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| Lashed together |
We are still in
Auckland and are having a great time. We misread the itinerary so instead of
meeting the group on September 26, we met them on the 28. They left the States
on the 26. We decided, since we found an extra couple of days, to see some more
of the sights. We went to the Maritime
Museum. I particularly liked looking at the ocean-going canoes that were
lashed, together with coconut fiber, not an iron nail to be had. The other exhibit I really enjoyed was one of
shipwright’s tools, many of which look pretty familiar. I was disappointed that
they had mislabeled one of the hand planes as a jack plane when it was actually
a smoothing plane. Tsk tsk! (I know, a bunch of you are telling me to get a
life and that’s okay too.)
There was a room
that replicated the ships that many settlers arrived on. Each family got an
upper and a lower bunk. The parents
slept in the lower bunk and the kids, regardless of how many, slept in the
upper one. They cooked below decks so
fire was a constant worry and there were no toilets. Charming. I guess those who braved the
crossing were pretty desperate to get away from the British Isles.
There was a lot of
the museum devoted to yacht racing, specifically the Americas Cup. Artifacts
and information went right from the beginning to the latest Americas Cup. There
was a suit of gear worn by contemporary sailors. It was pretty high tech. There
were also displays that explained the various roles of the crew members on the
yacht. Knowing almost nothing about sailing, I didn’t understand it but was
impressed by it nonetheless.
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| The big one is a flying boat |
On Friday we
visited the Museum of Technology and Transportation. There were two parts to it
and one of them required a ride on an electric tram. Took me right back to my
days as a kid when we used to ride the trolley buses in Calgary. When we got to
the main site there were two groups of school kids. We spent our time dodging
the noisy little critters. Again, it was odd to see things that I have commonly
used in a museum exhibit. There was a slide rule, an Apple 2C, and a Kodak
instamatic camera. There were several rotary telephones as well as black and
white TV’s and transistor radios. There were also things that went back farther
than that, crank telephones, telegraph keys and a station explaining how an
abacus worked. After a ride on the tram we got to the aircraft exhibit. They
had a huge Lancaster bomber right inside the door. There were all sorts of
aircraft including a gyrocopter that, apparently, didn’t work all that well
although it did get up in the air and land again. There was also a whole floor
devoted to a New Zealand woman aviator whose name I didn’t copy down. She was a
bright star for 4 years, won all sorts of awards and then faded from sight.
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| From the edge of the cone |
Saturday we took
the ferry to Rangitoto Island. It is the
youngest volcano of the ones that formed New Zealand. We hiked up to the top
and there were some very nice views back to the city. There were a number of
trails but we had a limited amount of time and if you missed the last sailing
it was a long swim. If we get back this way it will be on our list to do some
more exploring. We didn’t see the lava tubes or do a walk around the crater
rim. I was quite delighted that I saw and photographed some interesting birds.
We’ve been asking around and still don’t have a definite ID on one of the
little brown ones. They look like quail
but without the top knots. We were introduced to the tui, a black bird with a
white ‘beard.’ They are great mimics apparently. We didn’t hear any mimicked
sounds, but did hear them make quite a variety of noises. We got rained on a bit. There were lots of
blackbirds, sparrows and black-backed gulls.
I’m keeping my eyes open for a pamphlet on NZ birds but haven’t come
across one yet. I don’t want a great heavy book, just a small book or fold-out
that will give me the basics.
We met up with the
rest of the crew at dinner on Saturday night.
We are the only Canadians and because it says our names and Alberta on
the tags I had several people think I was from Atlanta. I added Canada as another line on the name
tag. We found out that it was the start of daylight saving time Saturday night
in NZ. Oh goody! I guess we were less
affected than the folks who just flew in that day. Still, we were not especially amused. Sunday we had a
walk down by the harbour right after breakfast and then a walk down Queen
Street. I’m not so interested in the history but as long as we are outside I
can keep myself entertained looking for birds. I heard a tui and got a pretty
good photo of it, while the rest of the group moved on.
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| Davenport |
We had supper in
Davenport, a ferry-ride across the harbour. When we came back we discovered a
problem with our door. We had difficulty
opening it a couple of days earlier and a guy came up and did something to the striker
plate. We discovered that it now wouldn’t lock when we went out and closed it.
After talking to the front desk we decided to stay in the room over night since
the deadbolt still worked. They said they would send someone first thing in the
morning. Turns out that their maintenance guy was going to have to call a
locksmith so the hotel offered to store our gear until we could get into a
different room so we hurriedly threw everything in our suitcases and backpacks
and trundled it downstairs. When we came back after our walking tour,
everything including the ukulele was in our new room.
The rooms are nice
enough but lack certain practicalities. The first room had 4 hangers: 2 for the
terry robes the hotel provides and 2 others. There were no drawers so we are
living out of our suitcases. No real problem, just a bit awkward for a high-end
hotel. There is also very little space in the bathroom to store our toiletries.
The shelves were deep enough in the first room but in this one I’ve got my
toiletries in the one and only drawer in the room which isn’t in the bathroom.
They’ve made up for that with the wall outlets. There are 4 USB outlets and the
regular ones by the desk look like they will accept any type of plug from
anywhere in the world i.e. the adapter is built right into the wall. Now that’s
smart!
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| From my seat on the sailboat |
Today we had a lecture
on the history of NZ, went for a sail in the harbour and after lunch, ended up
at the Auckland War Memorial and Museum. We had stops along the way at a quarry
that has been made into gardens. There were both native and non-native plants
there. We got a chance to see the silver fern an emblem of NZ that is featured
on their passports. When you look at the
leaves from the top they are green but when you look at the bottom of the
leaves they are silver. They also grow enormous
‘fiddle heads.’
It’s about time
for dinner here so I’d better sign off if I want to eat, not that I’d starve if
I missed this meal. Tomorrow we have a lecture, followed by more exploration of
the city and, we have some free time in the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is
our last day in Auckland before we start the next part of the adventure. Stay
tuned.
After dinner
addition: we sat with people we haven’t sat with before and one of the first
things someone said to me was, “Oh, you’re from Atlanta,” despite the fact that
I have Canada printed on my name tag. I'm sure Atlanta is lovely but I'm not from there!!!!
