THE VOLCANOES OF NEW ZEALAND

This page presents a tentative itinerary of the course and shows some pictures of the volcanoes and other geothermal phenomena that you will see. The exact itinerary has not been finalized yet and things may be changed due to weather conditions. You can count on spending at least 20 days in New Zealand for the course. There are more pictures taken by Dr. Shiba from the 2006 course here.

DAY 1-DAY 5 AUCKLAND
We will be flying into Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. Auckland is a beautiful city of about 1.5 million people which sits between two natural harbors. We are interested in Auckland because it is in the middle of a volcanic field. Most of the hills and many of the islands are volcanic cones. We will hike/drive up a few of the volcanoes to get an overall view of the city. Our first major hike will be the ~2 hour moderate hike up Rangitoto, the largest and youngest volcano in the field. We will catch a ferry out to Rangitoto (it's one of the largest islands) and hike through basaltic lava fields to the well-defined cone at the summit.

There will be time on the hike down to visit some of the other features on the island like lava tubes. During our stay in Auckland we will also have a lecture by some volcanologists from the University of Auckland Geology Department. Another highlight will be visiting the Takapuna Lava Flow which has excellent examples of lava tree molds. We will hike up One Tree Hill volcano as well. During our last day in Auckland we will take a bus to two beaches: Muriwai and Piha. Muriwai beach is one of the only places on land where you can see pillow lava (this type of lava erupts under water) and Piha is one of the best surfing beaches in NZ. On Day 6 we will get our charter bus and drive to Rotorua in the morning.

DAY 6-DAY 12 ROTORUA
Rotorua is one of the most popular geothermal tourist destinations, but that does not detract from its interest to us. Rotorua basically sits inside two very large caldera volcanoes, Lake Rotorua itself and the Okataina Caldera. There are other calderas nearby which we will also visit. We will tour some outstanding geothermal phenomena. We will see the Hell's Gate thermal area and Kuirau Park right next to our backpackers. We will spend one morning at Wai-o-tapu geothermal wonderland to see geysers and hot springs. In the afternoon we will tour the Waimangu Valley which was formed from the eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 1883.

The Champagne Pool at Wai-O-Tapu

Waimangu Volcanic Valley

We will go on a moderate hike up Rainbow Mountain volcano. We may have time for other walks/hikes in the area. We will use Rotorua as a base for two daytrips. The first will be to the small Mount Maunganui volcano near Tauranga. We will take a hike around this volcano and then to the summit. There is a beautiful beach adjacent to the volcano so we will take time to relax.

View of the Tongariro National Park Volcanoes from Rainbow Mountain

Beach from Mauganui Summit

One of the highlights of the entire course will be a trip to White Island, a marine volcano. We will take the bus to Whakatane and charter a boat to the island. White Island has a wealth of volcanic features and the ruins of sulfur mining operation. We will have at least one off-day in Rotorua for you to fish, mountain bike, go whitewater rafting, or just relax.

Sulfur Fumarole on White Island

Volcanic Stream Tasting

DAY 13-DAY 19 TAUPO/TURANGI
The small town of Taupo is located on the north end of Lake Taupo, the largest freshwater lake in the southern hemisphere and a very large caldera volcano. Tongariro National Park is south of Lake Taupo. We will see the Wairakei geothermal power plant outside of Taupo. Turangi is the largest town close to Tongariro National Park. We will use Turangi as a base for the Tongariro Crossing and other excursions in the north end of the park. The Tongariro Crossing is a 10 mile/8 hr hike that winds its way between the various volcanic cones of the Tongariro and Ngaruhoe volcanoes. This is a spectacular hike and also fairly strenuous. People who are more adventuresome and in top physical condition can climb to the Ngauruhoe summit or the shorter Tongariro summit.

Taranaki Falls

Upper Tama Lake Slopes of Ruapehu

The Devil's Staircase	Climbing Lava Flow on Ngauruhoe
Mt. Ruapehu from Mt. Ngauruhoe summit	The Emerald Lakes
Lava Dike in the Red Crater	Ngauruhoe and Red Crater

The second most strenuous hike we will do is the Ruapehu Crater Lake Climb. The hike to the crater lake on Mt. Ruapehu is somewhat easier than the Tongariro Crossing since we will take a chair lift for some of the way and slide through snow part way on the descent. Quite of bit of the Mordor scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed around Mt. Ruapehu. Other places we will hike include several scoria cones, two explosion craters called the Tama Lakes, Taranaki Falls at the edge of a lava flow from Ruapehu, and the Rangipo Desert. There are a huge number of volcanic features in the national park which is why we will be spending so much time there. We will have at least a couple of off days in Turangi and we can take the bus back to Taupo.

Mead's Wall Mt. Ruapehu	Hiking up Mt. Ruapehu
Sliding into a Crater	Ruapehu Crater Lake

LORD OF THE RINGS FILM SITES IN TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

You may want to watch the three Lord of the Rings films to familiarize yourself with the actual locations which we will visit:

The Fellowship of the Ring:

• The orc charge at the beginning of the movie
• Isildur cutting the ring off of Sauron's hand
• The hobbits setting out for Mordor at the end of the film

The Two Towers:

• The scene where Gollum creeps down the rocks to steal the ring while the hobbits are sleeping
• The forbidden pool where Gollum is captured by Faramir's men
• The scene where Gollum is splashing through the river to catch a fish

The Return of the King:

• No specific scenes, but many general ones from the Mordor area

DAY 20-DAY 21 AUCKLAND
We will return to Auckland and spend one night. You can do last-minute shopping and the next day we will return to the US.