We drove from Thames along The Firth of Thames bay to Auckland. Here we stayed at a place north of Auckland for two nights and then spent two nights in downtown Auckland before flying out for Fiji on Saturday morning.
The bed and breakfast north of Auckland had a great view of the bay. The owner, Rod, had built a pathway down a steep slope through the trees to a common path that led to the sandy beach below. Catheleen and I walked the path strewn with broken shells, and it was great to stroll the beach and look at the houses on the beach front and surrounding tan coloured cliffs. The place has a few big and modern houses, something we haven't seen much of throughout most of New Zealand. It's not surprising since this is New Zealand's only true big city with a population of 1.4 million. One in three New Zealanders lives in Auckland. For whatever reason, tensions exists between Aucklanders and the rest of New Zealand, especially the further south you go. The term JAFA for an Aucklander means "Just Another F***ing Aucklander", or if you're an Aucklander, "Just Another Fabulous Aucklander". Reminds me some of the rivalries between Canadain cities and regions.
We were told that killer whales have been seen in the bay, but we didn't see any when we were there. The ocean is warming up, this being late spring, and we saw people swimming here without wet suits. There's a swimming raft out in the bay, and we were told swimmers have been trapped there for awhile as killer whales swam about. There's been no reports of orcas hurting anyone, but I definitely would stay put on the raft if I spotted an orca.
One morning on my way down the path, Rod was working on re-shelling the path. He pointed out a Kauri tree, with a trunk not much bigger than a broomstick, that he planted 17 years ago. He said this tree was doing very well for its age. Unfortunately these trees, among the oldest and biggest in the world, were mostly wiped out by the forestry industry in the 1800's. Nowadays the forestry industry harvests mostly foreign species that do well here like Monterey Pines, that can grow to harvest size in under 20 years. We saw whole forests of these trees in the north of the South Island especially, all planted in rows in easily seen patterns. After awhile we started to distinguish between the local trees and the foreign trees. We've met a few people with an appreciation for the local trees, which was great to see.
In downtown Auckland we started off with a visit to the Auckland Museum, with floors for natural history, Maori and pacific people, and war. The kids went straight for the Minecraft exhibit of the Gallipoli campaign, which local university students put together. I really liked the volcano exhibit. We sat in a living room with a screen showing the Auckland harbour while the news came on the television. The newscast announced slow progress on the evacuation of Auckland, following warnings of volcano activity in the harbour. The newscast was interrupted when the volcano slowly started to rise out of the harbour, and then a rolling cloud of ash and steam quickly rushed into Auckland, covering the neighbourhood, while the house shook. It was a bit unnerving. Best advice, if you're living in Auckland and this thousand year event occurs - get out of town early if you can. The exhibit included a cast of a crouching figure who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over 2000 years ago. Most of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii evacuated the day before the eruption based on some warning signs. The few that remained to protect their property did not survive and were buried in over two meters of ash.
Yesterday we did a family activity called The Great Escape, where we were locked in a room for an hour, and we needed to find the clues to get out. The room was in an Alice in Wonderland theme, and we needed to work as a team to solve the clues. It was really a lot of fun and well done, and we managed to get out with only 30 seconds to spare! The kids especially loved this, and solved most of the puzzles themselves.
I liked this sign at a coffee shop in Auckland. If you're going for hyperbole, you might as well go all the way.
The bed and breakfast north of Auckland had a great view of the bay. The owner, Rod, had built a pathway down a steep slope through the trees to a common path that led to the sandy beach below. Catheleen and I walked the path strewn with broken shells, and it was great to stroll the beach and look at the houses on the beach front and surrounding tan coloured cliffs. The place has a few big and modern houses, something we haven't seen much of throughout most of New Zealand. It's not surprising since this is New Zealand's only true big city with a population of 1.4 million. One in three New Zealanders lives in Auckland. For whatever reason, tensions exists between Aucklanders and the rest of New Zealand, especially the further south you go. The term JAFA for an Aucklander means "Just Another F***ing Aucklander", or if you're an Aucklander, "Just Another Fabulous Aucklander". Reminds me some of the rivalries between Canadain cities and regions.
We were told that killer whales have been seen in the bay, but we didn't see any when we were there. The ocean is warming up, this being late spring, and we saw people swimming here without wet suits. There's a swimming raft out in the bay, and we were told swimmers have been trapped there for awhile as killer whales swam about. There's been no reports of orcas hurting anyone, but I definitely would stay put on the raft if I spotted an orca.
One morning on my way down the path, Rod was working on re-shelling the path. He pointed out a Kauri tree, with a trunk not much bigger than a broomstick, that he planted 17 years ago. He said this tree was doing very well for its age. Unfortunately these trees, among the oldest and biggest in the world, were mostly wiped out by the forestry industry in the 1800's. Nowadays the forestry industry harvests mostly foreign species that do well here like Monterey Pines, that can grow to harvest size in under 20 years. We saw whole forests of these trees in the north of the South Island especially, all planted in rows in easily seen patterns. After awhile we started to distinguish between the local trees and the foreign trees. We've met a few people with an appreciation for the local trees, which was great to see.
In downtown Auckland we started off with a visit to the Auckland Museum, with floors for natural history, Maori and pacific people, and war. The kids went straight for the Minecraft exhibit of the Gallipoli campaign, which local university students put together. I really liked the volcano exhibit. We sat in a living room with a screen showing the Auckland harbour while the news came on the television. The newscast announced slow progress on the evacuation of Auckland, following warnings of volcano activity in the harbour. The newscast was interrupted when the volcano slowly started to rise out of the harbour, and then a rolling cloud of ash and steam quickly rushed into Auckland, covering the neighbourhood, while the house shook. It was a bit unnerving. Best advice, if you're living in Auckland and this thousand year event occurs - get out of town early if you can. The exhibit included a cast of a crouching figure who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over 2000 years ago. Most of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii evacuated the day before the eruption based on some warning signs. The few that remained to protect their property did not survive and were buried in over two meters of ash.
Yesterday we did a family activity called The Great Escape, where we were locked in a room for an hour, and we needed to find the clues to get out. The room was in an Alice in Wonderland theme, and we needed to work as a team to solve the clues. It was really a lot of fun and well done, and we managed to get out with only 30 seconds to spare! The kids especially loved this, and solved most of the puzzles themselves.
I liked this sign at a coffee shop in Auckland. If you're going for hyperbole, you might as well go all the way.
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