Super Bowl Monday

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Here we sit, the only saps in a huge bar at 11AM, Gina with ‘Go Bears’ written on her face in plum eye pencil, two pints of local brew and our laptop. We awoke early this morning and did some power sightseeing prior to coming here. The owners of our bed and breakfast mused at Gina’s insistence on spending a good portion of today cooped up in a local tavern watching football instead of absorbing the vast beauty of Auckland. Clearly, they don’t understand the importance of the event.

While touring the city yesterday and this morning, we came to understand the fantastic splendor of this waterfront city - in my mind, a combination of Marin’s topography, Seattle’s location, San Diego’s weather and Manhattan’s neighborhoods. Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is the epicenter of the Kiwi lifestyle. Guidebooks would have you believe the Maori (New Zealand’s native population) and European lineage have done their best to assimilate each others customs, holidays and monuments of significance; however, the truth is far from the Lonely Planet chronicles. No place was this more evident than One Tree Hill.

From an online source:

“Until 2000, a radiata pine tree stood next to the obelisk. This tree (one of two pines) had been planted to replace a sacred Māori Totara tree, the tree which had given Maungakiekie its English name. This totara had been cut down by a white settler in 1852 for firewood.

However, in the early 1960s during a jamboree, a group of overseas Boy Scouts cut down one of the two newer pines. The remaining tree was later attacked twice with chainsaws by Māori protesters (partly because it was not a native New Zealand species and thus considered an insult). The first attack happened on 28 October 1994, the anniversary of the 1835 Declaration of Independence. A second attack on the 5th of October 2000 left the tree unable to recover and so it was removed due to the risk of it dying and falling down. The chainsaw used in the first attack was placed on sale on popular New Zealand auction site, TradeMe in 2007 but later withdrawn by the website after complaints and a poll of users. It was later listed on eBay.

Partly due to uncertainty as to what species of tree should be replanted (a new pine or a tree native to New Zealand), the hill stands empty at the moment, except for the obelisk. A new nickname, "None Tree Hill", soon became popular.”

Until you scratch the surface, it isn’t evident that the Maori and European population are caught in an ongoing power struggle to control not only the politics but also the history of New Zealand.

“Go, go, go, go…” - the Bears just scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff!

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Comments

[darby]

like the owner of the b & b...
i don't get it, being cooped up inside when it is a beautiful day. the victory parade in indianapolis was only about 25 minutes long cause it was too damn cold to be outside, so don't feel too bad.