The wild west

After Graham's very successful car-buying adventures last week, we decided to take it out for a little spin on Saturday and do some exploring. We made our way out into the Waitakere ranges, west of Auckland, towards the beaches of Piha and Karekare. After illegally climbing higher than we were supposed to on Lion's Rock on Piha beach,


we did a short hike up into the hills, to the isolated White's beach, only accessible by boat or foot (gmap). We then made our way round to Karekare, where some scenes of the film "The Piano" where filmed:

Canyonzzzzz

It's well known that the Kiwis are prone to doing crazy and extreme outdoor adventurey-type things, and on Saturday we experienced this for ourselves first-hand. We signed up with Canyonz for their Blue Canyon trip - a full day in the Waitakere mountains promising "maximum fun". Our guide Neil was very much a "dude" and after driving us from Auckland to the hills, had us kitted up in identikit wetsuits, harnesses and helmets and out into the woods. After a short hike up to the top of the river, we were ready to go...

Jumping...


leaping...


sliding...


and abseiling...


our way to the bottom.

Tree planting

The Maths Department here is wonderfully laid back and friendly. Last week, we got a license to take Friday off work when the head of department suggested a tree-planting day on Wahieke Island. This actually seems quite a common Kiwi event - they realise that their carbon footprint is huge, but have no intention to travel less, so just plant trees instead.

Anyway, I spent a very enjoyable afternoon running up and down a hill with a wheelbarrow full (on the way down, at least) of mulch. The shovelling of which is demonstrated by these two energetic members of the department:


After the tree-planting was finished, we walked around the coast and ended, as is becoming very normal for a Friday evening in Auckland, with drinks, courtesy of the Maths Department.

Blood red sky

One thing it's very hard to miss when you arrive in Auckland is the newest volcano on the block, Rangitoto:


Only 600 years old, the name derives from the Maori phrase Te Rangi totongia a Tamatekapua, meaning `the day the blood of Tamatekapua was shed'. Tamatekapua was the chief of one of the first Maori canoes to arrive on New Zealand with Polynesian settlers. Apparantely they thought his death more violent than perhaps it was...

Anyway, ever since we'd arrived, I'd been itching to climb it, so last Sunday we headed out on an early morning ferry. Although from afar the island appears to be covered in quite heavy woodland, being such a new bit of land, there are lots of areas of bare lava field, and apparently the forest is only about 200 years old.

The hike to the top took less than an hour; on the way we got to explore some lava caves - nothing too claustrophobic but you definitely needed to take a torch.

The views from the top were amazing, both back towards the city:


and out the other way into the bay: