On Tuesday (the 22nd), Rebekka and I spent the day in the Auckland suburb of Devonport, just across the harbour from the city centre. We had all day, so just took our time looking around a second-hand bookshop and climbing Mount Victoria before lunch. After that, we had a walk through Allison Park to Narrow Neck Beach, then around the headland to Cheltenham Beach and North Head. We returned to the main street for dinner and then back on the ferry to central Auckland.
We spent almost all of Wednesday on Rangitoto Island, the newest of Auckland's volcanoes. There are only three ferries a day, so we went on the 9am one and came back at 3pm, allowing ourselves time to walk to the summit via the lava caves and then back down via one of the coastal paths. It was a really beautiful day and the New Zealand Christmas Tree (or Pohutukawa) is coming out now, so it turned the island into a strange volcanic paradise.
