Must-Do When In Auckland #2

Only an 11 dollar ferry ride away, right across the harbor from Auckland, is the town of Devonport. In an earlier blog post I noted how seeing the city of Auckland from the height of Mt. Eden was a must do, well this is one of those as well. The view from across the harbor is uniquely different, and equally as spectacular.

The hike up Mount Victoria

View of Auckland City from North Head

One lazy Sunday afternoon my spontaneous and always full of energy friend, Chris, came downstairs, collected myself and my friend Eric, and told us we were going to go check out Devonport. After a run down Queenstreet and barely making the ferry we were on our way.

No sooner than getting there did Chris excitedly explain to us that he wanted to climb the two giant hills we had seen on the way in. Later on I found out that these “hills”, Mount Victoria and North Head, are actually old volcanoes. Looking down at my feet in flip-flops I realized I was not prepared for this hike. Seeing the coal black pavement I was on daunted me as I could feel the heat of the day rising off of it as well. Brand new water bottle in hand, I sucked it up and followed Chris and Eric.

Soon enough the pavement turned to grass. All I could see looking upwards ahead of me was this pale yellow-green springtime grass reaching for what seemed like it could have been miles (huge exaggeration). The only thing that I could see beyond this was the crystal clear, baby blue sky with this one wispy angelic white cloud. While one would think this perfectly picturesque sight would have calmed me down it only daunted me further. I knew that this straggly and bushy grass, combined with the steepness of the slope would only make things slippery. And yes, I did slip and fall on the way back down.

Auckland City on the left, and Mount Victoria on the right

All things aside, the treacherous steep hikes up these mounts proved to be worth it in the end. Set against the deep teal of the ocean water in the harbor, the city of Auckland looked like a shimmering mass of silver and white. The fluffy and friendly marshmallow clouds completed the serenity of the view. I even had a better view of the volcano Rangitoto. Being closer to it, this faded brown land mass set against the array and gradient of all these different amazing shades of blue perfection certainly makes it seem very mysterious looking indeed.