A Warm Welcome to Auckland (and New Zealand)
Only one week in New Zealand, and already I’m wondering if 5.5 will be enough.
I think that this time I can dispense with the location of and general information about my current location. I’m sure the basics about New Zealand are pretty well known to most of you, and if they aren’t, then you can find ‘em out easily enough.
Auckland has, thusfar, been wonderful, due in no small part to my excellent hosts.
I arrived in Auckland from Fiji at about 18:45 on Friday September 3 (my birthday as it so happens), and took the bus downtown to meet my friend Margot. For those of you who don’t know her, Margot is a kiwi friend of mine who spent two years living in Toronto. After the standard hellos, hugs, etc., Margot produced two quarter bottles of champagne, in honour of my 29th, and we headed off to the ferry terminal.
A hop, a skip, a half bottle of champagne and a ferry ride later, we were back in Devonport, the “suburb” of Auckland where Margot’s family home is located.
I’m beginning to think that prospective hosts must be reading my weblog and trying to outdo one another. This is about the only explanation I can come up with for the wonderfulness of my treatment in Auckland.
After arriving at the Devonport ferry terminal on Friday night, we were met by Margot’s mom, Barbara (originally from Ottawa) who drove us back to their place. Apparently the birthday celebrations hadn’t ended with the champagne. There was a chocolate cake, complete with candle, waiting for me, along with several Export Gold (a good Auckland beer) and a number of other guests, including Margot’s father Greg and all of her brothers and sisters, ready to join in the festivities. The evening didn’t get too wild and rowdy, but nonetheless the boys vs. girls game of Cranium did produce a lot of laughs, and the lengthy discussions of Canadian and New Zealand current events, politics, and about our families lasted well on into the evening.
Next (Saturday) morning was time to go meet my second set of hosts in Auckland, Arrum, Allan, Warwick and Rob, friends of Greg, one of my teammates from the Toronto Dragons RFC back in Canada. And no ordinary meeting was this to be. We were going to attend the New Zealand rugby National Provincial Championship match between Auckland and North Harbour. Not only did this look to be a very high quality match, it was also a big rivalry, pitting the teams from Central Auckland and the northern suburbs of the city against one another.
We arrived at Eden Park quite early, well in time to relax in the fancy (I felt rather underdressed) club level, enjoy a few beverages and watch the second 15s match. In addition, I was treated to a thoroughly enjoyable lunch of butter chicken and rice. All this courtesy of Arrum and , I suppose, his employer, Mitsubishi New Zealand.
At 2:25 or so, we took our seats, and shortly thereafter the match got started. It was incredible to be watching a rugby match in this kind of surrounding. Before this day, the biggest rugby crowd I’d ever been a part of was perhaps 4500 or so for a Canada vs. Scotland match at Fletcher’s Fields in Markham. Despite the fact that Eden Park was only about half full, this probably better than quadrupled that total. Not only was the atmosphere great, but so was the calibre of the players on the field. About half of the All Blacks starting lineup was on the field for one team or the other this game. Indeed, the Auckland back line alone featured such famous names as Carlos Spencer, Mils Muliaina, Joe Rocokoko and Doug Howlett.
I really had no idea which side I should be cheering for, given that I was staying on the North Shore, but my hosts were supporting Auckland. In the end I just cheered for entertaining play. It’s fortunate I wasn’t cheering for GOOD play, because much of that seemed to be lacking. Auckland scored a try about six seconds in (and no, I’m not exaggerating) off a very sloppy take by North Harbour on the kickoff. While the actual quality of play didn’t improve too much, the game was wonderfully entertaining, with lots of try scoring and back and forth play throughout the match. Despite the game’s messiness, the individual talent was always evident and there was still a nice close finish. The final result: 34-32 for North Harbour. This was, apparently, historic, as North Harbour had never beat Auckland before. Though the actual result meant little to me, I can’t think of many better ways to spend a Saturday afternoon than watching top class rugby at somewhere like Eden Park.
After the match, the fellows took me on a driving tour of three of Auckland’s fifty or so volcanic cones. These cones dot the landscape throughout the city, providing most of the city’s parkland, as well as some great views from the top. Many of Auckland’s volcanoes were the sites of Maori (the native people New Zealand) Pas, or fortified villages.
With dusk and poor weather arriving (more on Auckland weather to come) we concluded our tour and finished the evening with a pizza dinner at the Kiwi Music Bar in downtown Auckland, after which I returned to Devonport to meet Margot and to continue my night on the town.
The two of us headed out from her place to the high (main) street of Devonport. She’d warned me that it would be quiet, despite being a Saturday night, but even so I was a bit unprepared for a bit how quiet it was. During the day, Devonport is bustling with plenty of patrons visiting the local shops, cafes, galleries and so on. At night it was a different story, for although there were a fair number of people about, it seemed that they were pretty much all just concluding their dinners at local restaurants and heading home. Despite this, Margot and I managed to visit and indeed close (i.e. be the last customers of) three public houses in her home neighbourhood before heading back home for the night. This was exactly what was needed for our catching up, if not for to wake me up early the next morning.
Sunday dawned bright and early, and despite my expectations to the contrary, I even made it out of bed at a decent hour. After a wonderful big breakfast (despite my best efforts in the past, probably the best breakfast I’ve had since leaving home) I headed out for a walk with Greg and Barbara, who make a point of taking an “urban walk” around Auckland every weekend, with their friends Roger and Hope. We left Margot at home to deal with some errands. As we left the house it started to rain, and I at least began to think it might not be the best day for a walk. No need to fear. As I’ve noted earlier, Auckland weather is more than a little bit changeable. In the five minute drive down to the ferry docks, the rain had stopped and didn’t reappear again all day.
At the ferry dock, we met Roger and Hope and set out for a walk along the various beaches and bays in the eastern part of Auckland.
During the walk it was easy to see why Auckland is known as “The City of Sails,” as we passed hundreds of sailboats, both docked and on the water. And this is just the very beginning of spring here, so I’m sure that in the summer there are still more to be seen. We continued walking and eventually ran into Roger and Hope’s daughter Kristy (apologies if I spelled it incorrectly) and her friend Sandra. They wandered along with us until we reached the ice cream store at the end, where everyone enjoyed a well deserved treat (mine was blackberry frozen yogurt and passionfruit ice cream. Mmmm….)
At this point Greg and Barbara realized that they needed to hurry home to start on the Father’s Day dinner (Father’s Day in New Zealand [as well as in the islands I’ve visited thusfar] falls on the first Sunday in September.) The dinner was great, and a fine example of New Zealand fare, including roast lamb and kumara (a kind of sweet potato.)
After dinner, Greg, Barbra, Margot and I managed to fit in a few hands of bridge before bed. It’s been a LONG time since I played, so I’m sure I was a more than a little rusty, but it was still fun.
I’d already decided that at least a day and a half of my time in Auckland would have to be devoted to sorting out the rest of my New Zealand trip, and I figured that getting this out of the way would be a good thing. Thus, Monday was spent doing shopping, obtaining timetables and generally making plans for the remainder of my time in New Zealand. By the end of the day, I’d picked up pretty much everything I needed, sorted out a general route around the country, as well as what type of transportation I’d use and picked out which of the Great Walks I would be doing. (The Great Walks are federally maintained trails with hut type shelters about a day’s walk apart. Many of the shelters even have cooking facilities and heat provided!) My choice of walks was actually dictated mostly by the weather since many of the far southern and alpine tracks won’t be passable until after I’m gone.
My other bit of planning on Monday was preparing to make dinner for my hosts. I was pleased to discover that all the ingredients I needed were readily available at the local grocery stores. My shopping experience here made it even clearer why imported fruits and vegetables are so expensive in the South Pacific islands… While not nearly as bad here, many things are still a bit pricy compared to back home. No matter. I arrived back in Devonport and set to work in the kitchen. I made a terrible mess of the place, but out of it came a delicious (if I do say so myself) meal of Thai mango salad, lemongrass soup and Singapore noodles.
Everyone had to be up early for work on Tuesday, so we said an early goodnight, not too long after dinner.
Tuesday morning I did my best to drag myself out of bed for an early start, but just couldn’t manage it. I’d been hoping to catch the 9:25 ferry to Rangitoto, an island out in Auckland’s northern harbour. Though I didn’t get up in time for the early ferry, this gave me some time to explore Devonport. I walked up Mount Victoria, yet another one of the volcanoes. The walk wasn’t too tough, and the great views of the city from the top were well worth the effort.
After spending a while on top of Mount Victoria, I headed over to Rangitoto. Rangitoto is Auckland’s newest volcano, having emerged as a new island from the sea less than 600 years ago. Indeed, photographs remain showing the island with almost no vegetation on its slopes. Today there is still a lack of food and water, but vegetation covers most of the island and birds and a few other animals live there. The harsh conditions lead to some interesting flora and fauna, with epiphytes growing right on the ground, and mountainous species appearing more or less at sea level.
The ferry ride to Rangitoto took about 15 minutes, and immediately after arrival, I started the climb up to the summit. I was hurrying up, because the trail guide said the climb was one hour each way, and I only had three hours, but still wanted to eat lunch at the top and explore the lava tube near the summit as well. Despite my rush, I couldn’t help but stop to take a few photos of the lava flows that hadn’t yet been covered with new vegetation. Also memorable were the two ladies, clearly over 60 who, if I hadn’t been hurrying, would probably have been taking about the same pace as I was. As it turned out I needn’t have rushed quite so much, as I arrived at the top in just over half an hour (others in good shape had taken similar times, so I suspect that this trail was signed conservatively to stop people from missing the last ferry of the day on their way back down.)
Just as I was reaching the summit, I passed a large group of schoolchildren (maybe 70 in all) who were headed over to the far side of the island to camp. As I walked by, I heard familiar cries of “are we there yet?” and “how much farther?” I arrived at the top in the midst of them, and though they were noisy, they were still almost entertaining enough to distract from the great viewsof Auckland and the harbour. Also while at the summit, I met three other older hikers Lindsay, Shiu and James, from Edmonton, Sydney (Australia) and California respectively. I’d brought a flashlight, and so had Lindasy, so we all tramped down to the entrance of the lava tube. It was a fairly short one, but was still neat to walk through, especially at the parts where small gaps in the roof allowed vegetation to grow around and down into the tube.
After the walk in the cave, the four of us headed back down to the ferry wharf, with me taking a slight detour to visit the Kidney Fern Glen, a low lying area that had attracted many water-loving plants.
Before catching the ferry back to Devonport, I had a few more minutes to walk amongst the 1930s vintage cottages or “baches” on the island. The cottages started out as simple camping structures, but as time passed, they grew into actual buildings, complete with generators, water supplies and outhouses. The people held on to their camping permits, even after new ones were no longer being issued, and developed a community on the island, to the extent of building a swimming pool, boat ramps and holding fancy dress balls. Given that this was all taking place on public land, there was much disagreement about what was to be done. Eventually it was decided that, while the baches were illegal, in recognition of their longtime residency on the island, and their contributions to its maintenance (though not for the introduction of non-native plant species in their flower gardens) the bach owners would be given lifetime leases on their lands. Virtually all of them are gone now, and many of the baches have been demolished or deteriorated on their own, but a few still remain.
After a quick walk around the baches, I hopped back on the ferry, and returned to Devonport, where I spent the rest of the afternoon at North Head, yet another volcano, and one of strategic importance. With a commanding view of the entrance to Auckland harbour, North Head was originally the site of a Maori Pa, and later was used by New Zealand’s armed forces as a location for gun batteries and searchlights. Its military career began in the 1890s when it was feared that Russia might wish to expand its empire in the southern hemisphere, and continued through the first and second world wars.
While the views from North Head gun batteries were (like those from pretty much all of the other volcanoes) quite impressive, the real highlight was walking around in the tunnels that had been dug into the mountain to connect the various points of the base. While many of them were gated shut, many more were open to the public. Thankfully I still had my flashlight from the lava tubes, because they were unlit and while it might have been possible to maneuver around them without a light, it was much more enjoyable to be able to walk through them and explore each and every little corner.
One particularly interesting features of the base were the “hiding” guns, artillery pieces mounted in sunken pits that were raised up to be fired, then lowered back into the safety of the pit by the guns recoil so they could be reloaded out of sight of enemy ships. Another intriguing feature was the control point for the minefield. The mines in question were placed throughout Auckland harbour, and were not controlled (as modern mines are) by pressure or magnetism, but by wire from the hilltop. If the observers on North Head had spotted an enemy ship entering the harbour, they would wait until it passed nearby a mine, then detonate it by remote control, hopefully sinking or damaging the ship.
My afternoon at North Head ended watching the sun set behind Mount Victoria, after which I headed back to Margot’s to wait for a call from Greg’s friends.
The rest of the evening was spent at dinner with Arrum, Alan, Warwick and Rob. They’d made reservations at a steakhouse whose local notoriety is well deserved: You go into the place, order drinks and pick out food from the salad bar, then walk up and pick the actual piece of meat you’d like cooked for you. Included were huge sirloins and scotch tips, as well as absolutely monstrous rump steaks. After absolutely stuffing ourselves at dinner, we went next door to Shakespeare’s brewpub and enjoyed several of their brewed-on-location beers while playing a few games of pool. The night ended with a ride back to the ferry docks. I just managed to catch the last ferry back, and sat next to and talked with an engineer from the New Zealand navy who I’d seen earlier in the night hopping on to a private boat at the ferry dock.
A quick walk from the ferry and I was home, ready to tumble into bed and enjoy my last full day in Auckland.
Today, Wednesday, passed by fairly quickly. The whole of the morning and the early afternoon was spent sitting in the house, writing this entry, booking a rental car for my trip around the north island and doing other administrative duties.
Later in the afternoon I met Margot downtown for a brief trip around the Viaduct, the area of Auckland where New Zealand’s recent Americas Cup title defence took place. The whole area of the harbour had been redone for this, and it certainly showed, with flashy restaurants and bars everywhere.
After this, we met Margot’s friends Chloe and Mel at the Belgian beer cafe, where I continued my brewer’s tour of Auckland with a fine trappist ale, and some fine conversation, including a brief summary of Chloe’s recent trip to the south island.
Finally, me evening ended with some time spent in a pretty random pub called The Fiddler, where I spent a couple of hours drinking beers and discussing rugby with two Welsh guys here on a working holiday visa.
So, here I am, back at Margot’s, having bought some food for my upcoming trip north, and needing to do some packing before going to pick up a rental car at 08:00 tomorrow.
Before signing off I must once again thank Margot, Barb and Greg along with Arrum, Allan, Warwick and Rob for the tremendous time they’ve shown me in Auckland, and for the spectacular welcome I’ve received in New Zealand. Cheers to you all.
Tags: New Zealand
Llew