Our first volcano was Big King, the last of the Three Kings .Unfortunately one of our group got lost on the way and gave up. Although it is possible to enter a large cave under this volcano at a cost of $95.00 pp, we preferred a freebie and quickly climbed to the summit. Our next summit was Mangere Mountain so we stopped at Lucky Cafe in Mangere Bridge to top up on our caffeine and carbo's. We managed to avoid the tics and the cows before attempting the very difficult descent. Fortunately we all made it down safely. One family group decided to leave us at this point. Off to Mt Richmond and one of our cars takes a wrong turn and ends up on the opposite side of the park. No problem, as we were able to cross over and meet them before we made the ascent. Now it is on to the big Mt Wellington where we meet up with the club secretary who guides on much more interesting track to the summit. Having gained the top with its panoramic views we were blasted with a very cold wind, so we slipped down the side out of the wind to have our lunch. Here Ali shared a reflection which enabled us all to share what we could see of God's creation. We said goodbye to Barbara and continued on to Mt St John. On reaching the summit we espied Johnboy waiting for us. Our visit was short and we were on our way to Mt Hobson by foot. We climbed straight up to the summit from Mt Hobson Rd on west side. After a short break at the trig we carried on down to the daffodil field on the Remuera Rd side of the mountain. Unfortunately very few of them were flowering, but there were heaps of onion weeds with their white flowers.

We were back to Bracken Ave by 3:30pm, having explored six of Auckland’s 63-odd extinct volcanoes. It was of note that in the Editorial of the following Monday's Herald, a push is being made to declare Auckland's Volcanoes World Heritage sites.