In 1840, the New Zealand Governor, a certain William Hobson, decided to name Auckland after George Eden, the Earl of Auckland who was Viceroy of India at the time and who had never visited New Zealand nor ever would. What a very strange lot we British colonialists were!
If I’m totally honest, I think I’ll have overdone my stay in this city by the time I depart on Monday. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing I don’t like about the place but I think that after all I have seen in South and Central America, it’s just not ‘different’ enough to be as exciting as the other places I’ve visited (I hope that doesn’t sound too blasé!). It’s also quite a small city although to the Kiwis it must seem big as it’s home to almost 1/3 of the entire country’s population! Having said all that, it’s still quite interesting to see what people do in their leisure time, especially in the run up to Christmas
although I can’t really get my head round the fact that it isn’t winter here. It’s 24c today. So the inevitable Saturday Christmas shopping
in Queen Street (Auckland’s Oxford Street) has to include some queuing to buy ice creams.
The Christmas adverts on the TV are also now in full swing with aggressive promotions for BBQs, outdoor furniture and the like. What an upside down world we live in.
Away from the retail hubbub I wandered into Auckland’s oldest and I think biggest park with the odd sounding name of ‘Auckland Domain’. Here I witnessed another fine example of the difference between the run up to Christmas here and at home – cricket!
There must have been 7 or 8 matches being played, all to quite a high standard accompanied by a good deal of vocal aggression! Incidentally, I caught the back end of a programme on the BBC World Service the other day which, if I understood correctly, was saying that, contrary to my slightly cynical belief, there really is a lot of cricket payed in Peru. So, maybe the Englishman I met there wasn’t the only umpire in Lima after all!
It’s difficult to imagine any crowd trouble at such idyllic events but just to make sure, there are a number of signs warning of the perils of drink – at night time.
At the other end of this lovely open space is the Auckland museum – a fine building indeed.
So, as it was the tea interval, I popped inside. Although there was a section recognising the efforts of Kiwis in various wars and a section full of fossils etc (which was a little disturbing as it seemed to emphasise the likelihood of an earthquake striking Auckland any time soon), the main part focused on Maori history and culture
which I found reasonably interesting although a bit of, perhaps, overkill – almost as if New Zealand (and the Brit colonialists) was trying to atone for being so beastly to Maoris all those years ago.
The calm atmosphere in this place was suddenly shattered when one of the more draconian female members of staff loudly remonstrated with a young 6 or 7 year old right in front of his Dad for not picking his feet up and thus making a noise (which, incidentally, I never heard). Incredible. Shocking. I would not blame that young lad if he never wants to visit another museum ever again.
I was definitely done with culture by this stage so made a swift exit to where a wedding party had just arrived
presumably for some photo shoot. The bride looked lovely in white as you would expect but the two bridesmaids were dressed entirely in black which I thought was a touch funereal. Or maybe it’s a fashion thing.
It’s not easy to get lost in Auckland, especially when my base is close to the Sky Tower. So, I just headed for that, passing the sizeable Auckland University campus (and ginormous hospital) on the way.
Once again I was struck by how many (mainly Cantonese) Chinese there are here.
Apparently, many came after Hong Kong was given back to China in 1997 and have become well established.
If the sun shines like today tomorrow I may well have a chilled day as I’ve done enough street pounding to last me a long time. Maybe I’ll grab the Sunday papers and find a spot by the harbour. Or perhaps go to another island. We’ll see.
Phileas
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