Today I got up at 6:30 to catch the ferry at 7:30 to the Rangitoto volcanic island. My roommate Alessandro from Italy came with me. He’s a nice guy, about 33 years old, and he is on his holidays in New Zealand. We had nice conversations on the ferry and arrived at 8 o’clock on the island.

In the beginning it was a bit raining but we were prepared and enjoyed the view of the amazing rainbow.

Our first stop was at the Lava Caves (the caves we thought they were the lava caves )

Actually it was this small hole right behind me. We went into the cave for about 20m but then realized, that we needed a torch. Neither of us had got one, so we returned after 20 minutes.

Then we found the right entry to the Lava Caves, and, of course,  it was much bigger.

After that we went up to the summit, and from there we enjoyed a stunning view over Auckland’s skyline and the Motutapu Island. Our next stop was in Islington Bay Wharf in the very  east of Rangitoto Island, right opposite Motutapu Island.

On Motutapu Island (we could cross over to the next island by walking on a small bridge), I went for a swim, we lay in the sun and ate something for lunch.

For our way back we took the coastal track, a track which provided stunning views of the beautiful landscape along the coast. We arrived in time for the ferry departure at around 3 o’clock and off we went.

Back in Auckland we decided to go up the Skytower and to visit the Skycity. When we had arrived there, we purchased a ticket for 18 Dollars each, and took the lift to the Main platform (186 m high). We stayed there for a while, enjoyed the view and watched all  the skyjumpers jumping down from the Skytower.

Then we went up with a second lift to the Sky Deck (220 m high, highest point you can go to without jumping.) Took some photos there. It was an amazing view of Auckland from up there, you could really see every single building, the harbour, the islands around Auckland, the mountains of Auckland (Mt. Eden, One Tree Hill, Mt. Wellington etc.) and we recognized a lot of them.

We returned by lift and went to the Skycity (a huge casino with lots of very noble restaurants). We didn’t gamble today and returned to our hostel soon.

There Nani already waited for us and we started to cook our dinner.