December 8th was our last full day in Auckland.  We headed back down to the wharf and took a ferry out to Rangitoto island.  This is a wild life sanctuary that the conservation people along with the Maori people are trying to restore to only native creatures and plants.  It is a volcanic island that last erupted about 600 years ago.  That is not that long ago so you see lots of scoria rock fields everywhere.  The vegetation is reclaiming the land but it it still has a lot more work to do.  We did the 1 hour hike to the summit and had our lunch there.  The views of Hauraki gulf were amazing.

This pretty little bird was looking for our lunch scraps.

The scoria rock fields were pretty much everywhere.This is the volcano crater.

We had been invited for  drink by our host family that evening.  So when we returned, we did some packing, showered and went upstairs to our hosts house and had not only a drink but dinner as well.  Dinner was a surprise for us but very fun.  The family is from Sri Lanka and we had a Sri Lankan dinner.  It really was a fun evening.  They are a very nice, interesting family.  They have two daughters, Natasha 20 and Natalie 14.  And they have a 19 year old Japanese girl exchange student living with them, Momi.  They took pictures when we left and when I get them I will update this post.  The only picture I have is of Natalie’s new kitty, Daisy.

Daisy

The next morning we finished packing our bags and headed to the airport.

So long Auckland, and hello Christchurch.