Rongitoto
Rongitoto.The name sounds a bell in your ear. Around 600 years 
back it rang a bell no doubt but that was a bell to give alarm to the Maori settlers who used to live in the nearby Motutapu island.Rongitoto literally means 'bloody sky' in Maori language.In fact it reddened the sky line of the country whose original name i,e Aotearoa ( to-day's New Zealand) reminds you of long white clouds.Out of the deep blue pacific a big red mass started erupting some day 600 years back in a series of dramatic explosions and gave a different shade to the nearby clouds. It is the youngest island in the Hauraki Gulf in the North Shore of Auckland and the last and largest volcano to be formed in the Auckland volcanic field.It is also one of the biggest volcanic eruptions which 
earth had ever witnessed.
From a distance you can never imagine there may be anything unique within the island you are about to set your foot on.It is as nice as others, majestically sitting just off the Auckland coast.Only there are no one else present except the visitors.
Rongitoto is home to New Zealand's largest Pohutakawa forest.As we came to know from the commentary there are more than 200 species of native plants including 40 species of fern.Many of the plants are unusual hybrids and very rare.
The only way one may reach Rongitoto is through steamer. The Fuller's group run regular ferry services to and fro Rongitoto.We got
into the ferry from Auckland Ferry Building which took around 25 minutes to reach on the foothills.We did not dare to explore the island on foot as that require stronger knee joints free of osteoarthritis which we did not have .The other option was to take Fuller's road train which would move around the island and take us
near the summit.The rest of steep hill we had to climb ourselves.
While on the road train we came to know about the history,geology,flora and fauna of the island and enjoyed the beauty of the forest around. We reached ultimately near the summit and started walking up steps along a boardwalk towards the top. All the roads and even the boardwalk were built by utilising the labour of the prisoners of war of the world war I and the world war II. The boardwalk took us throu
gh a dense forest with varieties of greeneries, having different shades and concentrations of the colour; sometime mixtures of different colours taking green as the base colour.It took around 35 minutes for us to reach the top and we reached completely exhausted.However, we saw around and thanked God for giving us eyesights. The ocean looked like a deep blue plain,absolutely still from such a height dotted with different coloured islands . This was something we never imagined that could be seen beyond the landscape canvas of a renowned artist. Fact is who else,other than the God can create such an amazing canvas!
back it rang a bell no doubt but that was a bell to give alarm to the Maori settlers who used to live in the nearby Motutapu island.Rongitoto literally means 'bloody sky' in Maori language.In fact it reddened the sky line of the country whose original name i,e Aotearoa ( to-day's New Zealand) reminds you of long white clouds.Out of the deep blue pacific a big red mass started erupting some day 600 years back in a series of dramatic explosions and gave a different shade to the nearby clouds. It is the youngest island in the Hauraki Gulf in the North Shore of Auckland and the last and largest volcano to be formed in the Auckland volcanic field.It is also one of the biggest volcanic eruptions which 
earth had ever witnessed.From a distance you can never imagine there may be anything unique within the island you are about to set your foot on.It is as nice as others, majestically sitting just off the Auckland coast.Only there are no one else present except the visitors.
Rongitoto is home to New Zealand's largest Pohutakawa forest.As we came to know from the commentary there are more than 200 species of native plants including 40 species of fern.Many of the plants are unusual hybrids and very rare.
The only way one may reach Rongitoto is through steamer. The Fuller's group run regular ferry services to and fro Rongitoto.We got
into the ferry from Auckland Ferry Building which took around 25 minutes to reach on the foothills.We did not dare to explore the island on foot as that require stronger knee joints free of osteoarthritis which we did not have .The other option was to take Fuller's road train which would move around the island and take us
near the summit.The rest of steep hill we had to climb ourselves.While on the road train we came to know about the history,geology,flora and fauna of the island and enjoyed the beauty of the forest around. We reached ultimately near the summit and started walking up steps along a boardwalk towards the top. All the roads and even the boardwalk were built by utilising the labour of the prisoners of war of the world war I and the world war II. The boardwalk took us throu
gh a dense forest with varieties of greeneries, having different shades and concentrations of the colour; sometime mixtures of different colours taking green as the base colour.It took around 35 minutes for us to reach the top and we reached completely exhausted.However, we saw around and thanked God for giving us eyesights. The ocean looked like a deep blue plain,absolutely still from such a height dotted with different coloured islands . This was something we never imagined that could be seen beyond the landscape canvas of a renowned artist. Fact is who else,other than the God can create such an amazing canvas!
Comments