January 21 - Ki aora from sunny Auckland

After a really good night’s sleep I was up early (7- ish which anyone who knows me is early). I was ready to see Auckland.  The tour company I’d booked picked me up and off we went in a minibus with 13 of us plus our driver/guide Jason.  The first thing I learned is that the flat part of the city is all reclaimed land.  Evidently the reclamation began in the mid-19th century and the old, original city is hilly.  The hills are actually parts of dormant and extinct volcanos, some 60 around this part of the North Island.  Just west of Auckland there is a super-volcano which hasn’t erupted in millions of years.  The crater lies about 50 km, off-shore in the Tasman Sea off the west coast of the island.

I know this is hard to see, but this is a very steep street we went down in the original part of Auckland. It reminded me of the chase scene in the original Bullitt movie with Steve McQueen.

We drove around the cruise port – there were two ships there today- and the old ferry building.  With only a few exceptions all the buildings in this part of town are modern.  We headed up the hills into the older part of Auckland. We made our way through commercial districts and as we climbed higher in the hills we came to residential neighborhoods.  The higher up the hill the grander the homes.  These were the places where the managers of shipping companies and merchant houses lived.  The houses are primarily made of wood from the Kauri tree, a native wood which sounds like it’s similar to teak.  It’s evidently sturdy and resistant to insects and weather.  The houses were in a pretty ornate style with lots of carved lintels and framing around porches.  On one of the hills overlooking the city we passed by the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Many of us have heard of Gallipoli, over in Turkey, where Australia and New Zealand lost many men in a botched campaign during WW I.  What I didn’t know was that New Zealand lost proportionally  by population more soldiers than any other country fighting in that war.  Approximately 100,000  Kiwi soldiers fought in WWI and of those about 18,000 died and 41,000 were injured and wounded.  As a result there are a number of memorials around commemorating the troops who served.  

One of the older ornate buildings we passed as we climbeda hill on Queen Street, the main street

The War Memorial Museum

The old Government Buikding

The Church of England Cathedral

That completely ivy-covered building on the left is part of the University of Auckland as well as the modern one next door.  What a contrast!

We drove through the University of Auckland which has approx.. 40,000 students and is the largest one in the country.  It’s on summer break right now and classes won’t begin again until late February.  The university has five campuses and includes a law school and three research institutes. It was founded in 1883 which makes it pretty old for what is a young country.  We passed the government building and a military commander’s building .  All of those were in a Victorian style.  Next we headed across the Auckland Harbour Bridge which crosses the Waitematā Harbour thus connecting St. Mary’s Bay on the Auckland side with the North Cote  suburb on the north shore.  One of the activities available here is bungee jumping from the bridge.  I may try many things, but bungee jumping is just not on my to-do list this visit.  Maybe next time.

The Waitematā Harbour Bridge.  No Bungee jumpers that I could see.

On the north shore we drove through the village of Devonport.  It’s a delightful suburb of the city.  There are lots of little art galleries on its streets.  It’s a place to come back to if I ever come again. I asked about the cost of the houses in the neighborhoods we passed.  The ones on the higher ground in Auckland sell for $3 to $5 million NZ Dollars.  (1.6 NZ dollar to $1 US dollar.)    We drove to a beach which lies on the Pacific and has white sand.  It was a lovely day and Sunday so there were lots of families out.  A sailboat race of tiny sailboats that looked a lot like sunfish was going on. Jason wanted us to see the very white sand.  On our way around Devonport we passed the Royal New Zealand Naval Base, where there were two small ships.  Jason said that they are essentially the whole navy. Next we drove to the top of Mt, Victoria where we had spectacular views of Auckland’s downtown across the harbour.   

The beach on the Pacific shore

The view from Mt. Victoria

After leaving the mountain we drove back across the bridge and drove down to the Westhaven Marina, the largest marina in the southern hemisphere with over 2,000 slips.  As you probably know New Zealand is big into ocean sailboat racing and has won the America’s Cup several times.  On the first occasion that NZ won, a crazy protestor broke  into the Royal New Zealand Club where the cup was kept and smashed it in protest of something..  Nowadays there is tight security to keep the trophy safe.

A tiny pasrt of the Westhaven Marina

Just to show I was really here with the bridge in the background

After our brief stop there it was time to head back to downtown and for the tour to end.  As it turns out several people were going on for the afternoon tour and since there was room I decided to go along. The afternoon tour was going west to the shore on the Tasman Sea and through a national park.  I’ll write about that tomorrow.  For now I’ll say good night because my eyes are closing.