Mount Eden - October 31, 2010

We had another beautiful Sunday afternoon, so we were looking for something to do. We didn't want to head out of town because we had plans to check out the Diwali Lights Festival downtown in the evening. Why not a stroll up Mount Eden? This is another dormant volcano walking distance from our house. We have been in Auckland for over a year now and Jesse still hadn't been up to the top! It isn't as big as One Tree Hill in terms of land mass, but it is higher so the view from the top is spectacular. It is also the highest natural point in Auckland (196 metres above sea level).

Just like One Tree Hill, it's possible to drive to the top, but we just walked up. Mount Eden is only a 15 minute walk from our place anyways.














Looking into the crater:








Here are a couple pictures from the Diwali Festival:

One Tree Hill - Jun 12, 2010

This weekend we visited One Tree Hill and Cornwall Park. It's the largest volcano in Auckland (besides Rangitoto). It erupted thousands of years ago and there are some great views from the top. It's possible to drive right to the summit, but that's just lazy! We parked at the bottom and walked through the park along the trail up to the top. There's a nice cafe at the bottom, but it was full when we tried to stop in for a coffee.






The volcano is surrounded by Cornwall Park. It was originally the home of Sir John Campbell in the 1800s, but the land was donated to the city to be used as a park. At the summit of One Tree Hill is the grave of John Campbell, a statue of a Maori warrior and an obelisk.


Before Sir John Campbell, about 5000 Maori people lived on the cone and the surrounding area.

Shamelessly stolen from the internet:

The volcanic soil of the slopes of the mountain proved highly fertile and easy to defend from raiding parties from other tribes due to its steep sides and imposing palisades. The inhabitants terraced the hill extensively, Archaeological surveys have identified over 170 constructed terraces making it the largest prehistoric earth fortification worldwide. It is also the largest and most complex volcanic cone / earth fortress known in the Southern Hemisphere.


Oh no! Wipe out!!


A single pohutukawa tree stood at the top of the hill, hence the name, but it was cut down by an early European Settler. A pine tree was re-planted by Sir John Campbell, but this too was cut down by Maori activists in 2000. They used the non-native pine tree as a symbol for the injustices they believed the New Zealand government had inflicted upon the Maori people. The tree has not yet been replaced as there is heated debate over which species to plant (a pine or a native NZ species).




Believe it or not, this wasn't the wipe out:

This one looks like it was taken right in the Shire (Lord of the Rings):



There is also an Observatory in the park (2 telescopes and a planetarium). We didn't visit it, maybe another time.

Pompeii, Italy - Sept 17, 2009

No visit to Naples is complete without a day trip to Pompeii. I'm sure you have heard of it at some point. It is the ancient Roman city that was completely buried (and preserved) when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

A huge portion of the archeological site is completely open to the public. You can walk through the streets, houses, shops and baths.

It was pretty incredible to walk around trying to picture what life must have been like in those times.





If we hadn't read about it, I would have thought it was a joke, but the city viewed the penis as a sign of good luck and fertility, and actually had them everywhere! Shops and houses had penises in the brick above the doors, street intersections had penises on the walls, the potery and statues also glorified penises.

Most of the artifacts recovered from the site are now back in the National Museum in Naples. A lot of this art depicts people have sex, with men, women, goats, horses, swans, you name it. Yes Ryan, even dragons.

The city itself was pretty advanced for their time. They had baths with hot and cold running water. They made ice out of snow carried from the top of the mountains close to the town and had kind of side walks for the streets.

They were a pretty advanced civilization but also lived with a lot of excesses. One of the bigest attractions is one of the burlesque houses, where they had slaves to "work". The fee for someone to spend some time with one of the slaves was about the price of a bottle of wine. From this behavior started the comparison of this city with Sodom and Gomorrah. They were burned as a punishment for the excesses that they had and Pompeii seemed to had the same living conditions when they were buried by the ashes of the Vesuvius.

They found quite a few bodies preserved in the ash:



There are free informational books at the entrance to Pompeii, but it would really be worth it to pay for a guided tour. We missed out on a lot by trying to do it all ourselves. We often followed along behind various groups throughout the day trying to hear some the explanations.

Carolina found huge lemons (limones para los mexicanos) that blew her mind, she was in heaven just for seconds!

Here are some more of our favorite pictures:











Excellent day trip!