More from Auckland

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.

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.

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.

 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!

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!!!!