Another year over and a new one just begun… Saw New Years in on top of Rangitoto Island again like last year.

Last year was better. The campsite was packed out. If I’d wanted crowds and sleep deprivation with loud music and vicious arguments I could have just stayed in my apartment. There were 260-something scouts having a jamboree there, though they weren’t a problem. (Even if the ad-hoc Halo or CnC game they played after dark the first night was a bit loud. You can take the children away from the video games, but you can’t stop them playing them.) The main problems was the rowing club with their 5-car-battery-operated sound system and the angry guy and his family problems we camped next to. Also there is only limited toilets for the almost 200 non-scouts, possibly the cause of an unsanitary situation. The less said the better, but Michelle has photos. The scouts were prepared with their own port-a-loos.

We stayed two nights this year. (A result of some grumping about so much walking in such a short time last year. Grumping by people who didn’t go in the end this year.) It meant two nights of little sleep, but we did get to see more of Motutapu Island.

We went for a walk around the coast, which ended up on the hills navigating through thistle patches, and had a swim at Mullet Bay. Then we checked out the old Coastal Defenses at Northern Junction. Explored the tunnels and ammo dumps there. One question I had was what are the narrow tunnels running round the underground rooms for? The answer I’ve discovered is these are Lamp Passages. Before electricity the tunnels were lit by lamps, but it was too dangerous to have lamps in the ammo store rooms. So instead there were thick windows and lamps were hung in the lamp tunnel around the outside of the room. The windows must have been blocked up when electricity was introduced.

Had scorching weather for most of the time (shade was a precious scarce resource at the campsite), but New Year’s Eve itself was a bit wet. Michelle needs to learn not to say things like “it’s not going to rain”, “it’s only going to drizzle”, “we’re almost at the top”. There was a big crowd on the Rangitoto summit, seemingly all from the Rangitoto batches. The Dutch woman with Oliebollen wasn’t there though . This year the only fireworks we saw were the Sky Tower ones. There were glows over Waiheke, but the display must have been on the other side of their island.

Met up with Brian’s sister and bro-in-law who visited for New Year’s Day and caught the ferry back to Auckland with us. I went straight back home and promptly fell asleep.

Photo album