Three Days in one Post

 

Sunday 30^th. March.

Drive to Auckland 5 hours. Very pleasant through rolling grassland like American ranching country on a very much smaller scale. Then lot of forestry plantations. Later farmland as approach Auckland. Then hit outskirts 30km from centre. Industrial Estates mainly. Heavy traffic on State Highway 1, but all very relaxed. Traffic moves steadily on at 100k, lanes and slip roads are well marked and signed. Sat Nav finds Hotel no bother, and although I wouldn’t drive in London, I would have no qualms driving in Auckland even though it is NZ’s largest city with ¼ of the population of NZ living here: the roads are set out simply, are just spacious enough, and well equipped with signs, markings, traffic lights and a particular kind of push button pedestrian crossing. Tired enough so chill out at hotel. Good Restaurant, Good Food, Pretty and Pleasant Waitress.

Only day I haven’t taken any photos.

Monday 31^st. March. 

Morning: return hire car and shop for pressies and chocolate: it is harder pounding the streets than walking up mountains, and it is very hot: 24˚C, but must be hotter in the city. Note for future: if travelling in heat, get sandals: trainers can be a nightmare.

Afternoon: take a walk from hotel via old suburban housing with a small City Council Nature Reserve cum Park in the middle, to nearby City Council Rose Garden. Hundred or more varieties; still in bloom. Walk down the hill to the outdoor swimming pool (wish I had brought my trunks) back past the container port and back up hill to hotel via big City Council Public Park surrounding the Museum. I will leave this the Museum for another day, as I am very tired.

 

The Skytower

Only a small part of the Rose Garden

 

 

Tuesday 1^st.April. 

My intentions of getting a boat ride around the harbour, and going up the Skytower are achieved and more, despite the morning fog.

I catch the bus from my hotel suburb down to the city. Yesterday I walked it twice, but I want to stay rested, and the service is excellent with a number of circular routes running both ways every 10 or 15 minutes: fixed price however far you go (season tickets used by locals and school kids.)

First of all I have a look at all the incredibly expensive yachts in the harbour

 

At the i-Site I suss out the opportunities, and am disappointed that the sailing boat doesn’t run on Tuesdays, although there are plenty of other motorised options. I decide to visit the Maritime Museum first, and find that they do a sailing boat run on one of the last sail work boats that were the transport system of the nation before the road system was developed. No wind so they have to rely on a later fitted diesel engine, but very pleasant trip out to the harbour bridge with a volunteer crew of retired gentleman and one lady, who haul up the sails for show at least, and make it look very easy.
 

 

After which I spend a good while in the museum. It is imaginatively themed and laid out: very informative. Lot of large and model native canoes of a many Pacific variations. Lot of models of European vessels from Abel Tasman and Cook to merchant shipping from settler period of mid 1800s to near present day. Large section on Yachting from Dingys through the ages to Americas Cup. 

Then go to the Skytower.

I have had a good look at it from the ground and like the simplicity of its design and the quality of its construction so I reckon it is safe to ascend. I am a little worried about vertigo: I was always happier on rock climbs than I was in a Skyscraper.

 

The lifts have glass floors and are incredibly smooth and fast. I do the round of the observation deck at 182 metres, and have lunch.

 

 

Yes I have walked around that outer halo you will have noticed from earlier photos. I know it is April 1^st. and there were a few jokes about it as we stepped out, but I did it. It is at 192 metre level.

We were guided round, would you believe, for ½ an hour by a bouncy non-stop talker of an 18 year old girl from the Cook Islands. Apparently she had been chosen for her gabbiness and communication skills, not for experience with heights and ropes. 

After that I took the circular bus route home the long way round to see a bit more of Auckland’s suburbs. The route seemed to follow the main drags, and was a ½ hour trip through endless shopping streets, with a few business premises between: quite incredible: Auckland is a big city.

 

Tomorrow I will have time to see the Museum, which is just up the road from the hotel, before my flight at 6.30 pm.

Wednesday 2nd. April.
 

I have added this as I rest up before going to the airport, as I was so impressed by Auckland's War Memorial Museum. It is far better than Te Papa the National Museum in Wellington.

The 2nd. storey level houses the History of all NZ's conflicts since the wars with the Maori in mid 1800's, and very moving, with lots of weapon exhibits. I notice that 2 Chappells are listed on the Memorial Wall for Auckland in WW2, but none for WW1.

There is a large Natural History and Geological section in the 1st. storey.

Ground Level has an unbelievably large and collection of the best of Maori and other Pacific Islands objects, all in excellent condition, from warfare, to everyday living, to art and religion. Also the biggest war canoe to hold 100 warriors around 50 metres long and all carved out of one tree.

Taxi to Airport in 1/2 an hour. 



THE END

And I have to keep pinching myself to prove it’s not all just a fantastic dream: Absolutely Incredible.