Rangitoto Island

A Near Perfect Volcanic Cone That Rose From Auckland'S Hauraki Gulf About 600 Years Ago, The Youngest And Largest Of The City'S More Than 50 Volcanoes, Reached By A 25 Minute Ferry And Climbed On A Return Walk Of Two To Three Hours Through Lava Fields And The Largest Pohutukawa Forest In The World · Rangitoto Island, Auckland

Rangitoto Island rises from the Hauraki Gulf as a near-perfect volcanic cone, the youngest and largest of the more than fifty volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field. It erupted in a single sequence roughly six hundred years ago, raising a symmetrical peak around 260 metres above the sea. A passenger ferry from downtown Auckland reaches the island in about twenty-five minutes, landing at a small wharf where historic holiday baches, some now heritage-listed, sit among pohutukawa trees. From the wharf, formed tracks cross bare lava fields and climb through what is widely described as the largest pohutukawa forest in the world, flowering a brilliant red each December. The return walk to the summit takes two to three hours and ends at a 360 degree lookout over the Hauraki Gulf, the Coromandel Peninsula and Auckland's skyline. A short side track near the wharf leads to collapsed lava tube caves open to step inside without a guide. The island has no permanent residents, no vehicles, no shop and no fresh water, and is managed as a pest-free scenic reserve by the Department of Conservation.

In the Hauraki Gulf, a 25 minute passenger ferry from downtown Auckland, Rangitoto Island, Auckland, New Zealand

Rangitoto Island itself has no gate and the walking tracks are open at any hour to anyone already ashore, free to enter as a Department of Conservation scenic reserve. Access, though, is entirely by boat - the Fullers360 passenger ferry from downtown Auckland runs several times a day, typically from early morning to mid afternoon, with the last return sailing well before dark and no evening service at all. There is no accommodation, camping or overnight stay permitted anywhere on the island, so every visit is a single return trip bound by that day's ferry timetable.

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