This morning I tried a Golden Kiwi! Personally I thought it tasted horrid, a bit like when pears go overripe and grainy, but other seem to like them...
Another Kiwi first for me this morning was the express bus into Auckland. This cost me a similar amount to the train fare into central Birmingham (£8ish) but was worlds apart from the smelly, slow Birmingham bus experience. For my £8 I was granted very necessary bus lanes on the motorway as well as a lovely clean bus. Next on my Kiwi transport agenda was a Fullers ferry, which took me to the volcanic Rangitoto Island.
Before embarking onto Rangitoto we were warned to "Take only photos and leave only footprints", yet another reminder of the New Zealand obsession with biosecurity. Rangitoto is a volcanic island, formed during an eruption 600 years ago which has never since been repeated. It is one of few 'pest free' islands around Auckland and was hence littered with empty traps, in a similar way to the Okura bush yesterday. My research tells me that these are for rats, stoats and hedgehogs - so I wasn't going to find any of these on Rangitoto! The island was also eerily devoid of bush birds and living things in general...
...apart from kids, of which there were *many*. Having experienced a rather noisy ferry rise we quickly tramped up to the crater summit to enjoy the views ahead of the noise. Unfortunately we also managed to beat the sun through the clouds so after a rather wet and eventually noisy summit we decided to descend to explore the currently child-free lava caves. These were interesting shapes, and even lacking a torch (we had four torches in our luggage, just not with us!) I managed to crawl through one.
Covered in cobwebs but looking optimistically at the slightly brighter clouds, we returned to the summit to find a beautiful view spread before us. The 360 vista of islands, mainland, water and boats was worth going back for. After spending some time enjoying it we headed down the volcano to a lighthouse on its coast, then around a third of its circumference and back to the ferry. On this walk we encountered a few pretty little beaches and even fewer children - very enjoyable.
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