Take a drive along Auckland's waterfront on any day of the year and you will see dozens of people out running the flat level pavement, sucking in the exhaust fumes of passing cars.

I'm biased I know, because to me road running is about as exciting as homework is to my 12-year-old son, but it always amuses me to look over the heads of these runners, out across the shimmering the waters of the Waitemata Harbour, to the perfect cone of Rangitoto and think, "Why aren't you over there doing something far more interesting?"

So determined to put my running shoes where my mouth is I recently paid a visit to the holy grail of island runs with my good friend Graeme Brown, who at 64 is the oldest member of a seriously age-challenged team of 7in7 Support Runners.

We hit upon an absolute cracker of a day - perfect blue sky, not too hot, not too windy - a far cry from the seriously melting heat that can radiate back from the island's igneous mass in the middle of summer.

Rangitoto's just a 30-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland, and then you're off on a run like no other. This day we took a wide route around the back of the island before making the steady ascent to the summit.

The final 100 metres is all steps that pride told us we had to run, not walk (although my heart rate monitor begged to differ).

From the top, through our sweat-impaired vision, we took in the stunning 360 views of the Gulf and the City. There can be few other major cities in the world that offer up this kind of view so readily.

From the summit we headed back to the coast and traversed across to Motutapu Island, which is accessed via a narrow causeway. Here the running was a combination of easy farm roads and devilishly difficult overgrown farm tracks.

By now the calf strain that I had been carrying from a long run the previous day was getting very vocal, telling me to "stop - now!" but alas, there was a last ferry to catch and walking wasn't really an option.

We finally arrived back at the wharf with just enough time for a quick dip in the ocean before climbing aboard and voyaging back to the Big Smoke.

As we cruised back up the harbour I could make out the silhouettes of runners pounding the tarmac along Tamaki Drive and couldn't help but feel a little pity for them as the most excitement they were likely to get was a near miss with a deranged Auckland driver. Who'd be a roadie, I ask?

Malcolm Law is a Kiwi ultra runner who is aiming to raise $50,000 for Leukaemia & Blood Foundation by becoming the first man ever to run 7 Great Walks in just 7 days. Check out http://7in7.org.nz/ for more on this epic adventure.