April 18 - Brook - This morning was our last presentation for the Half Moon Bay Rotary club, and it was probably one of our best! After the meeting was over we changed into our hiking clothes and boarded a private boat for a lovely ride to Rangitoto Island. The cruise over to the island was calm and peaceful, hardly a wave in the water, and perfectly blue sky. Our hosts Cam & Pam Butcher supplied us with a lovely picnic lunch we paced into our bags for later. Once we arrived on Rangitoto we geared up then headed onto the trail that leads to the summit. Rangitoto is the youngest of the volcanoes in the Hauraki Gulf exploding around 700 yrs ago. The summit of the volcanic cone is 260m and with a trail going right around the rim of the central crater. On the way up we passed many areas where there was no vegetation and the rugged volcanic scoria was all that was visible. We were also able to crawl in and through some lava caves. These caves were formed when the exterior of flowing lava cooled down and formed a crust, then the central liquid lava continued to drain out and flow down the mountain leaving lava caves behind.

Once we reached the summit we had our picnic lunch which we felt was well deserved. Then we went for the rim walk around the central crater and started back down towards Islington bay were our boat came to collect us. The cruise home was wonderful, the sun was brilliant and warm and with the lull of the engines I found myself nodding off to sleep for moments at a time, all the while trying to have a conversation with the skipper Phillip! The other girls were on the bottom level of the boat watching some snapper being filleted. All the fish remains were attracting a whole following of infant sea gulls. The girls were also treated to a glimpse of a penguin that floated by for a bit. Apparently there a 6 of the 17 different penguin species that are found in New Zealand. I'll have to ask them what species they saw as they didn't get time to take a picture.

Once back home with my host family the Hunter's I quickly cleaned up from a day of activity and headed out for a night on the town in Auckland. First we went up the Sky Tower. We had a brilliant view of the night sky. Then we went out for dinner in the Viaduct area.... Yummy. I was treated to a dish of tuna! It was wonderful but very different tasting than I expected, probably because it was the first time I have had tuna that didn't come from a can!