A volcano, a cat, and a Sunday

Maybe Aucklanders need to brace themselves for an eruption judging by what's been going on in this country lately. I say all that with tongue in cheek, but seriously, can you imagine? The Auckland volcanic field is currently dormant, but as far as Wikipedia can explain there is likely to be an eruption again in a very short geographic timeframe (hundreds to thousands of years, apparently - so if Rangitoto erupted 550 years ago, then...???). Anyway, all that interesting information to lead into telling you of a minor excursion we did on Sunday to the "little" volcano that was the source of the lava flow forming Meola Reef - Mount Saint John.

I have not been up here since my track and field days of Epsom Girls Grammar School, so it was refreshing to come here again. We stopped at one of the 3 entrances - the one on Mt St John Ave near Belvedere St. When we got out of the vehicle we were greeted by a tortoiseshell (or some may call it calico) cat. It was a friendly little thing, and after we petted it for a while we went on our way. It followed us up the path.





We continued on our way to get to the summit.







Kien enjoys being out and about, especially when he can run around freely.






Spot the Tui. We saw three in total up here.

We descended to the bottom of the crater.



When we came back up to the bath guess who we bumped into?







She followed us all the way back back to the car.






Kien thought the cat might like a flower.

Then the cat went home, and Kien was interested in the purple daisy flowers outside the cat's property.




Osteospermum, Wikipedia told me these are called "Passion Mix" cultivar.

Wow, I can't believe it's already Friday night now! Where does the time go?