Advertisement
Published: October 19th 2007
Edit Blog Post
It's been too long since my last entry and lots has happened since, not least in the world of international rugby where the atmosphere here in New Zealand is one of sombre reflection (and some irritation, when English visitors and settlers start to remind the Kiwis here about their own unexpected successes! I am one of these guilty parties...).
Anyway, back to the story...
Auckland is well-ordered, neat and possesses a functional quality, and from what I have seen of other towns and cities it’s fair to say that this follows throughout most of New Zealand’s more populated areas. The major city in the North Island, Auckland has common-sense suburbs and a refreshing lack of sprawling housing estates and ugly tower blocks, but instead it does offer individual homes that are, on the whole, detached and with room enough to reside in peace and quiet. It is not ‘orderly’ in the routine manner of a Milton Keynes, say, but everything one needs is within easy reach and it certainly possesses the valuable gift of space which is sadly bereft to all residents of the UK unless they happen to earn boatloads.
Furthermore, this 'functionality' lends itself to the
convenient slotting of all recreational facilities into one area of northern Auckland, and therefore one of my usual workplace hangouts, Massey University Indoor Cricket Centre, also features within its locality the mighty North Harbour rugby stadium, equally impressive astroturf hockey pitches and also state-of-the-art soccer facilities too. Not only that, but my cricket club employers have also wangled for me a most favourable complimentary membership of the Massey University gymnasium, which has a scary number of large, scary weights/cardio machines to use. I just need to start using it now, and with the Auckland Half Marathon barely a week away I really ought to patronise the place, no doubt about it.
If you spend time in NZ, and assuming you have previously been accustomed to British city life, the uncluttered wide-open opportunities may actually seem overwhelming and by the same token, I am not sure how Kiwis and Aussies initially cope with the tin-pot rooms and corridors they have to put up with in Putney, Wandsworth, Clapham, Earl’s Court and Fulham; however these hardy types do seem to thrive, and perhaps southern hemisphereans from the New World are more able than Western Europeans to see straight through this bedsit
discomfort, and instead absorb the history and culture of cities like London, and take it for what it really is. In any case, if they didn’t thrive in this manner and they made the decision to remain in Auckland, Sydney and Cape Town, all the bars of Soho and Notting Hill would close down overnight through lack of manpower. Personally I cannot see far past the growing yob culture and the selfish nature of everyday folk in London town, and therefore the cheery g’day with which most people here in NZ greet you, whoever you are, is appealing. Having spent many happy times in Sri Lanka in recent years aswell, I can safely say that the attraction of the serendipitous isle is equally at odds with much that European city life has to offer.
My ‘down-time’ between working hours has been spent becoming accustomed to regular life here on the North Shore, and this has recently included trips to discover more about One Tree Hill (the name having been taken by U2 and by the producers of yet another US teen drama, but in its original form it is in fact a small volcano in Auckland), as well as
experiencing the ultimate in VIP cinema patronage at the Syliva Park Hoyts complex south of the city centre. It was here that I indulged myself by witnessing the final (?) part of the Bourne trilogy - although the film leaves us with the very obvious possibility of yet more sequels in the future - in the lap of luxury by securing a top-of-the-range ticket.
After a bout of successful house-sitting in and around Takapuna on the North Shore, featuring whiney house cats, dogs that crap everywhere and tropical fish that I regularly forgot to feed, I am now in the market for some rented accommodation of my own, and therefore my next publication on this travelblog will no doubt include more stories on the trials and tribulations of life in northern Auckland, this time in my own place. There's a chance that other topical issues will also be bearing fruit on the next instalment too, including news of England's rugby World Cup campaign which is coming to a close, a half-baked Half Marathon for which I have only half-trained, and also the latest results from my cricket team's adventures in the Auckland Premier cricket competitions....it could be make or
break time next time I get in touch....
Kia Ora
MG
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Gail
non-member comment
Time to refelect
Hi Mike. I finally found your NZ blog. I think it might be time for you to have a rest from your hectic work and social life and update it with a few more entries. I love reading your work and wait with interest to see the next installment........! G x