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Published: August 18th 2006
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Auckland at Sunrise
Taken from the hostel window. Saturday / Sunday and General Observations
For a tourist the weekend was less than ideal for touring. Wind, rain, fog, sunbursts, and back to rain. These inconveniences couldn’t stop me.
Saturday I rambled through the streets of Auckland. The neighborhoods around the CBD include trendy and up-and-coming Newmarket and Parnell neighbors which offer quality café and shopping options. Freeman’s Bay seemed to be a blue-collar neighborhood with well kept homes and yards. Eden Terrace is a grungy neighborhood with inexpensive ethnic restaurants, tattoo artists, late night seedy clubs and bars. The viaduct harbor is a recent addition that cleaned up an area of town that for many years had been suffering from blight (a real eye sore I understand).
The central business district runs approximately one mile in length (north-south) and a half mile wide (east-west). Queen street is the main street that begins at the waterfront and heads south up to Eden Terrace. The shops along Queen street are similar to those that you would find in a shopping district in the States. Unfortunately, and much to my amazement in the length of less than one mile I’ve counted five Burger Kings, 4 McDonalds, a dozen Starbucks,
Auckland at Sunset
Taken from the hostel window. a Wendy’s, Denny’s, and a Dunkin Doughnuts. The tallest skyscraper I can find is 27 floors tall, most buildings aren’t over 10 floors tall.
Parks, a University, Theaters, Town Hall, Art Museum, Casinos, Hotels, and the Sky Tower (tallest structure in NZ with an observatory, restaurant, gift shop, and bungee jump platform) are to be found within a 10 minute walk from the center of town. The ferry terminal at the beginning of Queen Street carries passengers to any one of a number of islands within a short voyage. Grocery stores of any considerable size and location are few and far apart, I’ve seen but two that must cover a large area and serve an even larger population. I assume the smaller stores like Star Mart (Similar to a large AM PM) fill in the gaps.
Sunday I went to the Auckland Museum, which originally started out as an impressive monument to the New Zealand soldiers that lost their lives in WWI. Now the space is set up as museum and memorial.
The first floor contains an extensive and rare collection of Maori artifacts. Wood carvings, war canoes, baskets, sailing vessels, weapons and tools were on display.
Sky Tower
Tallest structure in souther hemisphere, includes revolving restaurant, observatory, and birds nest observatory. The wood carving techniques were obviously well refined by the time Europeans arrived. The detail and care that went into the carvings on the bow and stern pieces of war canoes was impressive and most intricate.
The second floor was the natural science floor. I grew board with this floor given that most displays were slanted towards pre-teen viewers. There was a good explanations on the islands volcanic and tectonic past/future.
Third floor was dedicated to the soldiers of New Zealand. I guess that in both world wars the ratio of New Zealanders killed and wounded to the countries population is greater than any other countries losses. The bravery of the New Zealand soldiers was stressed and proven with true stories.
It just occurred to me that the sun is no longer seen in the southern horizon. I was consciously looking for a location that was to the north of my starting position. As I set off I found that I needed to put my sunglasses on because I was walking directly toward the sun. This discovery threw me for a loop, I thought for sure I was heading in the wrong direction (south). After a moment
Pawn Shop Lamp
The proprietor of this pawn shop must be cheap and uneducated. He/she won’t sell the used lamp along with the used bulb and he/she can’t spell the word bulb (“BLUB”) of contemplation I realized that the sun and I were in the correct locations.
Anecdote: Saturday there was a particularly cold wind. I was down at the marina chatting with an old salt about his boat. Suddenly there was a wind gust that cut through my clothing. The old man said “it’s a cold wind today.” I agreed and said that the wind was cool. He seemed flustered at my response and said “no, it’s a COLD wind.” I could tell you meant more than the obvious fact that the wind was cold. I explained that I needed clarification. The sailor explained that in NZ a COLD WIND is a wind from the south (Antarctic) while a WARM WIND is a wind from the north which brings a better weather pattern. You learn something new every day.
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