Fun Facts?

So a dear friend sent this email.  And, yes, she is an educator.

Fun fact: Auckland is built entirely on a 139-square-mile active volcano field. Since the field’s first activity 250,000 years ago, 50 of its volcanoes have sprouted—Mount Wellington and 600-year-old Rangitoto are two better-known examples. Still, the government of New Zealand has calculated about a .0001 percent chance of eruption in this field in any given year.

It raised the hairs on the back my neck for just a few moments and then I remembered that pretty much all of the world is made up of igneous rock and change is inevitable and usually to the good.  There you are, Professor Hill, I did learn something in Intro to Geology, freshman year at the U of O.  But the most memorable moments in your class were viewing the family photos of you all in water filled mountain cirques around the world.  Upper class-men, who had enrolled in your course years before, with sly grins would always ask, “Have you seen the family photos yet?”  Memorable!

Yes, New Zealand has a spine of mountains down the center.  The north, where we are, is very temperate, but the south mountainous areas are covered with glaciers and skiers flock there all year round. Actually, when we traveled down to the southern bluff we had the most delicious oysters and frozen noses from the antarctic ocean.

September 04, 2010 we were visiting friends here in Auckland when news of the devastating 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch was broadcast on the air.  The impact of that event on the local population of Auckland was profound.  I realized then that this is truly a small country and that the people are bound by a strong sense of societal responsibility.  In the US if there is a tornado in Oklahoma we are saddened, but not devastated.  But here, maybe because it is a smaller land mass and the people are more connected there is a real caring amongst them.

A new neighbor took me for a walk at a nearby beach.  We passed a large, green, reedy area designated as a Pūkeko preserve.  The Pūkeko, also known as swamp-hens, appear to have arrived here from Jurassic Park.  They actually have a history of being on the Island for more than 1000 years.  A Maori story about this bird, they named Pūkeko, says the bird arrived aboard an early exploring canoe. My husband's reaction to them on our front lawn was, "What the hell are those?"