And We Arrive Safely!

At around 5am I arrived safely in New Zealand! We landed in Auckland airport, got our luggage and headed to our coach bus to meet our driver, Stu. They wanted to keep us busy the first day so we would be more able to adjust to the time difference. So, we were off to our first stop in Auckland, Mt. Eden. Mt. Eden is one of a few inactive volcanoes in Auckland. It is a cinder cone volcano, and we hiked up to the top to see the cone.

The cone at the top of Mt. Eden

 Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard all morning, so I was a little cold and wet during this trip, but it was great to start off the trip going to a volcano! I grabbed some scoria samples to bring back with me, and then we headed off to our next stop.

Next, the group got on a ferry to be taken to Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto is also a volcano, but unlike Mt. Eden, it is a shield volcano (a much larger volcano with less steep sides). Here, we got on a Volcano Explorer Tour. I hopped on to a tractor-pulled tram and we proceeded up a very rocky and winding path up the mountain. Along the way I learned some really cool things about Rangitoto. It was the most recent of the Auckland volcanoes to have erupted, and that was 700 years ago. There was tons of volcanic rock everywhere, a type known by the Hawaiian name A’a. I have never seen anything like the amount of broken up rock that littered the slopes of this volcano.

Me on the volcanic rocks!

When we finally got up to near the top, we got off and climbed up to the summit. Right when I made it to the top, heavy fog set in so I didn’t get to see the fantastic view we were planned, but it was still amazing to just be at the top of such a large volcano. Then it was back down the other side, to the only sandy beach on the island. I grabbed some rock samples there too, because the rocks on the beach had been smoothed and weathered by the water. We had a few more minutes to explore the island before hopping back on the ferry to the main land.

We then headed in our coach to our hostel in Auckland, got comfortable, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting lunch and exploring the city. We shopped for a little bit, had dinner, then spent the evening getting settled. What a great way to spend the first day!