Our Introduction to Auckland
The summit of Auckland's highest point, Mt. Eden, was about 1.7 miles from our bed and breakfast so we wandered over and traipsed up to see its view of Auckland - and its volcanic crater (Te Ipu-a-Mataaho - “The Bowl of Mataaho”). It's a simple bowl covered by grass, a part of which is seen here from a high point on its rim.
Auckland dwarfs the US Pacific Northwest (in numbers, not at all in height). Auckland has between 49 and 53 volcanoes in its immediate area!!! Whereas in the northwest many are spectacular - high glaciated peaks, the ones around Auckland are much more mundane - many are barely noticeable and many have been quarried into oblivion. One of the differences between the two areas: in the Northwest the most likely next eruptions will come from one of the existing peaks likely after warning by rumbling quake series, whereas in Auckland the most likely next eruptions will come from a new location without much warning See about Auckland volcanoes here
One day we spent many hours in the Auckland War Memorial Museum - a bit of a misnomer ... it's a great collection of Maori, cultural, and natural history, amongst other things. And it has a series of exhibits on volcanism, earthquakes, and the pacific rim ... wow, I had known the area of New Zealand was very active, but had not understood how very geologically active it was. A good article on Auckland's volcanoes is by the Ministry of Civil Defence here.
Amidst the displays was a section describing the volcanic (and earthquake) risk in Auckland and the rest of New Zealand. It also described the extensive planning that the government of New Zealand has instituted and the insurance for both earthquake and volcanoes that the government provides. It puts to shame Seattle's lack of planning, and the paucity of reasonably affordable disaster insurance available in the US. Imagine: a nation that plans ahead of time to take care of its populace! New Zealand.
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Maori
Here's a model in the museum picturing a prototypical Maori Pa. The Maori were competitive and warlike, with tribes fighting tribes and building pa's - fortified settlements for protection. Mt. Eden in present-day Auckland was once a terraced and fortified pa.
The Maori were quite the opposite of the aboriginals in the Australian outback who were peaceable.Perhaps when people are faced with a harsh environment in which survival is difficult, they are more humane and understanding of others' needs to endure and survive, than when they are in a fortunate environment that is plentiful, where they can afford the luxury of competition and greed.
Maybe that's why many people undergoing hardship tend to be so willing to help their neighbors and others.
For the most successful of the Maori's they could afford large storehouses like the one (from a fairly late vintage) in the museum.
Te Ara is an excellent site for New Zealand's history, culture, and politics including that of the Maori's, at https://teara.govt.nz/en You could (should) get lost for months exploring it in much more depth than I could ever manage.
Maori masks, carved in wood or soapstone, were used to honor the dead; they reproduced the ta moko - the markings - that had adorned the ancestors.
For a fascinating read see the story of Whakairo - Maori carving here.
And for an even more fascinating read, see the story of Ta Moko, Maori "tattooing" here. The word "tattooing" is a bit of a misnomer. The technique used was not at all like a modern day tattoo, nor did it feel as gentle as tattooing when it was applied. The grooves were chiseled into the skin using chisels producing deep incisions in the skin rather than the pinpricks of modern-day tattoos. I wonder how popular tattoos would be today if the same methods were used.
If (when?) I ever get a tattoo I'd pick a Maori design, at least as close to one as Maori traditions allow. But I certainly would not want it done the Maori way.
Other fascinating articles about Maori culture are about Maori kites here (yes, they flew kites), and their religion here, and what some Victorians would prudishly call their morals here (the latter being very apropos to same sex marriage that the people of Australia just voted 61.6% to 38.4% to allow.)
The museum also contains exhibits of polynesia and the Pacific Islands, to which New Zealand is bound both geographically, historically, and culturally.
New Zealand's population as of 2013 was 74% European, 14.9% Maori, 11.8% Asian, and 7.4% Pacific Islanders. (per Wikipedia)
And with that, we're off to an island.
Train to Waiheke Island
Early one morning it took us only a little over 10 minutes to walk from our B&B in the Mount Eden neighborhood, past Eden Park (Auckland's major stadium where the All Blacks play - that rugby team is New Zealand's pride - their stuff is sold everywhere in NZ, just simply everywhere, you can't escape it) to the nearby Kingsland rail station. There are convenient, new, clean, fast trains roughly every 20 to 30 minutes to Britomart, the major downtown rail station at the harbor.
Like in Sydney, a massive rail terminal and pedestrian precinct was under construction along the harbour. Somehow we found our way through the construction (the wayfinding sucked in comparison to Sydney) to the old but classic brick Ferry Terminal building.
From there we caught Fuller's ferry for its 40 minute trip to Waiheke Island. It gave us a good view of downtown Auckland and its ferry terminal - a scaled down version of Sydney's Circular Quay.
(map from Open Street Map under its open license)
Our destination was to visit a close friend who lives on the far east side of Waiheke Island in her family's home, which the family had first built in about 1900. At that time it was exceedingly remote - the only way to the home was by boat or horseback (or trekking) from the western end of the island .
Waiheke Island is undergoing a quick change - our journey the length of the island was a journey through that change. The ferry docks near the western end of the island. That end seems a bit like Sausalito or Tiburon on the north shore of San Francisco bay - manicured, pleasant, with any property likely costing a fortune. Taking the road eastward one passes a mix of exurban sprawl - remaining older homes and stores, many seeming from the 50's and 60's when lots of young people were living cheap away from the city, amidst many new and obviously expensive houses and condos.
As the road proceeds west it becomes a bit more rural, with several wineries set amongst their vineyards - a favorite Auckland destination for a day of sipping wine. Eventually the main road comes to Onetangi Beach. From there smaller roads continue east to a mix of parks with popular day hikes and various rural properties, both old and new.
Throughout the island there are frequent views over the multi-fingered coastline and its inlets and bays.
The view from our friend's yard's gate. The house was down a path about 50 yards from the end of her shared rough drive, which required a 4 wheel drive steeply wind its way up to the road.
Our Final Days
Our final day in Auckland: it rained.
We were feeling exhausted from the previous 29 days of our trip. And we still hadn't shaken that respiratory thing that we seemed to have caught on our flight to down under. We thought it best to take it easy.
So we stayed "home" in our B&B, reading and sleeping and making friends with Mr. Darby.
Our "home" was the Eden Park Bed & Breakfast (20 Bellwood Ave, Mt Eden, Auckland. The pictures on their website (here) give an accurate feel for it. Marlene and her helpers and husband do an absolutely stunning job, all carefully watched over by good ole Mr. Darby. The breakfasts are hot and hand prepared; they are delicious, with a variety every day. The rooms are kept immaculate. It's just like home (uh ... correction ... my wife reminds me that it's not like I keep my office at home)
The location is pleasant: on a quiet residential street one block off of Dominion Street with its frequent bus service (approximately every 20 minutes) 30 minutes to downtown, and only a 10 or so minutes walk from the Kingsland Train Station with trains every 20 to 30 minutes for the 30 minute trip to downtown.
It was a comfortably friendly B&B. The next day we all said our good byes, patted Mr. Darby on the head, and were off to the airport.
After 30 Days Down Under it felt good to get back home.
Our Flights
To get to Australia we'd flown on United SEA to SFO, then a United 787 Dreamliner SFO to Sydney. Before flying I always compare comfort, price, time, numbers of stops, and reputation and try to select the best overall value - on a long haul flight every modicum of comfort one can eke out is worth a marginally higher fare. We'd picked it because even though it was marginally more expensive than other flights, the seats had a 32" pitch, 17.3" wide. The only other nonstop was a Qantas 747 with a 31" pitch. Every inch counts.
A couple of years ago we'd flown on Hainan on a 787 to China and found the seats comfortable. And best of all, they had arranged the galley at the rear of the plane as a combination working space and snack buffet ... it had been a popular place for passengers to mingle and snack, and, important for me (I'm a "walker" on long distance flights): it allowed a circular path around the plane's aisles. So Hainan set our expectations.
Unfortunately, United didn't even come close to Hainan's standards. The seats weren't as comfortable (I used the supplied blanket in an effort to soften it). And the rear galley was just a functional employee's galley (not kept up as well as Hainan's), and without the spread of snacks and sandwiches. It was obviously not meant for passengers to use as part of a circular tour of the aisles, much less to gather and mingle. On Hainan I'd accidentally spilled a bag of nuts on the galley's floor and bent over to pick them up. A stewardess hurried over and wouldn't let me pick them up ... I tried to argue that I was comfortable with picking them up ... she wouldn't hear of it and did a great job of picking up every last one and then using a carpet sweeper. I doubt that would have happened on the United flight, especially from the looks of the United galley's housekeeping.
Flying back from Auckland to SFO we were on an Air New Zealand flight, a 777 with a 32" or 33" pitch. We sat in the center of the forward of the two economy cabins ... the three seats adjacent to the windows were "sky couches". What a great idea! An upholstered leg rest, like they use to have on long distance trains, could be raised to level with the seat. The whole thing, seat and leg rest could be used by one or two people as one couch, allowing a lying in a semi-curled position, wide enough for two (wide enough that they didn't quite need to spoon). I don't know how the fare works out ... do 2 have to split the fare of the 3rd seat? It's something we'll definitely check out "next time".
We were almost as impressed with Air New Zealand as we had been with Hainan. And on the local flights within AU and NZ we'd flown Virgin Australia and Qantaslink. They too were surprisingly good. Why or why can't American airlines provide the comfort and level of service of many of the other countries' airlines.
The News of the Day
When we spent the rainy day lounging around being lazy, sleeping a little, and reading. - including reading The New Zealand Herald newspaper. It was a delight to read of news from all over the world, and local news of New Zealand, and only a couple of articles about the US (and none centered on Trump! 😋)
There was lots about New Zealand's politics. It's amazing. New Zealand has 15 registered parties plus others that aren't registered! And the way they elect their Parliament is even more amazing.
They have a "Mixed-Member Proportional" voting system. Each voter gets two votes. One vote is for the Member of Parliament (MP) for that district - 71 of the MPs are elected this way. The second vote is for a party. The parties are then allocated seats based on the proportion of votes the party got, and the party selects their MP's ... 49 of the MP's are elected this way.
New Zealand had an election in late Sept. before we were there. It resulted in a hung parliament with neither the National Party (the center-right party which had been in power for many years) nor the Labour Party (center-left) having enough seats in parliament to for a government.
Three parties had the day before agreed to cooperate to form a left-of-center government with Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister -- she's the prime minister who was rumored to have been mistaken by Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit for the wife of Justin Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister.
To my eye, a strange coalition it was:
- The Labour Party ("Centre-Left ... A social-democratic party. Founded in 1916, it is the oldest extant party in New Zealand, and has traditionally been National's main opponent. It supports a mixed economy market, with taxation levied to fund particularly its social programmes.") with 46 members of Parliament
- New Zealand First ("Centre ... A nationalist and populist party. It aims "To put New Zealand and New Zealanders First". It is strongly anti-immigration, supports benefits for senior citizens, and advocates buying back former state owned enterprises.") with 9 members of Parliament
- The Green Party ("Left Wing ... Like many green parties around the world it has four pillars: ecology, social responsibility, grassroots democracy, and nonviolence. The party has an environmentalist platform, and also promotes progressive social policies.") with 8 members of Parliament
The other Parties with seats were:
- The National Party ("Centre-Right ... A conservative and classical-liberal [i.e. laissez-faire] party. Founded in 1936 following the merging of the United and Reform parties, it has traditionally been Labour's main opponent. It supports a mixed economy market, and lower taxation particularly as a stimulus for private enterprise.") with 56 members of Parliament
- ACT ("Right Wing ... A classical-liberal [i.e. laissez-faire] party. It promotes free market economics, low taxation, reduced government expenditure, and increased punishments for crime. It sees itself as promoting "accountability and transparency in government") with 1 member of Parliament.
Party descriptions quoted from Wikipedia here
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