Just to be absolutely clear, after the beauty and majesty that was yesterday’s trip to Hobbiton, today was never going to be a big day. Originally I was going to go get myself edumacated in a Maori village, but because I am very bad at planning and some websites seem to not want to work, this has been postponed to tomorrow. So instead, I decided to go visit one of the many islands in the north bay of Auckland, and I was not at all disappointed by what I found there. It was no Middle Earth, but it was still a good way to pass a morning.

Like a lot of my days here, it started nice and early, only this time I had to do it in the dark to avoid waking my new roommate who had appeared at midnight and proceeded to snore VERY loudly all night. My mood was not improved by the fact that the whole walk down to the harbour it was very wet and cold, and I was very much considering canning it all as a lost cause and going to do something else. I persisted however, and braved the cold and the wet and took the small ferry over to Rangitoto island. I hoped that by the time I got out there the weather would have cleared and I would have a wonderful view of the surrounding islands and Auckland itself. A fools hope as it turned out.

Getting out of the ferry was like walking into a slightly broken shower with poor water pressure, unpleasant and freezing cold. I had to take shelter under a glorified beach hut called a Bach (there wasn’t really an explanation for that name) until the worst had passed over, and I made my way very quickly across the island to the volcanic peak at the centre. I took a quick detour to look at some lava caves, which although did not have any molten rock to hiss and sizzle ominously were still pretty impressive, especially when placed next to the large fields of volcanic rock ploughed up on either side of the footpath.

By the time i had reached the summit the rain had thankfully tried up for the most part, and so I was able to finally see all the way to the mainland, and the view did not disappoint. The peak itself was fantastic to see, with a large crater to walk around. I love volcanoes almost as much as I like Hobbits and all things geeky, and this was one pretty awesome volcano. On the way back even the sun came out briefly, so it all turned out alright in the end.

The small problem with all this is that I was done by half past one, and I didn’t really feel like going back to my hostel to mope around, so I went to the cinema again, and watched not one but two movies! Exciting I know, but they were good (Elysium and The Wolverine if you’re interested) and they past the time until I had to come back to my cold room.

So tomorrow I check out and (hopefully) get to have a nice tour of a Maori village north of Auckland. The day after it will be time to see what South Island has in store for me, and I cannot wait to find out! So until then.