You hear a lot of stories on the road and this one made me curious as to whether it actually happened as the story was told or if it is perhaps an urban legend gone wild. If any of my readers know the truth, please share it in a comment below as I can’t find a confirmation on the internet.
The Story: About eighteen years ago some University of Auckland students decided to play a big April Fool’s prank on the people around Auckland. They dropped a bunch of old tires into the crater of this long dormant volcano and set the tires on fire in the night so people waking up the next morning were greeted with what they perceived as smoking volcanic activity and before you could say boo, people had packed up their cars to drive to a safer place away from the impending doom. All roads were jammed with traffic and by the time someone walking their dog had taken a look into the crater and verified the hoax it took hours for the traffic to clear and many people were forced to take the day off.
Truth or Fiction?
Gifts Of The Journey 
It made me giggle at the thought, not sure if that is good or bad…
Hope you are having the time of your life.
I’ve never heard of that one, but doesn’t mean it’s not true I guess!
So funny – not that I’d do anything like that.
Tempted to google the old newspapers to find the truth.
If it’s not true, then I wouldn’t be surprised if someone does it at some point – the idea is out there!
I guessed true as it sounds perfect for crazy college students! But could not find anything about it when I did a search!
As a lover of a good and extraordinary prank – I’d heard that story as well but could never find any facts to back it up, I did come across a similar story (which I now believe is the basis for our Auckland Uni prank story) of someone in Alaska doing this as an April Fool’s Day prank. I would still love to see any evidence of it having been done in Auckland…
I was young but I recall my dad telling me what happened it was 35 40 years ago though. Poor old lady rang up 1zb saying it was going to blow.