Day 3 in Auckland

What a busy and active day we've had!  We arranged a whole day of sightseeing.  In the morning, we were given a guided tour of Auckland, both the busy city center, and also the outskirts of the city.  Auckland was built on top of and in the midst of 53 volcanoes.  Some very pretty parks and very nice overviews of the city are from the tops of some of those hills.  We crossed over Harbor Bridge, from which daring people can pay to bungee jump.  In fact, bungee jumping was invented in New Zealand, I think in 1985.  One of the guys on our bus has plans to jump from the bridge tomorrow.  I wish we could watch him.

Not an active volcano; but, it is an old one, with a new cloud over it.

In the afternoon, we were driven out of the city, to the west coast.  While the east coast of the country has calm waters (of the Pacific Ocean) and gold, sandy beaches, the west coast (the Tasman Sea) is rugged and has rougher water and unsafe swimming (but, very good surfing), and black sand beaches, remnants of volcanic eruptions.  The black sand sparkles like diamonds because of the titanium that's in it.  I tried to take a picture of the sparkles, but it didn't show up in the photo.  Our tour guide stuck a magnet into the sand, and the magnet was instantly covered with the sand because of the iron in it.  The beach we went to was gorgeous, with some enormous rocky outcroppings.  We also walked through a rainforest, up and up on a dirt path, until we reached a very tall (but narrow) waterfall.  Afterwards, our group sat together at a picnic table, and had a proper tea, right there at the edge of the forest--coffee, tea, juice, cookies.  Quite lovely.

Pretty view of the west coast

Lion Rock on beautiful Piha Beach

This evening, we connected with the 27 people with whom we'll be traveling through New Zealand for the next 18 days, starting tomorrow.  They're all English-speaking, but only one other couple is from the U.S. The largest percentage is from Australia, which makes sense.  Tomorrow, we'll begin our tour by heading north to the Bay of Islands.  :)