the other man's volcanoes are always greener

Upon hearing that something is a 600-year-old volcano one sort of expects it to be maybe slightly rocky, bare and perhaps even bleak. It is testament to the powers of NZ's lichen, other micro-organisms and native beardy trees trees that in barely nine human lifetimes they can generate an impressive layer of soil on the pumice-tastic Rangitoto. Obviously the extremely warm climate helps. There were a few other people wearing shorts over there today (as opposed to coats, hoodies and down-the-arse jeans which can't have made wandering up and down the hillside too easy) although the local technique of shorts-wearing could do with some improvement and less visible sockage. Maybe that's why I've been getting funny looks about the legs even over here (I'm used to it back home) - it's not the shapeliness of my calves nor the redness of the sandfly bites (amateurs - barely six per leg whereas midges would have covered them) but the strangeness of my choice to wear shorts with trainers and not have socks pulled up to mid-calf. Maybe it protects against sandflies. It'd still be far too warm.

Managed to do some people-watching in between catching tourist snaps today but did so using the 18-70 rather than a prime and discovered afresh why I usually don't use it. Think it might find its way onto eBay in the not-too-distant future though there may be a slight delay before it's replaced, especially if the target is the 17-55 we rented for the wedding, especially as we amusingly found that we'd hit the credit card's limit today even if it is the new card with the small limit. Luckily (but only for that reason) there's only one more day to go.

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We also had our first rain of the holiday today; an whole two minutes of warm drizzle on the way back from the ferry.