O Week in Auckland

This past week, many orientation activities were planned for both Huia, our "residense" hall, and the international students. I suppose the first event of note was a great concert in the park given just a few feet from our dorms. This was actually sponsored by the Skytower in town and it featured the Starlight Symphony as well as other well-known artists from this region of the world. We listened to an impressive cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody whilst watching the laser light show that played out overhead. Also, if you have not yet heard Brooke Fraser's music, get it. I'm obsessed. She sounds like a folk-ier (is that a word?) Celine Dion.
Well that was just a great night. I'm so happy to have the Auckland Domain so close by because there was no room to stretch out on a patch of grass in France. Here I have multiple rugby fields all to myself! I was able to get up there the other night and watch about 10 cricket games going on at once. Neat experience, although I'm still not sure I understand the game...
Monday night brought us to the first theme party of the week. Jungle Night down at the Viaduct- Auckland's version of the Baltimore Inner Harbor (or Fell's). We hit the many thrift stores that are conveniently located nearby, found some fatigues and whatnot, and went out!
I believe Tuesday was pretty mellow, and with no real plans, Carin, Tyler and I found ourselves wandering the Auckland Museum, which is at the other end of the Domain. A museum inside a huge park? HEAVEN!
One exhibit, which particularly caught my attention, was the volcano zone. Apparently Auckland is built over three different volcanoes, all dormant, the last one having erupted merely 600 years ago! Yikes! A video took us through an explosion scenario that was realistic and a bit frightening, but don't worry, Dad, I have my bug net to protect against the volcanic ash.
I learned that volcanoes are formed at weak points in the mantle's crust and that the subduction of two plates- usually an underwater plate moving below a land plate- creates the friction that heats up and wants to get out. Hence, volcano. New Zealand's North Island is caused by the subduction of the Pacific Plate moving beneath the Australian Plate and the bottom of the South Island is caused by the Australian Plate moving beneath the Pacific Plate. I could have those two mixed up, but either way, there is way too much geothermal activity going on down here. Apparently the North Island's Lake Taupo is actually a caldera that was formed when the Taupo area exploded over 20,000 years ago (I think?) in what is one of the 10 worst volcanic eruptions in the history of the world. Crazy! So you have the volcanoes in the north, a good amount of subduction going on in the south, and the Southern Alps in the middle, being pushed ever higher by the two plates grinding against each other. Three centimeters a year I may have read? I'm very wishy washy with facts- sorry about that.
Well, all this geothermal activitiy sparked my interest and I noted to my mom that being a geophysicist might be fun, to which she responded "What do they do?"
"Become lawyers..."
I can't quite remember in what exact order the week progressed, but we got to Mission Bay beach on one particular day, which was very nice. Only a 15 min. bus ride from downtown Auckland. On Wednesday night, theme party two found us at the International Student Association's "Dress like your nationality" party. Some of us copped out and donned the Daisy Dukes and cowgirl attire. It's easy... There were four very impressive Harlem Globe Trotters floating around, however.
On Saturday, the hall put on a cocktail party, had everyone dress up, and then led us to a bar where the drinks were $15 NZD. We said noooo thank you and met up with the rest of our group at the Skytower where we celebrated the 21st of our friend Tore from Loyola. Good choice.
Yesterday, Courtney, Tyler, Karlee, our two Californians Lauren and Alli, and myself trekked to Takapuna Beach, which is a great shore around the north side of Auckland Bay. After a few nice hours there, we continued on back to Mission Bay and their jazz festival, which featured many local bands, tons of great food, and a perfect environment in which to spend the last night before classes!
Courtney, Tyler, Karlee and I were walking back from the festivities last night, commenting about how great the day was when we heard a bunch of screaming. We figured it was some students out for their O weeks or whatnot, but as we were crossing a sidestreet on our way back, I looked to my left and saw a woman lying in the road motionless. Moments before, I'd seen a pickup truck drive out of the road. We all whipped our phones out, only to realize that none of us knew the emergency number for NZ, so I flagged down a passing car, shoved my phone at the woman and told her to call the police.
Eventually the paramedics showed up (but man are they slow here) and the police followed suit- although they drove right past the street. Tired of waiting for them, I ran up to their car stopped at a red light and told them we'd been waiting for a good 20 minutes, to which the cop responded "Oh, is that where it's at?" in a less than enthused, monotonous tone.
We gave our account of what had happened and the woman came to. They said they don't think anything will come of it since she's a "street worker" but at least the whole thing was a good wake up call for us. As the cop said to us, "Auckland's not just greenery, aye?" Noted.
Well that was quite an eventful week. I have to go get ready for my first day of school now! English and Social Justice. Academia, here I come!