We stop at the Auckland museum, a visit I highly recommend if you go to NZ. I also urge you to allow a lot of time. Standing exhibits cover Maori culture and history, a war memorial, a natural history floor, and more. There are also special programs -- a beautiful, informative, and interesting visit. Because we are short on time, I concentrate on Maori culture and history. Below are a meeting house replica and details of the carving on its walls.
meeting house replica above, carving detail below
And one more photo of a replica of the canoe in which the Maori arrived in NZ in the 1300’s.
We re-board our tour bus and finish our Auckland visit at the Sky Tower. I know you saw this photo in the last post, but that focused on the harbor. Now look at the tall building with the spire that dominates the background....
The Sky Tower’s spire is almost 1,100 feet high (that’s about 300 feet taller than Boston’s John Hancock Tower). For tourists, the fun stops about 630 feet. From there, we have beautiful panoramic views of the city. I’ve often said that natural wonders always win me over more than cities, but the geologic wonders of Rotorua have some serious competition when I look at this metropolis from the tower.... and even here I see one of the ‘remains’ of an ancient volcano.
One of the North Island’s many (extinct) volcanoes in the distance.
Have you ever tried bungee jumping? If you have, you’ve enjoyed a sport (?) invented by New Zealand’s A.J. Hackett. And if you liked it, you might want to try it from the Sky Tower. On the viewing level, there is a countdown clock for jumpers, and often the bungee ‘controllers’ (for lack of a better word) let the jumpers dangle for a few extra seconds in front of the viewing window. This gives people like me a great photo op--and reminds me of why I have never tried bungee jumping.
Bungee Jumper at Auckland's Sky Tower
In addition to bungee jumping, the tower offers visitors a view down through a glass-floored elevator. I am ok with a glass-walled elevator. I find this view straight down much more disconcerting. I can imagine how the bungee jumpers feel--almost.
glass-floored elevator at the Sky Tower
From the tower we head to the airport and our 3-hour flight to Christchurch in the South Island. As you know from previous posts, both Kate, my friend Lyn, (and many others, I know) love to research and plan their trips. Kate planned the North Island adventure. We are on a tour for the South Island, where Kate’s husband, Gary, will join us. Because we’re on a tour we are picked up at the Christchurch airport by a driver holding a (big) sign with my name on it. After dinner, Kate does a little exploring and I settle in for the night. ]Gary arrives some time after midnight, and part two--the organized tour of the South Island-- begins.
For more information on the Auckland Museum,
please visit: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/
For more information on the Sky Tower options, please visit: http://skywalk.co.nz/ or http://www.skyjump.co.nz/
A few more words on the volcanic origins of these islands
Volcanoes created these islands and plate movement that created the volcanoes continues unabated. Usually this activity is far below the surface. Rotorua and Yellowstone are a few of the places on Earth where we can see the effects of all that plate activity. But all of this is easy to forget in the city, even looking at the remains of an old volcano from Auckland’s Sky Tower.
Easy to forget until the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, which is where part two of our trip begins. I hasten to point out I saw Christchurch before that quake--I was shocked by the images of the city after.
2010 quake photo from the Nelson Mail (http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4689695/Deaths-destruction-in-Christchurch-quakehttp://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4689695/Deaths-destruction-in-Christchurch-quake))
Plate motion is ceaseless. Bear in mind as you read this, you can barely feel a quake measuring under 2.0. As I write this in July 2015, I find 2 months ago there was a 4.4 magnitude quake in Nelson, NZ, about about 28 miles deep; and a 5.5 on the Richter scale, just over 5 miles deep, in Christchurch about six months ago. San Francisco quake tracking shows a 2.2 magnitude quake yesterday (!) about 4 miles deep, a 1.5 temblor just over a mile deep two days ago....
You get the idea. Endless plate movement means the Earth is always reconfiguring itself. The quake that caused the damage you see above was 7.1*, about 6 miles below the surface, and there were hundreds of aftershocks. Christchurch is continuing its recovery: rebuilding a city and its infrastructure is no mean feat.
* Richter Scale: each numeral is ten times more powerful than the one before it, so a 4.0 is ten times more powerful than a 3.0.
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Next: The South Island Tour Begins
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