You see, my Grandma Tui - who in addition to being a wonderful grandmother was also one of my very best friends - was born here. She, her younger sister, and parents emigrated from New Zealand to the States when Tui was 5 years old (more on family in this part of the world in another blog entry). Despite being so young, she remembered quite a lot about her early childhood here. In particular, I remember her talking about playing with the Maori (the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa or New Zealand) children. She had a great fondness for the Maori people. She remembered many words from the Maori language even though she was so very young when she left. She always wanted to come back here but never made it before her death in 2001. I knew, when I decided to visit Australia, that before I could go home I would have to visit New Zealand - for Grandma. And I was really excited! Not only because of the connection with my grandmother, but because I had heard, from many sources, how amazingly beautiful this country is!
Well, back to Auckland and how much I wanted to love it. Really.
It started out bad...
It started out...the night before I left.
Saturday, November 1st. I should have just gone to bed on time. But I had so much to do: laundry, packing, emails, downloading pictures, blogging - I was feeling the pressure of being behind. I figured I could sleep on the plane and I would go to bed early my first night in Auckland. So I stayed up - downloading pictures (which took FOREVER) to my (!@#*!) blog, and getting my packing completed. And then, SOMEHOW (I honestly don't know how), I set off the house alarm at 2:30am (or maybe it was 3am - I don't remember - I think I've blocked it out - but now that I think about it, I really think it was closer to 3am) just as I was going to bed. As I was trying to figure out what was going on, the alarm company called, which woke Chris & Gretel (but THANKFULLY not the kids!). What followed was a good 30 minutes of Chris trying to assure the alarm company that: a) we were not intruders, b) that we were indeed safe and no intruders were in the house, c) trying to figure out what had happened (read: what I had done) to set the alarm off, and d) how to reset the alarm as neither we nor the alarm company seemed to be able to accomplish this goal. On our end there was a lot of button pressing and plugging and unplugging of cords. Finally (though I have no idea how), the alarm was turned off.
It was late, I was tired, stressed, I had woken my friends in the middle of the night, and I felt like crawling into a hole.
Unfortunately, I was also now wide awake.
In the end, I got maybe 90 minutes of sleep.
And Sunday, November 2 didn't start out any better. I'll spare you the details, which are about as long and complicated as the previous night's. Let me just summarize by saying that it was a stressful commute to the airport. I was so tired. I didn't feel well. I was in danger of missing my flight, due to weekend construction on the rail lines - construction that I didn't know about. And while I DID make it, the trip involved an unplanned and expensive taxi ride, and me in tears to the driver. That poor man did not deserve me. I'm so embarrassed.
Luckily, the flight went off without a hitch. I was too worked up to sleep, but I kept my eyes closed for most of the flight - partly to discourage the chatty man sitting next to me (I was NOT in the mood), and partly just to block out the world and the embarrassment and frustration my life had been for the previous 12 hours.
One side note here, just because it struck me as so interesting...ALL of the flight attendants on the Air New Zealand flight I was on were middle-aged men with grey hair and mustaches (seriously, EVERY one of them had mustaches!) Really. No young, perky blonds asking if I'd like coffee, tea, or milk. Perhaps, it was my state of mind, and the fact that I expected something else to go wrong at any minute, but I found these men oddly reassuring. IF something were to go wrong on this flight (heaven forbid!) I felt like these men would be able to handle it - at least much more so than a 20-year-old, inexperienced, young woman. I'm not sure if it was more the fact that they were big, strong men or that they were older - I think both really. But I thought it was brilliant, and I now think all airlines should hire middle-aged men to be flight attendants.
NOTE: if you are a young, blond, female flight attendant: I'm sorry, please don't hate me. Like I said, it may just have been circumstances and my pathetic state of mind.
This was my first glimpse of New Zealand. And it WAS beautiful! And so green!
But the saga continues...
...getting through Customs at the Auckland Airport took almost as long as the 3 hour flight (grrr). I didn't know it until I arrived, but I'd booked my Auckland trip for a 3 day holiday weekend - a holiday weekend in which almost every Aucklander leaves the city and it is SHUT DOWN. I'm not kidding - it was like a GHOST TOWN! Nothing was open, there was NOTHING TO DO. AND it RAINED and was COLD the entire time I was there. I was also getting SICK - I felt awful the first day or two - but got some extra sleep, downed some extra vitamins, ate a lot of soup, and started to feel somewhat better (I held the sickness off till I got to Alice Springs the following week and then it came back at me with a vengeance. I came home sick and am still trying to shake the tail end of a bad cough!)
So really, my not loving Auckland, which I wanted so badly, really doesn't have as much to do with the city or the people as it does with me: my lack of sleep and basic orneriness, etc...; and circumstances: holiday weekend, rotten weather - both beyond mine or anyone elses control. And I definitely would have handled both better had I been in a better state of mind. So really, I can only blame myself.
Having ranted and raved, let me just add that I REALLY would like to go back to Auckland someday - I feel like I need to give Auckland another chance, a fair shake.
And besides, there are all of those CLOSED venues I didn't get to visit! Wink!
But here are a few things I DID get to see and do...
I visited Auckland's Sky Tower.
This is the view, looking north-east, that includes Auckland's Central Business District (CBD).
New Zealand's North Island was formed by volcanoes and Auckland sits on the Auckland Volcanic Field, which has approximately 50 volcanic vents (volcanoes with or without the cones). The volcanic field is considered dormant.
Rangitoto Island, the cone shaped island pictured below, is Auckland's most recent and largest volcano, which formed (by erupting from the sea) about 600 years ago. I took this photo from the Sky Tower. You can take a ferry over the the island and hike or ride to the top of the cone. I heard it was very beautiful, but I didn't get the chance to visit. Next time.
Looking north-west from the top of the Sky Tower.
Looking south: Mount Eden is the grassy hill on the upper right of this picture. It is a volcanic cone, and is the highest natural point in Auckland City. To the left, though not very visible in this photo due to size and distance, is One Tree Hill, a volcanic cone with significance to the Maori population here as it was once home to the largest and most important Maori forts in pre-European times. It was given it's English name by settling Europeans as it had one tree on the top of the hill. In a politically motivated attack, the tree was cut down. And here's a little pop culture trivia for you... Irish rock band U2 wrote a song about the hill, "One Tree Hill", which appeared on their album The Joshua Tree. It was written to honour New Zealander Greg Carroll, an employee of the band who died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin in 1986.
The two girls I'm pictured with below were in line ahead of me to purchase Sky Tower admission tickets. They were from Rotorua, New Zealand, about 4 hours east of Auckland, and a place I visited, and will blog about, later. They were with the father of the middle girl, who had been up the tower many times before and was trying to avoid yet another repeat visit. Because they were under 18 (they were 13 and 14 years old) they were supposed to be accompanied by an adult. The Sky Tower employee, a young girl herself, insisted that the girls needed an escort. The father was really trying to get them in without him. Suddenly (I don't know where this came from), I piped up and offered to be the girls "adult" if I could have the student price ticket. It made absolutely no sense and was not a good deal for Sky Tower as they actually lost money in this transaction, but for some reason the employee agreed. So the dad was saved a trip, the girls got in, and I got in on a discounted ticket. Strange. But they were very sweet girls and it was fun to chat with them for a little while. We talked school, drivers licenses, what life was like in NYC, in Rotorua, and what it was like growing up in N.Z.
Kiwi's, this is the nickname given to New Zealanders (from the native Kiwi bird), sound (at least to me and my untrained ear) similar to Aussies in their speech, except that Kiwi's flatten their vowels more. The classic example (given in person, in my guide book, and on tourist t-shirts I saw for sale) is that Kiwi's will say "Fush & Chups" for "Fish & Chips". The girls were quiet and a little shy so I really had to concentrate on what they were saying in order to understand them.
Another view of the Sky Tower, during a VERY rare sunny moment.
I visited the Auckland Museum...
...and learned about some of the native flora and fauna...
...including, the Moa - a 12 foot flightless bird once endemic to New Zealand, but now extinct.
I saw the outside of the Auckland Art Museum.
And this interesting memorial to New Zealand's suffragettes. Did you know that New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote? Yep. In 1893. In the United States, national women's suffrage did not exist until 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. And did you know: Women in Wyoming and Utah were able to vote locally as early as 1869 and 1870 respectively.
Karangahape Road - known as "K' Road", a street in Auckland famous for its bars, clubs, and nightlife. Notice how completely empty the street is. No cars or people. And almost every shop was closed during the long holiday weekend. It was a ghost town, I tell ya.
LDS church just off of Queen Street in Auckland. An English and Maori ward both met in this building. I attended sacrament meeting with the English ward, which was still a good 90% Maori. It was a great meeting. At it's conclusion, a very large Polynesian woman, by way of greeting, gave me the biggest and best hug! I needed that!
The Britomart Transport Centre, Auckland's main transportation hub and train station. This is a really pretty building.
Ponsonby, a suburb and main street west of central-west Auckland known for it's arts, cafes and culture. My great-grandfather and great, great-grandmother once lived in this area about 1912-1913.
And finally, a photo of Queen Street after the holiday weekend was over. Life had returned to Auckland.
1 comment:
Somehow I believe that there will come a day that you'll tell this story and be laughing. I hope.
:-) I'll go back with you...
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