Sunday 15 January

The whole point of the trip to Auckalnd was to go & see the Rae family bach at Islington Bay on Rangitoto Isalnd. DOC has decided that the bachs are an unnatural part of what has now been made into a reserve, so all unantural features like bachs have to be pulled down. This was a trip so that we could all have a look at the bach & possibly say goodbye before the court hearing in March.

Sunday morning at 7:30 saw us trooping down to the bus stop to catch a bus to the ferry terminal. We were at the ferry terminal with about 45 minutes to spare before the ferry departed for Rangitoto. We killed the time by having a coffee & a look at all the ferries leaving & docking. It started to drizzle but that didn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm with Brent & James very keen to get on board the ferry.

It was a bit of a damp crossing, we chose to sit outside though as I wasn't sure what sea legs my boys really do have or how Scott was feeling. We got to Rangitoto Island & started the climb up to the top. It was still drizzling but that just meant it wasn't hot so that was good. We walked through a lot of pohutakawa trees but unfortunately they weren't really out in full bloom, we were a bit late in the season for that. The one thing that I commented on that really surprised me considering I was walking through bush was the lack of birdsong. I was quite surprised because I would have thought there would be a lot of birds. It was a good hour's walk & the boys handled it really well. They walked the whole way up. It wasn't all that steep until near the end of the climb. When we got to the top the drizzle disappeared & the sun came out. We were very lucky in that respect because once the sun hit the scoria & volcanic rock the heat was amazing.

We sat at the top for a bit & very luckily there was a woman who volunteered to take this family photo of us all at the top. She didn't just take one photo though because at least one person from each section of the family had a camrea with them.

After a morning tea at the top we went back down for the long hike to Islington Bay.