View of Rangitoto Island
Rangitoto Island is the gatekeeper for Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour. It looks very much the same from wherever you view it and forms the major feature in the view from where I live. When European settlers first arrived in Auckland in the early nineteenth century there was very little vegetation on the island, just a scoria volcanic cone which arrived as part of a series of violent eruptions some 600 years ago. Rangitoto is now covered in native vegetation which acts as a habitat for native and exotic birds. The island is now a regional park which can be visited for day trips by a short ferry ride from Auckland.
This view is from a large sandy beach below the cliffs at the eastern end of Takapuna Beach on Auckland’s North Shore.
Sony Alpha DSLR – A200, 1/125 sec, F 16, ISO 100, Sigma DC 18-200 lens at 18mm
Cliffs and Clouds
The cliffs at the eastern end of Takapuna Beach are sandstone and soft. It is not unusual to find that another piece has crumbled away after a severe north-easterly storm when the wind and waves are at their greatest. In the morning sunlight they area are a lovely golden brown and the layers of sandstone sediment can be clearly seen. Pohutukawa trees (New Zealand’s so-called “Christmas Tree”) cling tenaciously to the clifftop, doing their best to hold the cliffs together.
Yesterday , while on the photowalk with my grandson, this view caught my attention. It had rained the previous night and white fluffy clouds hung in the sky for most of the day.
Sony Alpha DSLR – A200, 1/125 sec, F 16, ISO 100, Sigma DC 18-200 lens at 18mm
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