Island Exploration

Summer is just around the corner here in the Southern Hemisphere.  Not that you would ever notice winter in Auckland with all the greenery around and nearly permanent absence of snow.  Summer nonetheless is welcome relief as it means two things: warmer temperatures and visiting relatives and friends.  This means I get to act as a tour guide for a bit and travel the country.  My sister will be the first to arrive, landing on Thursday, and I already have an ambitious schedule for her two-week visit involving lots of tramping, a few water sports, and helping me move.  What’s that?  Yep, I’m moving out of my solo flat in the city in favor of a gorgeous view over Okahu Bay and barbecuing opportunities, not to mention a dramatically reduced rent, wireless internet, and having flatmates.  I’ll move in on the 24^th, which will be a busy day, one sure to appear in my next blog post.  To keep you updated, my new address is:

22 Karori Crescent
Orakei, Auckland 1071
New Zealand

Home Phone: +64 95 23 26 47

Goodbye living in Auckland City!

Now down to business!  Kayaking… I have been meaning to get into this sport for years and I don’t mean the sissy stuff.  Sure, sea kayaking is nice; you get some beautiful views, smell the salt water; maybe go fishing if you have skills.  Real kayakers take on whitewater though; they get rolled (sending water up their nose), hit their head on rocks, and dodge eels, all of which I experienced my first time out on the Kaituna River.  Thankfully I was wearing a helmet, which I have learned is a must.  I also got to put my Canoe Club pool training Eskimo roll to use—good use.  I probably rolled a hundred times on Sunday (1 Nov) both in preparation for the real thing and in the real thing-- that being “the chute” and the other class II rapids on the river.  Okay, so class II is not very big, but you have to start somewhere and to a beginner it can be quite fun.  I worked on moving into and out of eddies, edging the kayak, and most of all rolling.  It was all good fun and I could not get enough, even though CJ and I kayaked the same 200m section of the river for six solid hours.  No shuttles required, gnarly.   The next day I was quite sore in muscles I did not even know I had, but that is all part of picking up a new sport.

Work hard, play hard.  That has always been my philosophy and though much of what I write about here on my blog is on the play side, I do a quite considerable amount of work too (it’s just not as fun to write about).  The GIS work for my thesis has been coming along pretty well and on Friday the 6^th of November I gave a presentation to the DEVORA research forum (to view the program and forthcoming slides click here).  My presentation was well received, particularly by the civil defense and emergency management officials in attendance.  On the 7^th, a number of DEVORA researchers including myself went on a field trip to Brown’s Island--more commonly referred to by its Maori name Motukorea—a volcano in the Hauraki Gulf.  Motukorea is one of a handful of undated centers in the Auckland Volcanic Field, which is what my mass-evacuation planning thesis focuses on.  The rest of the group, almost exclusively vulcanologists and geologists, were über-excited about the stratigraphy of the island, which took a fair amount of effort for them to translate into terms even a aspiring geographer could understand.  Seeing all the scoria and tuff was pretty exciting though.  My favorites were hiking up on the crater rim and checking out an old pyrochlastic bomb (see image below), where you could actually see how it was warped as it traveled through the air. To view more photos click here.

On Sunday, I invited Eugene out to discover some more of our local Auckland surroundings.  The first stop was One Tree Hill, another former volcano and renowned Maori pa site (fortified hilltop).  Today it bears a monument to the Maori at the summit and is surrounded by a wonderful park.  Next stop was Thai food—I had been longing for some as I had not had it since leaving the US—and then off to the West Coast beach at Whatipu.  The West Coast beaches are renowned surfing beaches with very curious black sand, which gets quite warm on a sunny day.  Eugene and I hiked all around the beach, over the sand dunes, and then took a small trail up to the base of the hills where there are numerous caves to explore.  Apparently the largest of the caves used to be used for parties as long as 70 years ago!  To view more photos click here.

Last week was a bit more lively than usual.  No, not because I was taking finals like the undergrads, but because of some exciting Rotary initiated events.  On Tuesday (10 Nov) after the Newmarket Rotary Club meeting, my counselor Paul and I went across the harbor to Devonport to speak with the DOC rangers about our upcoming service project on Motutapu Island.  We then checked out the Passchendaele WWI exhibit at the old Fort Takapuna, which was a very fine display that one of the Newmarket Rotarians was central in bringing to Auckland.  Tuesday evening I was invited to attend a small screening of the movie Bottle Schock and a nice roast dinner with some of the Rotarians from the Westhaven Rotary Club.  It was a very fine social evening and I even met a Rotarian who manufactures his own muzzle loaders and mentioned taking me out hunting.  How cool is that?!  On Friday evening I went out for dinner with Newmarket Rotarian Martin McGahan, whose son, Andrew, had been a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in Eagle River and lived with the Arlington family, who I know well.  The world seems so small sometimes.  The McGahans were very generous hosts and the dinner was superb.  I assured them that they had to come back to Alaska and visit my family at Mile 6.2 sometime.

Last weekend I recruited four friends to come out to Motutapu Island with Paul and I to do some community service work, cleaning out old WWII magazines (similar to bunkers) constructed by guess who?-- the US Army.  During WWII many American soldiers and sailors came to New Zealand as a jumping off point for the Pacific Theater.  The concrete magazines were in great shape, but had collected a considerable amount of dirt as cattle moved freely in and out over the past 67 years.  With the help of the Motutapu Trust, which Paul and the Newmarket club are greatly involved with, the historical military sites around the island are being cleaned up and fenced off (so the sheep and cows don’t wander back in).  Cleaning the magazines meant a few hours of shoveling, but it turned out to be a good change of pace from normal work at the uni and the rolling green scenery of the island and its peacefulness were more than worth the effort.  Erik’s Motutapu pics.