Exactly years ago, as I am writing this, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history had just started, blowing almost 2, meters off the top of a mountain called Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia.
It was a devastating event for whole world. There was famine in Switzerland they must have cut down on the fondue over there. The more indirect effects include the birth of the Frankenstein story and Mormonism, some pretty works of art, real estate bubbles, cholera going global and Arctic exploration.
On April 10, , Tambora woke up, blew up and completely destroyed its immediate surroundings. Whole cultures were wiped out, including the Tambora people and their Tambora language that was the easternmost non-Austronesian Papuan language at the time little known fact, you are welcome!
Starting a long cycling trip actually anything longer than a few hours is not easy on the mind or the body. After buying and preparing Traicho Junior the bicycle in Auckland , I was ready to leave on the slightly overcast December Auckland is a city made for cars but there are some bicycle lanes. Getting out of Auckland directly north though is a bit complicated, so I decided to go west first and then north.
And to avoid breathing all the car exhaust, I took the suburban train for 6 NZD to a station in the west. Bikes are allowed on trains but not on buses in Auckland. Imagine two chains of relatively big islands surrounded by reefs, blue lagoons and countless small islands, lined with coconut palms and mangroves.
