Rangitoto From St Heliers

Description

Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The 5.5 km wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone capped by central scoria cones, reaching a height of 260 m (850 ft). Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field, having erupted in two phases about 1450 CE and 1500 CE and covers an area of 2,311 ha. It is separated from the mainland of Auckland’s North Shore by the Rangitoto Channel. St Heliers in a Beach in East Auckland, and from the walkway provides a clear shot of Rangitoto across the channel.

Rangitoto is Māori for ‘Bloody Sky’ with the name coming from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua (“The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua”). Tama-te-kapua was the captain of the Arawa waka (canoe) and was badly wounded on the island, after having lost a battle with the Tainui iwi (tribe) at Islington Bay.

The island is considered especially significant because all stages from raw lava fields to scrub establishment and sparse forests are visible. As lava fields contain no soil of the typical kind, windblown matter and slow breaking-down processes of the native flora are still in the process of transforming the island into a more habitable area for most plants (an example of primary succession), which is one of the reasons why the local forests are relatively young and do not yet support a large bird population. As the area is a DOC-administered reserve (in partnership with the tangata whenua Ngāi Tai and Ngāti Paoa), visitors may not take dogs or other animals onto the islands.