There are three volcanoes erupting in New Zealand at the moment. Mount Tongariro in the central North Island has awoken from a 100-year slumber; White Island in the Bay of Plenty is erupting, and an undersea volcano (miles and miles away from New Zealand) has produced 25,000 sq km of pumice. None of these pose a threat to Auckland other than the irritating possibility of flight cancellations due to ash.
Mount Tongariro is the biggest threat to human life as it is on land and is the mountain next to Mount Ruapehu where the North Island ski fields are located and where we visited a month ago. The ski fields are still open for business despite being a mere 20km away. On the night of its first eruption (which came as a complete surprise to volcanologists and with little warning and was considered a very small eruption), balls of fire were thrust into the air with some smashing through the roofs of tramping huts and one even going straight through the bed inside. Luckily no-one was in the hut. Had it been summer, it might have been different.
Naturally my thoughts have dwelt on the Auckland volcanic field over this past week and I am left wondering whether it might also throw balls of fire into the air which could similarly smash through our roof landing on our bed. What is worse about the Auckland volcano, is no-one knows where it will pop up. It could be under Queen St and probably they won’t know until the eruption has almost begun or begun already which begs the question, who do you evacuate and where do you tell them to go? As they say, the unseen enemy is always the most fearsome. As the song goes, We Gotta Get Out of This Place…
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