Auckland Day Two

Dr. John Walsby

Kia ora (hello) as they say here in New Zealand.

Today we had a stimulating and informative lecture from Dr. John Walsby, an renown published marine biologist. He talked about marine life, flora and fauna, geology, birds, animals, the effect of weather patterns on NZ, tectonic plates and how their movement has impacted the earthquake and volcanic activity, and many other topics.

A Tui, a native New Zealand bird

After the lecture we went on a field trip to a beautiful lake created by one of the many volcanoes to hit the area. Along the way Dr. Walsby identified trees and birds that are indigenous to the country.

Mt. Victoria, a volcanic mountain 

We visited one of the volcanic mountains where Dr. Walsby identified types of volcanic rocks and talked about how the landscape changed after a volcano erupts.

Because NZ native birds had no natural predators, Dr. Walsby said they had no reason to escape

Museum exhibit of the extinct moa

capture through flight. Consequently, they lost the ability to fly. The moa and kiwi, the national symbol, are two examples. The moa was big. It grew up to 12 feet tall. It is now extinct primarily because the Maori killed and ate them (they were easy to slaughter since they couldn't fly and fed a lot of people).

The kiwi, the size of a chicken, also used to be hunted by the Maori. Today the kiwi is protected. Hunting became illegal in the 1950s. There are only about 65,000 of them in the wild.

The island country of New Zealand was formed by the collision of two tectonic plates – the Australian and Pacific plates. The North Island, where Auckland is located, is on the Australian Plate. Most of the South Island is on the Pacific Plate. The 250 earthquakes that New Zealanders can feel

each year are a result of the seismic activity along the two plates. Thousands of other earthquakes occur in and around the country that cannot be felt by it residents.

View of downtown Auckland

Dr. Walsby told us that Auckland is a mostly low rise city that doesn't have many old buildings. Since the area is prone to earthquakes, building code changes required all old buildings to be reinforced with metal structures.  

Example of steel reinforced glass building

Rather than incur the cost of retrofitting existing building, many owners simply razed them. Today there are lots of glass buildings. While not aesthetically or architecturally appealing, the glass, rubber framing and steel are flexible enough to sustain major earthquakes.

I'm sure you're thinking that this must have been a boring day. Quite the contrary. I'm loving this. Dr. Walsby is such a character that he can make any topic interesting and full. I had another wonderful day in NZ.