Rangitoto Island scenic reserve daytrip

Rangitoto Island is on the agenda for today! Rangitoto is a volcanic island that was formed via eruption and subsequent emergence from the ocean about 600 years ago. This age is relatively young in terms of typical geological timescales and so life is not fully back to normal yet - they say that things grow differently on the island, as the plants had to adapt rather substantially to survive on the difficult terrain.

The island has also undergone some pretty intensive pest control over the past 10 years or so. Vermin, particularly possums (from Australia of course), have recently been eradicated and visitors are asked to take care not to reintroduce any such stowaways. As a remnant of this anti-vermin drive, traps can still be found all over the island.

A few other things that we found notable: The trees on the island seemed small relative to those elsewhere in New Zealand. There were almost no flowers - a thousand shades of green, with only very few bursts of colour. We also met a class of campers and learned that Rangitoto is kind of like a “Grandes Roches” for the local schoolchildren - they have a week-long trip each year and progressively build up more and more camping and survival skills year on year.Read more