Tag: New Zealand

Kia Ora or welcome to Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud … New Zealand.

We arrived in Auckland, the world’s largest Polynesian city, but one of the least populated with just 1.5m inhabitants in an area twice the size of London. With just two days here, it’s going to be a whistle-stop tour! On our first evening we walked down Queen Street to the harbour, and had dinner in an Italian restaurant watching the sunset.

Next day, we started with a little orientation at the Auckland Museum, visiting the Maori Room which was filled with carved wood of all sorts, a 25m long war canoe designed to seat 100 warriors, Hotunui, a reconstructed meeting house and lots of carved panels and decorations.

We also learnt about volcanos which have shaped the country and went into a simulation of what could happen if a volcano erupted in Auckland Bay, which last happened 600 years ago forming Rangitoto Island, and which apparently could pretty well happen anytime … and I thought this was a relatively risk-free holiday as long as we avoided the bungy jumping!

A cultural show introduced us to the men’s haka a posture dance to display fitness, agility and ferocity made famous by the New Zealand All Blacks and the women’s poi dance, twirling weights on strings.

There was also an completely unexpected extra … a display of WOW costumes which took our breath away with their innovation and style. WOW – The World of Wearable Art, was started in 1987 in Nelson to promote a small gallery by Dame Suzie Moncrieff who wanted to ‘get art off the walls and onto the body’ and started a competition. ‘The garments don’t have to be commercially viable. They don’t have to take themselves seriously. They just have to be wearable.’ Since then it has taken off big time with 170 finalists showing their costumes in a choreographed show over 12 nights for 50,000 people annually in Wellington. We might get to see more of this later in Nelson.

Later we took the 10 minute ferry across the bay to Devonport, where we saw a monument, with a bird on an orb representing the sacred bird image named Korotangi or Weeping Dove who accompanied the arrival of the Tainui Waka, the canoes that made up the first Maori fleet in 1350 from Hawaiiki, the legendary Polynesian source of the Maori, maybe the Society Islands or Cook Islands.

We walked along the foreshore with some pretty period cottages …

… and lava which had erupted from Mount Victoria, one of some 50 volcanos within 20km of Auckland alone.

There was a great view from Mount Victoria back across the bay and back to the city.

As we made our way round the city, the Skytower kept popping out between buildings. Built in the 1990s, at 328m it is just taller then Sydney’s Centrepoint and the Eiffel Tower. Part of the casino, it will also part you from your money if you wish to ascend – $25 for the lift, $125 for the Skywalk with no handrail and just a rope or $225 to jump off! We chose to keep our feet firmly on the ground and our dollars in our pockets rather than be tempted by an extreme start to the holiday!

Another tower that caught our eye was the Clock Tower from the university rising above the very pretty Albert Park filled with flowers and huge trees.

Day two and we started by climbing Mount Eden, the tallest volcano in Auckland at 196m. We walked round the grassy crater and could see the city and other volcanos as we scanned the vista.

We went to the Auckland Art Gallery, hoping to see the earliest depictions of New Zealand and the Maori by Europeans and how that developed into works by New Zealand artists but that part was closed for re-hanging so the nearest I could get was a picture of Chris’s lens cloth from the shop showing a view of Lake Wakatipu painted by an Australian artist Eugene Bon Guerard during a visit in 1878.

We spent the rest of the day being abducted by aliens then going on an odyssey through a sensory maze but we can’t tell you too much in case we spoil it for others! The first was an escape game run by Escape Masters where you have 50 minutes to find the code to open the door and escape from the scenario of your choice by solving brain games and puzzles as a team. We used up our three clues but did not manage to escape in time … luckily they let us continue for another 20 minutes until we achieved success! We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and had a great time … shame we leave tomorrow without a chance of another go!

Later, we went through a maze with a different sensory experience in each of 13 rooms, very cleverly done causing slight apprehension in the dark bits but also delight and surprise.

Tomorrow we go and pick up our Wilderness campervan and leave Auckland for the next big adventure!