Auckland Adventures

Well today was definitely amazing. The geography teacher, and all around outdoor expert Joe led us on an outdoor adventure filled day. First we visited a beautiful beach at Mission Bay right outside the main Auckland city center where there were lots of volcanic rocks from the volcano Rangitoto that sits across the way. The water was light blue and the weather outside was again, gorgeous. Next we traveled to one of the many other volcanoes that Auckland sits atop, Mount Eden. Once we reached the summit, the view of the Auckland cityscape and surrounding bay, with the green mountain volcanoes set in the background was simply picturesque. 

After Mount Eden, we made our way to a nature reserve where we did a "bush walk" as the locals would say through a forest bursting with exotic plants that made you feel as though you had stepped back in time to when dinosaurs ruled the land. Here we saw some of the great kauri, majestic trees that grow very large, very slowly. New Zealand is having a problem with the kauri trees dying from bacteria spread to their surprisingly delicate roots for such a large tree. To avoid bringing any bacteria into contact with the trees, we had to spray our shoes with a special disinfectant before we entered and exited the reserve. Seeing the great kauri trees today was a great preview for my internship starting in March where I will be working with a professor who is studying them. The main plant type in this reserve were ferns; tree ferns, silver ferns, you name it, it was there. The silver fern is actually the symbol of New Zealand and appears on all the rugby sports teams in some fashion. I also spotted the fern that was featured on the cover of my AP Biology textbook in high school which was pretty exciting (Nerd alert). . I also managed to capture a picture of the wood pigeon which is essentially a beautiful version of your common pigeon.

500 year old Kauri

Fern from Bio Textbook

Wood pigeon!

After exiting the forest, our next stop was a secluded lake hugged by black sand dunes and green mountains. Walking through the dunes was fun in the black volcanic ash sand because it was so fine that it felt like dust more than sand. Some people swam in the lake, others attempted to touch the cows grazing on the mountain, and all of us enjoyed a nice lunch. After, we made our way to a large dune where we ran and jumped off and down the dune and came back covered in black. We then walked through a river which cooled our burning feet from the hot sand and made our way to Bethel's Beach, a black sand beach along the Tasman Sea. The beach was surrounded by caves and inlets and plenty for us to explore. Cricket was set up and played, and fun was had by all. 

After spending a couple hours here, we headed back to the apartments and washed up for a dinner and drinks at an irish pub courtesy of BU. Now I am nursing some very blistered feet and drinking a nice cup of tea with some biscuits before bed. And oh would you look at that, some black sand just poured out of my ear; this will certainly be an interesting night.

Best,

Malani