Had a relaxing morning and slept until 8:30am. (I think all of the excitement and trying new things creates its own kind of jet lag.) Decided to meet the Hop On Hop Off bus at the stop closest to our hotel. So we Ubered to what we thought was the base of Mt. Eden. Instead we got dropped off in the Mt. Eden Village center and had about a 30 minute walk before reaching the trail to climb Mt. Eden.
The neighborhood we walked through was an extremely nice older upscale neighborhood with the most beautiful huge trees and interesting homes. It is so much fun to see how architecture and gardening styles are different from Texas. The climate in Auckland is tropical so the flowers and trees are so green and verdant. The flowers bloom with such bright vibrant colors. I stopped to admire this one home with a massive (about 4-5 foot diameter trunk) beautiful tree and when I walked down the commercial street a few blocks away, I saw an advertisement for a realty company and the tag line was “we sold the villa on the corner with the huge tree when it was just the villa on the corner.” The photo had the home and tree I had admired. Turns out the neighborhood and the realty company were more than a hundred years old.
After walking through the neighborhood and the village, we came to a path that lead to the top of Mt. Eden. It seemed like it was pretty much straight up. Which seems reasonable considering Mt. Eden is a dormant volcano (last erupted 15,000 years ago). At 653 feet, it is the highest natural point in Auckland. So up we went. Most of the way up we were shaded by a beautiful tropical forest. At the top there were no trees and the views were amazing! 360 degrees and we could see downtown Auckland, the harbor, the coastline, neighborhoods, and more. It was just gorgeous.
I’ve never been to a volcano before (except for Yellowstone which is an enormous caldera) and it was so interesting as a geological feature, but in addition the dormant volcanoes in NZ were often the sites of Māori cities. The actual crater is considered sacred and you are not allowed to enter it. The sides were terraced for agriculture purposes. Below is the best photograph I could find showing Mt. Eden.


So after a quick tour of the visitor center and a lemonade in the cafe, we hopped back on the bus and headed back down into Auckland proper. We got off the bus at the zoo stop to walk through Western Springs Lakeside Park, a beautiful city park. It had lots of shaded trails to walk along and that circled the lake. I loved the large trees and the peaceful spots to sit. Its most unique feature in my mind was the eels – yes eels. They live in the lake and can grow up to about 5 feet long and live to 80 years old. They were fascinating and creepy all at the same time. Even though it was a warm day, I had absolutely NO desire to wade in the lake. All I could think was the eels might latch on to me like a leech or a lamprey (insert huge shudder and flinch here). Yuck!
If you read my last blog about the Appalachian Trail, you know my love for trees. There are so many large (tall and wide) trees in NZ. The park was full of them. When I was a kid I loved to climb a tree (preferably with a book) and hide from the world in the branches. At 57 I can’t get anywhere near as high in a tree as I want to, but I can still climb a tree – sorta.
