Who are you calling hairy, and, by the way, my name’s not May!

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Sorry, couldn’t resist that one! Arriving in Auckland, everywhere are people saying “Haere Mae” (which sounds to me like ‘hairy May’!) and Kia Ora (just like the juice) both of which seem to mean welcome.
So: Haere Mae/Kia Ora to Auckland and New Zealand!

Wednesday 4 February

Since I only had 2 full days to spend in Auckland just now (I’m coming back later), it’s only really enough time to get your bearings and get a feel for the place.

NZ has a population of about 4 million, and I’m told that nearly a quarter of them live in Auckland; having said that, it doesn’t seem to me to be that busy a place - there are lots of people around, but I don’t feel hemmed in, so in that respect it’s nice.

It’s very different to Hong Kong - there are a few high towers, but not that many; they are, like so many places, “re-generating” which undoubtedly means a few more towers will spring up around the place; I can see the start of a few.

I took the “Explorer Bus” today which does a circuit of the city with a taped commentary which points out the main areas of interest and giving you some useful info and interesting facts and history; you can hop on and off at the various stops and pick up the next bus to come along. It was quite a good tour about; it helped me get my bearings and I quizzed the driver about a couple of the road rules here which are a bit different to those at home.

I stopped off at the Auckland Museum for a bit of history: some quite interesting pieces about Maori culture and history, although I think I expected more; there were some good displays about the volcanic activity around Auckland and NZ as a whole (it’s part of the Pacific Rim of Fire) and pointing out the various volcanic cones in the city; as part of the explorer bus we went up to Mt Eden which is Auckland’s highest point and is itself a volcanic cone; you get some great views of the city and the harbour from up there.

Apparently, wherever you are in Auckland you are never more than half an hour from a beach: you can take your pick of white, black or golden sands. I took a walk from Bastion Point (which is a nice viewpoint and where there is a monument to the first labour prime minister of NZ) down to MissionBeach which is on Tamaki Drive and is only a few minutes on the bus away from the city centre - you could probably go for a swim in your lunch hour! From Mission Beach you get a good view of Rangitoto Island, which is the youngest of the Hauraki Gulf islands, having only been formed by a volcanic eruption around 600 years ago.

Auckland has one of the highest boat ownerships per capita in the world and is known as the “City of Sails” so I thought I’d better make sure I spent a little time at the harbour. It’s quite nice: it’s a harbour; lots of boats: some big and grand, some not; I think most of the really grand boats are docked over at Devonport and at some other harbours around the coastline.

When I was walking from my hotel to the town centre, I walked down Shortland Street - not sure if anyone will remember that programme - I’m sure Caroline and I used to watch it in Spring Gardens - anyway, I was disappointed to see there was no hospital or medical centre on the street, but then I saw an advert for it later on TV - it’s still going and it has Nick Tilsley from Corrie in it - what that has to do with anything I don’t know, but, there you go; it might come up in a pub quiz sometime: ‘Which Corrie actor went on to star in NZ soap Shortland Street?” and you’ll know the answer!

So, I haven’t really done too much in Auckland itself - there is a lot more to do and see but I’m just making sure I’m ready for the main event on Friday when I pick up the van, so I don’t want too much excitement before then!

Thursday 5 February

Today I took the ferry to Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf. I had planned to come here at some point in one of my various landings in Auckland, but decided to come today since there is a sculpture walk/trail along the headland which is only there for a limited time, and will be long gone by the time I make it back to Auckland at the end of March.

Again, to try to make the most of my time, I joined a bus tour to get the island highlights - our driver on this was fantastic! He had lots of stories, knew everyone he drove past and stopped the bus in the middle of the road at the top of hills where there were the best views and off we got to take photos - thankfully there isn’t much traffic on Waiheke so there weren’t any road rage incidents with the bus blocking the road! There were some stunning views over the vineyards and olive groves - it looked quite Mediterranean. There are some lovely beaches too, and we spent some time on one of them. Our tour round was only for a couple of hours, but it included an all day service bus pass, so we had the rest of the day to re-visit any places we might like.

I met a girl who is in NZ for a year; we got chatting; she’s off on one of the bus tours for a while and is then planning to try to find some work. The reason I mention her is that when I told her I had spent nearly 2 weeks in Hong Kong and would probably have to go back some time in the future, she looked unbelievably shocked. She’d had a 2 day stopover on her flight out to break the journey, and she said that after 1 day she was bored and couldn’t find anything to do and whoever she asked told her there was nothing to do in HK! I wonder if it’s because as a “traveller” she doesn’t like to do “touristy” things, whereas I don’t care - I am a tourist!!

Anyway, after a chat, I went off to find my sculpture walk on the headland. It was a really nice walk and I’ve taken pictures of all the sculptures - some of which I thought were great, others I thought were a bit strange, and one scared the living daylights out of me! (If you trail through the photo’s you’ll find the one I mean - I had to remind myself they don’t have any snakes here so it’s OK!). The names on the photos are the real names of the pieces, not just names I made up, apart from the "Slinky gone wonky" since that one doesn't seem to be in the catalogue, maybe it's not art and somebody just dropped it there by accident - it's hard to tell sometimes! My favourite was "Learning to breathe under water" - I'm sure there was an album cover that had something very similar on it but can't remember which one it was, so if anyone knows, please let me know. The one that made me laugh the most and say "how can you call that art!?!" was the one called "Stitch" - it looks like I've taken a picture of someone's washing line in the hills!

After the sculpture trail ended I went on my first bush walk/hike - I can’t decide if it counts as tramping or not, but I was hiking through the bush anyway and I ended up back at Onetangi where I had 'fush and chups' on the beach (for those familiar with the Kiwi accent you'll know what I mean, everyone else probably just thinks I can't spell or type but will get the gist of it!), which I thought were well earned, even if the seagulls disagreed and hovered over me watching and grudging me every mouthful; at one point they looked like they were in attack formation and ready to pounce on me and snatch away my tea (they would have had a fight on their hands though!).

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