{"id":715,"date":"2010-08-06T09:29:22","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T23:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/?p=715"},"modified":"2010-07-30T10:18:47","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T00:18:47","slug":"auckland-sanity-break-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/2010\/08\/auckland-sanity-break-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland Sanity Trip: Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rangitoto<\/p>\n

Rangitoto Wharf<\/h2>\n

I’ve just returned from a 5km round tour through volcanic rainforest to the peak of Mount Rangitoto, 259 metres above sea level.<\/p>\n

The trip to the top was physically hard. It’s a steady climb over an uneven trail to the top. The trail is mainly pebbles of volcanic rock (basalt, I think) and the wet conditions made for an occasionally muddy experience. Half way up, I stopped to take my jumper off and steam was coming off my shoulders!<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

All that said, the forest is beautiful. Such a variety of plant life, all the shades of green contrasting with the black igneous rocks from which they spring.<\/p>\n

\"Auckland<\/a> \"Rocks<\/a> \"On<\/a> \"Rangitoto<\/a><\/p>\n

The crater and summit are even better. You can see sixty metres down the steep\u00c2\u00a0crater\u00c2\u00a0slope. At the very bottom I noticed some discernably brown trees. Signs of escaping heat or gases?<\/p>\n

The trip down was naturally faster, but where the raw exertion was easier, I found the footing more treacherous.<\/p>\n

Getting to the island is a quick and easy ferry trip. In the right weather, you get a great view of Waitemata harbour as you cruise in.<\/p>\n

Sky City<\/h2>\n

Sky City is a much classier establishment than Sydney’s Star City. The casino floor is decorated in a more inviting yellow-brown and the foyer doesn’t have the same air of self-importance.<\/p>\n

I dined at the Observatory buffet. The food was excellent, favouring fish and seafood. I did manage to find some roasted NZ lamb rump which was divine. I will definitely need to find more of that before I leave.<\/p>\n

The view from the Sky Tower observation deck is spectacular. I was glad to have gone at night with the lights laid out beneath me. I shelled out the\u00c2\u00a0minuscule\u00c2\u00a0premium to access the higher Sky Deck (230-odd metres \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not as high as Rangitoto) and had the place to myself. As you can see, I got some great photos.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a> \"The<\/a> \"A<\/a> \"A<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rangitoto Wharf I’ve just returned from a 5km round tour through volcanic rainforest to the peak of Mount Rangitoto, 259 metres above sea level. The trip to the top was physically hard. It’s a steady climb over an uneven trail to the top. The trail is mainly pebbles of volcanic rock (basalt, I think) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[131,458],"tags":[454,463,457,448,460,461,462,459],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p149Qe-bx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}