Auckland City: Where Volcanoes are Tourist Destinations

In visiting big cities, 360-degree views would be the best way for one to make the most out of tall buildings, busy traffic, and bustling urban life. Fortunately for Auckland City, it has 48 volcanoes, all within about 20 kilometers away from the city center.

While I totally enjoyed my visit up the man-made Sky Tower, nothing beats the nature's heights and the natural high it brings when we drove up three volcanoes in Auckland City. Besides, it's cheap. I paid NZD20 for Sky Tower. I didn't pay anything when I went up these volcanic heights:

MT. EDEN
I placed Mt. Eden (Maungawhau) on top of my list because it is the highest volcano in Auckland at 196 meters. What I truly love about this volcano is its flawless bowl-like crater, which is 50 meters deep. It last erupted 15,000 years ago and within a long time, grass grew on it, giving its crater a velvety feel.

Looks like a gigantic version of the University of the Philippines' Sunken Garden.

The slopes of Mt. Eden were used to be densely populated by Maori and the crater was known as the food bowl of Mataoho. One can get to Mt. Eden by car or by bus from the city center. There's a bus stop near the foot of the mountain and one can climb up to the summit, which is just around 2 kilometers.

ONE TREE HILL
It's easy to spot One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie) because of its distinctive obelisk smacked right into its summit. One Tree Hill is the second largest volcano after Rangitoto, at 183 meters high. It has three craters.

The Maori name Maungakiekie literally means mountain of the kiekie, a type of vine. The European name was given by Sir John Logan Campbell, whose remains are buried alongside the obelisk, after a lone tree that stood on its summit. Since then, the tree has become a political symbol, an object of protest attacks until it was felled in 2001 for safety reasons. Logically, One Tree Hill is a pre-European Maori fortification and may be the largest earth fort in the world.

One Tree Hill is 8.2 kilometers or 13-minute drive from downtown Auckland.

The natural terrains of this volcanic cone is an ideal fortification.

MT. WELLINGTON
This wasn't really part of my itinerary but since my cousin lives in the suburb of Mt. Wellington, we went for a quick tramping before dinner.

Sunset at Mt. Wellington :)

It would be useful to know that the volcanoes of Auckland were important sites of Maori settlements. Aside from being an ideal fortress, these mountains can be ringed with terraces of housing, storage pits, and large gardens on a fertile, volcanic soil. Meanwhile, European settlers took advantage of the volcanoes' warm slopes for housing. They quarried  volcanic metals for buildings, walls, railways, and roads.

The crater of Mt. Wellington is right there at the bottom, middle part of the ridges.

It would equally be good to know that Mt. Wellington is not expected to erupt again. It now serves as a park. It has picnic benches around and a vast field where children can run around. I even saw someone flying a kite on that windy day.

Now, what's for dinner? :)


Sources:
http://www.aucklandnz.com/destinations/mount-eden
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/auckland-places/page-19