One thing New Zealand, and Auckland in particular, has no shortage of is recently active volcanoes. Auckland City is built on top of at least 50 of them. So do we run in fear? Actively avoid them? No way – we go climbing up them! One of my favourite Auckland day trips is to take the ferry out to Rangitoto Island and climb to the top for great views of the city. [Read more…]
When I’m travelling I will often associate a destination with a particular colour in my mind, whether it is the azure blue of the lagoon in the Cook Islands or the red roofs of Italian towns.
Capture the Colour is a photoblogging challenge run by TravelSupermarket that asks you to post five of your favourite photographs in the categories of red, blue, green, yellow and white. Bloggers with photos that I have seen and particularly like include Selena of Oh the Places We Will Go and Sarah of The Two Scoops.
My favourites of my own photographs are:
Green
I took this photo in Vang Vieng, Laos. I spent a morning mountain-biking and caving in the beautiful countryside before participating in the infamous river tubing in the afternoon. I would love to go back to spend more time exploring the area around Vang Vieng – it was magical.
White
This is a picture of a lifelong dream (almost) brought to life. I have always been a huge theatre nut and seriously considered drama school rather than law – what might have been! I love Shakespeare and on a whirlwind trip of Europe, even just making it to the outside of the theatre was a massive achievement. Now that I live here, I am looking forward to seeing one of my favourite plays onstage soon!
Yellow
The Coromandel is one of the most beautiful regions in New Zealand, particularly in summer. I visited Hahei post-New Year celebrations this year and loved spending time relaxing on the beach with friends. Even on the grey days, kids were always playing on or in the water, making up games and generally having a great time.
Red
A shot from my recent trip to Florence. To my mind there is nothing more quintessentially Italian than terracotta roofs. I also love the beautiful pink, green and white marble detail on the Campanile (bell tower).
Blue
This photo remains one of my favourite photos that I have ever taken. The sight of Rangitoto Island and the beautiful Hauraki Gulf always uplifts me and I know that I’m lucky to have lived near it for so long.
If you’d like to enter Capture the Colour the rules are pretty easy – upload your five photos that represent each of the colour categories in a blog post, and then let them know by twitter or email that you’ve entered. The full terms and conditions are here.
I hope you liked my colour photos. What colours do you associate with certain places?
Living on the North Shore, the view of Rangitoto is a big part of life, whether it’s as a silhouette on the morning commute, or the central view on an afternoon walk. As I hadn’t visited the island for well over ten years, I rounded up a few keen beans to do the climb on a sunny Sunday.
Rangitoto Island is a dormant volcano in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf… it might sound scary but although it’s apparently overdue for an eruption it seems pretty quiet for the moment! It’s really easy to get to from downtown Auckland by ferry and gives you fantastic panoramas over the city.
We rocketed off the ferry and up the path to the summit in record time, which gave us more time to appreciate the magic views. I always think that you can’t beat Auckland on a good day, and we took the time to soak up the amazing panoramas.
Auckland City
I can see my (old) house!
We then headed to Islington Bay, on the other side of Rangitoto and right next to the land bridge to Motutapu. The skies began to cloud over but the island still provided plenty of interesting landscapes. Islington Bay is home to a cute collection of baches and we were all wishing that we could call one home.
Islington Bay, Rangitoto
Cute bach in Islington Bay, Rangitoto
We chose to walk back around the coastal track to the ferry, which wasn’t quite what I was picturing, but was certainly an adventure! For most of the walk, which took us around 90 minutes, we were scrambling along a scoria path, some way inland. The glimpses of the sea were for the most part fairly fleeting, as we were in amongst the bush and scrub. However when we made our way out near the wharf and again got gorgeous harbour views it felt like it had been worth all the scoria clambering.
Scoria path, Rangitoto
