did not exist just 250 years ago. Scientists are still researching why plant life was able to grow so quickly on the island. Normally it takes much longer than 400 years for lava rocks to turn to suitable soil for plants.
Most of our huge group decided to walk straight up to the summit, but I chose to go the long way around the island with seven other students. It was so much better to be in a small group because we all got to know each other really well and made it easier to decide where to go next.
Along our route, we stopped at this little beach. It had beautiful white sand and the water was so blue it looked fake. I'm still waiting on Maurice from Germany to send his photos of the trip. He was the only one with a good camera!
Most of the hike was through dense forests like this. The whole island felt like you were in another world even though we were only a 30 minute ferry ride from the big city of Auckland.
After hiking around the coastline, we summitted the volcano. We had a beautiful view of the islands and Auckland for about 5 minutes before the rain clouds returned and blocked out the horizon.
Next came the lava caves. Anna from Norway led the way. Surprisingly we only saw a few spiders. New Zealand has very few bugs.
Even in Auckland, it has been amazing to see so many different plants and trees that I would never have seen at home. Rangitoto was covered with strange plants.
Eventually we made our way back to the ferry dock.
We saw so many birds along the way, but the seagulls were the most friendly by far.
The plants and trees are so interesting and different