Our Trip to Mangere Mountain - 29 October 2020
What a fantastic trip we had today. The weather was just right for our walk up the mountain.
We met our guide Ellie and she took us up the mountain. We found out that that Mangere Mountain is 70,000 years old and it erupted once during the ice age. There are three craters on the mountain. We saw fire vents around the mountain and years ago these vents were released so there is no pressure in these areas. At the top of the mountain is a large triangle shape and that shows the highest point of the mountain. It is 106 metres above sea level. Ellie talked about lava bombs which are like cake crumbs and crust bombs which looks like bread cracked on the top. She also told us about lens bombs which are the shape of a lens. There is water near the mountain and people collected fish, shellfish, stingrays, crabs crayfish and sea snails. On one side of the mountain they used it for gardens. The Maori people collected food from the islands, they collected yam, taro and kumara and they built mounts on the mountain to grow this food. They used dirt and scoria rock to trap the heat so the plants would grow. There are many craters on the mountain. You can find lots of different native birds as well as insects. On the mountain is a storage pit and the Maori people use to store their food in baskets inside the pit. There is scoria and basalt rock on the mountain and they have made it into walls.
After our tour around the mountain we had lunch then we worked on a variety of activities. We sang Maori songs and used two sticks to bang together to create different patterns. We played knuckle bones with stones and we made pois.
What a fabulous time we all had.
Enjoy looking at the photos:
