Lava, Caves and Secrets of Auckland's Volcanic Marvel
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Aucklands best volcano hike - but there's more to it than meets the eye, featuring Bruce Hayward
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Its amazing to think that just over 600 years ago it was all underwater, and now it has trees, plants and unique structures.
Great video
I look at Rangi every day it looks magnificent. Again thank you for the video I really enjoy them
Thank you!
Miss the view
Awesome, thank you so much Bruce!! Always so informative
Being a geologist in Aotearoa New Zealand must be rewarding. A unique landscape with everything from thermal wonders to fjords. I lived through the Christchurch earthquake and the experience is one you'll never forget.
Thank you for your comment. It is indeed full of variety and interest
Our Friend here is giving David Attenborough a run for his money!
@@waynoswaynos 🙂
@@OutThereLearning Okay, I know the other guy does animals and this is geo, but great presenting.
Thanks for the background on a local icon. I've sailed and walked around it quite a few times. Cheers
Wonderful! I thought it was just going to a lecture on geology. This is the first time I’ve learned about the progression of the ecosystem post eruption. Thank you!
Glad you liked it
wonderful information, I spent my childhood in Hauraki looking at Rangitoto, but never learned a lot about it, always drew pictures of it's shape at school
Bruce is brilliant!! Thanks so much for taking the time to explain all of this.
@@Sbor906 hear hear!
It's such a beautiful island. I can't imagine Auckland without it.
Me and my flatmates saw a green glowing UFO slowly hover through the sky in front of Rangitoto on early 1994. We were sitting at North Head watching it in awe. I'll never forget, it was surreal. I've never come up with a more "rational" explanation for what we saw. And no, none of us had a camera or video camera. It was the 90s afterall and we were young 😅🤣
I feel it's a place that holds magic and mystery. I wouldn't be surprised if there were stories of Patupaiarehe there 🧚♀️🛸👽🔮🪄✨
He mihi ki a koe, e te rangatira ā Rangitoto, me ngā tūpuna mai tāwhiti ā Ruaeo raua kō Tamatekapua. Tīhei Mauriora 🙏💚
1959 and I was an 11 year old kid, part of a school party visiting the Island. I remember it well. I was so impressed with the excursion that I inveigled my parents to make the trip so that I could spend more time on points of interest to me. My dad was fascinated by the old White bus with its Waukesha engine that trundled us along the short formed roads part way to the summit. Some people had baches on the Island in those days, but leases were not renewed and as the inhabitants died, the baches were removed except for one that was kept as it was, as a historical record of Auckland's progress.
@@peteacher52 thanks for sharing your memories
Such a pleasure to listen to your vivid explanations. It's amazing what a story each rock can tell. I hope I'll be seeing it in person one day!
Thank you for another fantastic, informative video. I'm an Australian who has cruised over to NZ a few times over the years.
While I've jumped off Sky Tower and bunjy jumped from the Bridge, I've never been to Rangitoto. I would love to have a good walk around there, visit the lava caves, and climb to the lookout.
Thank you.
PS: My Mum is now 91 and not mobile enough to go another cruise. She loves NZ and wishes she'd visited years before we did. We both love the pohutakawa trees and were fortunate enough to see them in bloom many times.
@@stephanieyee9784 Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for taking the time to film these tours. It's very interesting.
Glad you like them!
Thank you for the tour , I would definitely include this on my itinerary for the next time I’m in that neck of the woods,
All the best Jules 💕
It's well worth it!
I remember visiting when young in the 1960s and seeing wallabies. I am gratified to find in Wikipedia that "in August 2011, both Rangitoto and neighbouring Motutapu Islands were officially declared pest-free". That includes stoats, rabbits, mice, rats, cats and hedgehogs!
There was so much difference between a 90s visit and a repeat after the pest removal. So much vegetation that I didn’t recognise the walk compared to the bare scoria of the first visit. There’s now a good display of Pohutukawa at Christmas.
@@warrenyoung173 Good to hear. I should go back. I liked the seagull colony, the lava, the cave, and the old Codd marble drink bottle I found among pohutukawa roots near the shop. Ca 1880/90 J Grey & Sons, who later became Grey & Menzies Ltd, later Innes Tartan, Schweppes, and Oasis.
There are some still some Wallabees on Kawau island
@@EverDayBest Governor Grey was an ecological mad lad. Let's hope they can't swim far in pairs.
I was surprised to hear that Rangitoto is the only one of Auckland's volcanos "known to have erupted in the sea". At first, i thought "What about Brown's Island (aka. Motukorea)", as that's very clearly volcanic. But then I looked it up on Wikipedia, and learned that Brown's Island erupted during the Last Glacial Maximum, when sea levels were much lower, and the area was above water.
Thanks for pointing that out
@@OutThereLearning Same with Puketutu Island volcano in the Manukau - also erupted on land when sea level was lower.
Thanks for the video, enjoyed watching it.
Pleasure!
Thanks for taking the time to make these videos. I have enjoyed every one, and learned a ton along the way.
@@kevincurrie2052 that's great!
Great video as always!
Rangitoto really is a beautiful volcano! Lovely shape to it!
It really is!
Pleasure to watch, as always. Yet another destination added to my ever-growing list.
Our list keeps growing too!
You’re a fantastic presenter.
What a great video, well shot and super interesting! I lived in NZ for a year and truly miss it, didn't know about this one. Thanks!
Cheers!
I think it’s time to visit if we can. We’ve been living in Takapuna for so long. It’s nice to see this information. Thank you .
@@ZootZoots-ks9wx Yes do!
Such an awesome channel!
Thanks 🙂
Hi Bruce, thank you and your team for the video. I found it super interesting, especially the lava caves. I might need to get on the ferry and check it out soon.
Good idea!
Awesome video. I've learnt a lot. I'll be looking at volcanoes with a new set of eyes now.
Need to rewatch this. Was distracted and it was still excellent :-)
Cheers!
And see White Island has erupted again yesterday with flights cancelled...wow!!! And I wonder about Taupo? Exciting times we live in for sure with everything happening around the world also...
just what i wanted to watch.
Thank you!
Great!
Gosh I have lived in auckland for 44 years and never set foot there,had no idea there were caves! Flew over in a helicopter but I think I better get on a boat soon and have a look!
@@NZ2STROKE sounds like a great plan!
Excellent. If anything can ease the pain of my next visit to Auckland - due next month - it will be this. Thank you very much.
Glad it was helpful!
lovely, time for another visit there.
Always brilliant, but never long enough
Excellent...well presented...thank you
@@dirkkruger8316 thanks!
Thnk u sir for the information and sights of a wonderous island ! ❤❤😊😊
Cheers!
Great video, thanks for sharing, have been to the summit many times.
Thanks for watching
I JUST LOVED IT
🙂
Fascinating video, thanks.
@@philiptaylor7902 cheers!
Did you encounter any Wilberforces in the caves under the mountain?
I know, I was wondering where the gigantic worm thing was?!?
😂 my first thought was that cool program.
We took the little blue boat ferries over there on a std 3 field trip. I didnt enjoy much because there was no drinking water available and the only refreshments were soft drinks from a little shop near the jetty. It was hot. There were some batches you could see further along westward. A small crater seen at the top had no vegetation in it then. Too bad we didn't have any geological info to help us..other than it was ~5 to 600 years old.
Great presentation..
It gives me chills to consider the result of an underwater eruption of another vent pushing out laterally from Rangi. I like to think we'd see it coming, but evacuating 2M people and how we'd even do that, is the chilling part. Perhaps Hamilton would become the 'New Auckland'? IDL
We can only imagine the death-toll ! The initial basal surge of heat'nsteam will incinerate Henderson
Eww, yuck. No thank you, I am not living in Hamilton.
( All the people in Hamilton : "WTF makes you think we would LET you, JAFFA ?". )
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 Unlike the earthquakes that will strike other major cities in NZ, Aucklanders will have several days to several weeks warning of an impending eruption and plenty of time to evacuate that part of the city that will be impacted by the initial explosive eruptions and base surges. Only about 20% of the city will be impacted so not everyone will be required to leave, although I imagine most will voluntarily causing considerable traffic jams - but there will be planty of time to walk out if you dont wait until the ground starts bulging.
@@BruceHayward1 🤔 I was 5 when my sister had a boyfriend come over as she baby sat me and my twin. In a house right on the edge of the domain at Maungarei.
And to keep us from disturbing them, she put us to bed, and said , with a scary face "You are not to come out of your room, EVEN IF THE MOUNTAIN COMES BACK TO LIFE ".
*life-time trauma*
I won't be waiting around for the ground to bulge, believe you me.
Good Video, subscribed, to the point and informative, thanks
Thanks for the sub!
My house in Melbourne is bult on Basalt from the Western Volcanics, though it is around 2 million years old.
50fps is a fantastic production quality improvement, but it's still 20% short of the 60fps this amazing content deserves to be presented at. Even though you are doing incredibly well, the largest room in the world will always remain, "Room for improvement".
Thank you kindly, OTL!
Please give some effort to the amazing geology of Motutapu Island. The layering of sedimentary deposites is amazing.
Enjoyed, thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks!
I used to take my 12" boat with a 2hp seagull outboard over to Rangi. Got the car stuck on Mirangibay beach to. Tip don't launch boats at Mirangi bay lol
Kiwi Attenborough
I like the title of this video! ;)
@@mediaalchemist 😃👍 yes it's great, thanks!!!
Very interesting 😊
Interesting video.
Lovely video, Bruce.
You mention around 5:25 that the vegetation gets more complete as you go higher up in elevation. Is this due to more erosion happening there leading to finer soil for the plants to grow in?
Yes the explanation was left out. At 5:25 we are higher up on the shield made of hard basalt lava and I believe the reason for the denser damper forest is that cloud often cloaks the upper half of Rangitoto. Further up still on the steeper scoria cone you can see that the roots can more easily penetrate the loose scoria and thicker soil has developed and hence the taller forest dominated by rewarewa.
@@BruceHayward1 Brilliant! Thank you for the explanation.
It's always cool to learn about the volcanos in our cute little country! He rawe te ataata! (Great video!)
It is - and thanks!
I'm guessing the lava flows are mainly basaltic type flows. Great vid really enjoyed your descriptive narrative it was refreshing. Please wear a helmet when caving :P. Thank you.
Yes, basaltic lava. Thanks for your comment
Hey, cool. When you walk up to the summit from the ferry, you come up off the first steep bit of the track, and there is a circular track, a track *below* the main track around the summits rim. Take a right on that track, and it used to lead to a lava tube that was fragmentary and open to the sky, the internal circumference of that exposed and fragmentary tube was at least 20 feet. And then further on along the track, the opening into another tube that you could walk into, that , sloping down gradually into the mountain about 100 mtrs until it reached the point where it dived abruptly downward, aimed, apparently, at the centre of the earth. Last time I was over there, DOC has erased the track that leads from the broken tube, to the one you can walk down, and put bars in the one you can walk down to stop people having fun and maybe falling into the centre of the world.
Now the point of my typing. If you turned sharp left and walked away from the track just before you got to that fragmented tube, and walked Eastward around the slope of the mountain till you are almost on the North-East of the slope, there was a large crack in the surface of the lava, what would be a gully on terrain that wasn't bare lava. And in the bottom of the "gully" there was a crack in the rock, a place that the roof of another lava tube ALMOST breaks through the surface, you could not get your head into it, but you could put your arm holding a torch in, and THAT lava tube is as big as the one down on the flat that the Navy installed the water-tank into.
That's really interesting. I study such caves. Would I be able to get in touch with you?
@@John-u1e3l Well, I know you probably are a good dude and quite safe, but I am too old now lad, to be getting in touch with people I don't know.
Once I would have been confident of dealing with any potential problem, but when you get old you gotta pull your head in a little.
@@uncletiggermclaren7592Bit hypocritical considering your comment…
When you dived down towards the centre of the earth, did you find glittering fairies or little Pixies? Also watch your head in those caves, so it does not get knocked too hard.
@@125minden We had a single torch, and it was a 1970s kinda thing, your phone light is ten times brighter. I literally did not see that it was so abruptly downward because of the angle of the light and how weak it was, and could easily have walked past the point of safety. The roof of the tube was about my height higher than my arm over my head, from memory. It was perfectly formed with no broken bits, and had the same white growth down the walls he shows us in the video.
My experience was in no way unique, lots of people walked down the lava tubes over the years, it is quite expensive now, but in the 1980s the ferry ticket cost a couple of dollars, at a time a new paperback book cost 7. Kids used to roam all over the island.
Which had far less trees on it than it does now, because it was covered in Australian possums and tree wallabies, as strange as that sounds. Most of the pohutakawas on the outer slopes were very sparsely foliated, and the island looked grey like lava from the city side of the harbour.
That is what I was doing walking around the island, we got part time work for the DOC setting and baiting traps to kill off the invasive critters, the island beside Rangitoto, Motu Tapu, is a sanctuary, it has Kiwi and Takehe on it.
Wish I could explore the caves in Auckland. I've only heard stories that there are ones around.
Those on Rangitoto are publically accessible
Thank you, I've been through them and I would enjoy going again. 🙂 Im referring to the caves around Auckland city.
@@josephdickson3531 ah right!
We are very lucky Winstone never mined the cone for scoria like that other island they turned into a reef and the other 1 and a half of the Three Kings mountains they also quarried to build Auckland
Thanks for an another great video.
It's fascinating how Rangitoto has transformed from bald slopes of scoria to wild forrest. I guess the seeds for some of the first plants & trees were carried in the air by the wind? How many more centuries will it take before the earth builds up to a point the scoria is buried & no longer visible. Will the scoria itself be broken down, or will it be preserved underneath?
The scoria is already weathering near the surface of the scoria cone. The hard rubbly lava on the flows could take tens of thousands of years to break down to clays closer to the surface. The surface of many of the lava flows from 28,000 Mt Eden are still rubbly fresh lava today as theyw ere never buried by volcanic ash from other nearby volcanoes.
Great stuff Bruce. Founding Polynesian populations must have wondered what they were in for. Kaharoa eruption AD1314 and Rangitoto AD1370?. Were there similar volcanic events in east Polynesia at that time?
Taranaki has blown (mote than any in NZ) more often and whenThe Pre Maori population lived in NZ
Yes, but the video was specifically talking about the Auckland volcanic field. Rangitoto is the only volcano *there* to have been witnessed by humans
@@finlayson maybe some got scared and went to see the wizard of OZ
Orsum
Thankyou
🙂
I met Elvis livin in them caves, hie named it Jailhouse Rocky. Still scared stiff of mafia finding him
Today is 5 minutes past three in Saturday the 24th of August two thousand twenty four.
Visited Rangitoto Motutapu Motutapu
@@FunnyFlyingSaucer-cj9xz I hope you had a great time!
3:39 lmao
How do you know the dating? In particular, how do you know there was 10 years between the two pulses? This is about 3% precision over the 650 year timescale, which seems very precise for geological dating. Does the Mototapu buried village help you? It might allow carbon dating or even tree ring dating.
The combination of numerous radiocarbon dates from Motutapu give the 600-650 yrs ago. The sedimentation rate in Lake Pupuke (where two thin horizons of Rangitoto ash are preserved in sequence) gives the ~10 yrs between eruption of the magmas of the two different compositions. Note that the ages given have been rounded off because of the imprecision of radiocarbon dating.
Nice hat
Hornito, well, that is a spanish word for small oven 😊
@@maureenmcmonagle3321 Thanks for that!
Could it be said that in general/on average the Auckland volcano eruptions are moving east? Although I've heard Panmure Basin is a candidate, though that might of been that drama movie a while back.
Recent dating of most volcanoes in Auckland shows there is no pattern to where the successive volcanoes have erupted. The oldest (Pupuke) and youngest (Rangitoto) are the two northernmost for example.
Panmure Basin *was* a volcano - it didn't form much of a cone (just a little one covered by mud in the lagoon) when it erupted 25K years ago. All the big hills and round lakes in Auck are pretty much volcanos - check out Hochstetter's map from 1859 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_volcanic_field#/media/File:AucklandMapHochstetter1859.JPG
Besides Rangitoto and Pupuke, the Panmure Basin is the only otheR volcano known to have erupted twice
Dont forget lake pupuke just on the Northshore opposite rangitoto ..do miss seeing it daily 😢, don't miss the mess it is today the imports have ruined my old hometown 🙃.
Video here: th-cam.com/video/XJ3NWK8grCA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=vfooiXVXaut7Mg8d
In dreams and my crystal 🏐🏐 I see Rangitoto do bolt outa blue "White island steam cooking" of all yous
Rangatoetoe it's Rangitoto (blood sky)
@@tamazadenpetera thank you
According to our tūpuna the original name given was "Te Rangi i Totongia ai te Ihu o Tamatekapua” (the day Tamatekapua's nose bled). Referring to the day that our 2 tūpuna, just arriving from Hawaiiki had a fist fight on the island, and Ruaeo won the fight as he hit Tamatekapua so hard in the face that his nose poured with blood.
Tamatekapua was the captain of TeArawa waka, and had just arrived from Hawaiiki after angering Ruaeo, who followed him here to exact vengeance.
Apparently many other of Auckland landmarks were also named by Tamatekapua and others in TeArawa waka when it first arrived here (according to our Te Arawa traditions).
*Te Waitematā ("Te Wai te Matā a Tamatekapua") named when Tamatekapua placed a mauri stone near Birkenhead.
*Manukau was named by Tamatekapua's grandson Ihenga, Mānuka (implanted post) when he planted a post to stake his claim there.
*Mairangi bay was named in remembrance for our Te Arawa tupuna Ohomairangi.
*Okahu bay was named "Te Whanga o Kahu" by our Te Arawa chief Kahu-matamomoe, Tamatekapua's son.
*Motuihe (Te Motu o Ihenga) and Motutapu (Te Motutapu o Ihenga) were both named by Ihenga.
*Waiheke island was originally called "Te Motu arai roa o Kahumatamomoe", and Waiheke (falling water) was the name given to the waterfall on the island. But Waiheke was easier to say so that name ended up being used for the whole island instead.
*Even Tamaki Makaurau ("Tamatekapua kī i te makau rau" Tamatekapua speaks to the hundred lovers) is said to be a name given by Kahu-matamomoe in reference to his father Tamatekapua's extravagant love life.
I acknowledge that other iwi may have their own stories about these places, but these are our stories and traditions 🙏
@@mystik.mermayde.aotearoa yeah tautoko koira te korero that's when tamatekapua got punched in the ihu🔥🔥😝🫡
@@mystik.mermayde.aotearoa Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Well worth a day trip out there, yeah the ground is rough as guts, wear stout shoes for sure, leave the jandals at home 😏
Good suggestion!
More coming be prepared
Are we at risk of a super volcanoe?
These video are great. I would love to work with you on your pronunciation of our beautiful Māori names.
Thank you!
Overdue BUT
Lava drinking game
Rangitowtow
Generational thing - at least this chap is trying (unlike some of my relatives)
Very informative video but your pronunciation of Māori words is pretty shocking. You need to work on that, it's a really bad look mate.
@@HeyItsTeal thanks for your comment
I don’t believe you regarding People being there when it erupted!
There’s footprints in the ash - now rock. Amazing but true.
@@kevincurrie2052 Yes human and dog footprints in the volcanic ash that buries the remains of a small fishing village on Motutapu next door, as depicted in the painting shown.
@@BruceHayward1OK
Using solar and wind power operated EV trucks
and excavators, we need dig down into rangitoto
to re-ignite the underlying volcanism ASAP. That
way we can tone-down the astmospheric sunlight
with vast clouds of ash to help slow the current
climate crisis urgency emergency catastrophe and
to cool down the country to the natural ice-age
levels that need to exist to prevent auckland and
surrounding areas from next years climate crisis urgency
emergency catastrophe oceanic submergence.