Rangitoto

Before last Saturday’s swim several of us stood around and took pictures of the wonderfully calm water and beautiful sunrise.

By the time I went to post mine to our group chat, there were already several more or less identical shots. I’ve posted variations on the same theme here several times.

So, I cropped and filtered to make this one a little different.

Today, Rangitoto island is a fun day trip on the ferry, where you can hike through the jungle to peer down into the crater. But when the first Polynesian explorers got to the area, it was a smoking, smoldering and scary place… a little local Mordor, more or less.