February 4, 2014
Aside from the summit, there’s another attraction on Rangitoto Island, and that’s the Lava Caves. They’re a short detour off the main track, about 15 minutes. After all the walking we’d done, we thought we might as well do a bit more and go see them. Unfortunately since we hadn’t planned on this, we didn’t bring a flashlight.
So we headed down the walk, which from our trail was hardly a detour at all. The forest was pretty here, and we saw so many birds. We came to an area that had been cleared of trees for some reason, but it was so pretty I took a few photos. (You can click to enlarge and scroll through photo galleries that follow.)
Around this point, a young couple passed us. We hoped they’d have a flashlight, in which case we’d follow them. But no, they didn’t. We had our phones, but they didn’t end up being very helpful. So we all entered the long, dark tunnel hoping for the best. I put my hands out on the sides of the cave to steady myself and stepped carefully, and that worked pretty well. Below, a few photos from the caves.
As it happened, the cave’s exit was only a short distance from the opening to another lava tube. Between these tubes was a clearing where giant tree roots and vines snaked over rock walls around us, with sunlight filtering through tree branches above. The light here seemed to take on a greenish cast, and I could easily imagine I’d been transported to someplace like Cambodia. It was quite a magical spot.
We headed into the second tube, this one with a lower ceiling so we both had to bend over pretty far and take a lot of care not to hit our heads. We managed to make it out injury free, pretty remarkable considering how dark it had been the tubes. In all, this had been a really cool experience.
We found our way back to the main road/path and headed back down towards the anchorage. I thought I recognized a fork we’d come across on the way up, and we took the path that seemed to go towards our little wharf.
After a time, though, things didn’t look right. It seems the fork I thought recognized was the wrong one, and we were now headed towards the main wharf. We were now pretty hot and exhausted; so this was not happy news. We heading back towards the fork and ran into a couple of ladies we’d seen earlier. They seemed amused by our wrong turn and bedraggled appearance and smiling, remarked, “You don’t have a hat?” “No,” I said, “We don’t have a hat, we made a wrong turn, and we’re just really stupid!” as I stomped off. Childish, I know, but I was cranky and didn’t care to have our discomfort be a source of amusement for others.
Sometimes with situations like this, I have to calm down and remind myself that if this is the worst problem in my life, then I’m a lucky girl. By the time we got back to the boat we were hot, thirsty and hungry, and I was lurching around like a zombie having overdone it on the walk. By now, I realized what a godsend the cloudy day had been.
The cloudy day was also nice in that we were able to sit in the cockpit before the sun went below the mountains. This was a beautiful place with the sea calm and flat, the clouds reflecting in the water, and the damp grass making a wonderful earthy smell. This bay turned out to be better than it initially looked.
Overnight, we could hear moorporks, New Zealand’s little owls, from the shore. This sound has imprinted itself on my soul.
Tip for Rangitoto visitors: bring lots of water, a flashlight, snacks/lunch, sunglasses, and yes, a frickin hat if you have one.–Cyndi
