March 16, 2024
If you are a regular follower of our blog, you will know by now that Auckland is built on a volcanic plain. A few weeks back we climbed Rangitoto, Auckland’s youngest volcano, which erupted and sprung up out of the ocean only 600 years ago. Today, we visited Pupuke Moana (‘overflowing lake’ in maori) which is Auckland’s oldest volcano at approximately 190,000 years old. Today, Pupuke is a large fresh water crater lake. It is very popular with windsurfers and on this breezy day they were out in abundance.
There is a pleasant walk across the bottom of the lawns of the houses that front onto the lake. It is also a bird refuge and we saw a number of pukeko (a native large purple swamp hen) with their young in the rushes. There were also quite a few black swans enjoying the sunshine.
From Pupuke, we walked across to the nearby seaside neighborhood of Takapuna. Along the way we saw some modern castle like homes and one actual castle.
At Takapuna, we stopped for some sustenance at the Takapuna Beach Cafe that was doing good business at its prime spot overlooking the beach.
After lunch, we walked along the coastline to Milford Beach. It is an interesting walk with lots to see, including some beautiful homes that sit right on the edge of the water.
When nearby Pupuke erupted, lava flowed toward the ocean and through a forest of numerous small and large trees. The resulting reef is New Zealand’s best example of a forest killed and fossilised by passing lava flows. There are a number of perfectly round rock pools that resulted from the lava hardening around the existing trees that soon died.
Eventually, we arrived at Milford beach which was lined with an interesting mix of big and small, old and new homes.
Mal and Lauren 