---
layout: post
title: "Auckland & Hauraki Gulf"
category: [Aotearoa]
date: 2021-11-01 23:06:00 +0200
---
The city of sails ashore the torquise waters of the Hauraki gulf was my gateway into Aotearoa.
view from Mount Eden, a large dormant volcano at the heart of Auckland.
Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, sits atop no less than 50(!) dormant volcanoes, and to its feet lay the Hauraki golf - smattered with hundreds of islands.
It is a cosmopolitan city - filled with parks, museums, restaurants and shopping centers. Yet if you take the short walk ashore (it is a remarkably compact city) you will find the ferry terminal - a gateway to many small adventures over the great bay. Ferrys go out by the hour for luxury resorts, livestock islands, camping grounds and pest-free bird shelters.
Auckland was a great micro-cosmos of New Zealand as a whole - half culture, half nature - and I split my time there exactly 50/50 between the two. It was a relatively short stay, but incredibly packed and diverse.
# War Memorial Museum & Winter Gardens
My first stop was the War Memorial Museum, which sits at the heart of the Auckland Domain - the largest park in the city.
This was my very first contact with Maori culture - which I had no background about prior to visiting.
The museum is filled with grand Tikis, unearthed weapons, and Maori *taonga* - treasures - and tells the story of the Maori as they arrived from afar in their Wakas (grand canoes) and settled the city. It does not shy away from the arrival of the Pakeha - the white man - and how it exploited and stole from the Maori. Not that they were a peaceful bunch - the Maori often warred among themselves.
One thing you cannot deny, however - Maori aesthetic is stunning, and the craftsmen were incredibly skilled!
a Waka - grand Maori canoe. Wakas range in size from local expeditions, war parties, and ocean faring Great Wakas.
the Maori often constructed great tikis portraying stories from their mythology over dwellings of chiefs and respected folk. The tikis also have penises sometimes.
Family members and friends were very surprised when I sent back those pictures - it's not quite what they had in mind when thinking of New Zealand.
Continuing my cultured cruise of the city, I went onward to the Auckland Winter Gardens - a peak New Zealand fashion. It was splendid slowing down in the tranquil gardens - and the Fernery (also peak New Zealand fashion) was a great intro to the kind of flora I would see later on.
After an amazing night's sleep, I even managed to sormount the jet-lag completely - I could sit down and get right back up without the world spinning!
The gardens are very rich, and no one distrubs you while you stop and smell the flowers - talk about a culture shock.
A garden just for ferns - very classy stuff.
# Waiheke
Start of the Waiheke trails - off to a great start!
Having recovered from my flight and successfully passing a short primer on culture and flora, I was ready for my first natural adventure - the island resort of Waiheke, home of the ultra-rich Kiwis and very expensive vineyards. Waiheke, much like anywhere in New Zealand, has extensive hiking tracks. Rolling hills and billowing grasses, black sand beaches and the sweet smell of the sea - Waiheke is an incredible place.
*Waiheke* (trickling waters in Te Reo - the Maori language) was my proving ground for further expeditions and longer treks, as well as testing the waters for camping in the Great Barrier Island. And a proving ground that was - my smugness was shattered on Waiheke. I had planned to trek for a day (10 hours?), but Waiheke needed only 4 to defeat me - climbing massive sand hills, crossing beaches and right down to other hills, all with a pack that's far, far too heavy. It was a good wakeup call, and disapointed me greatly at first, but sitting on the hills in the billowing winds quickly dissipated my disappointment back to endless bliss.
Following Waiheke, I trotted off to Devonport - a quite, scenic suburb of Auckland. I visited a massive gun built for World War II (never used, of course), went to check out the setting sun on the bay and for a plate of Fish&Chips. Great stuff.
It really is nice almost anywhere in New Zealand.
It's always busy on land and in water in the largest (and still very small) of Kiwi cities.
# Rangitoto
The next day was a seriously cool destination - the Island of *Rangitoto* (Bloody Sky), the youngest volcano in New Zealand.
Adjacent to Rangitoto lay the old, tranquil island of *Motutapu* (Sacred Island) - a flat, tranquil island of soft rolling hills and rich soil.
A Maori group lived there peacefully for many years - until one day, disaster struck.
The skies turned red as blood, the ground shook violently, and fire spewed out of the oceans - ash and darkness enveloping everything for a few days.
When the dust settled, a new island was born. The Maoris, who survived unharmed, named it Rangitoto - and described its' birth in their histories.
That's volcanic, all right.
Rangitoto is a mere 600 years old - and scientists study it extensively as life colonizes the raw, volcanic rock.
First, some birds lay organic matter on the rocks (food scraps, leavings, etc). Then, small trees and ferns manage to take root (the island has mostly one type of tree - the hardy Pohutukawa). And out of nothing, life takes root.
Life, uh, finds a way...
The very ground on Rangitoto is harsh, and the forest is young - the trees are thin and relatively far apart. The island rises throughout the young forest up to the crater of the volcano that created it - thankfully dormant today.
The soil is the absolute minimum level of 'not rocks' throughout the island.
Rangitoto's rim is very deep - over 50 meters - and all covered in the young forest. Sassy birds fly from one crater wall to the other, and their song echoes in the hollow.
Watching them was like a strange game of whack-a-mole - there's a constant commotion and suddenly one pops out of nowhere and goes somewhere - up, down, sideways, whatever. Surprisingly entertaining!
It's very hard to capture the depth of the crater - the picture is very misleading. Look closely!
Pohutukawas, like the one pictured here, were first to colonize the island and are still the main plant there, aside from small tree ferns.
Once you brave the climb, you are rewarded with amazing views of the surrounding gulf - you can easily spot Auckland over the water. Amazing what a short distance seperates these two utterly different places!
I was not being lyrical when describing the waters as torquise - they really are!
The very next day, I set off north for Whangarei - one of New Zealand's oldest forests.
Auckland kept me busy a full 13 hours each day there - unfortunately, I did not return there as I had planned. While Kiwis are partial to it (I met an Aucklander further away in a hostel who was there just because *'There's too much going on in Auckland, man'*), I greatly enjoyed my time there.