Auckland Museum, K' Road & Ponsonby

I arrived in Auckland about 3:00 pm. I got myself a hotel room downtown where I could park the car, and get internet access, to catch up with the world. I went out on foot, in the evening to get my bearings and some food. In the morning it was overcast and rainy, so I thought I would go to the Auckland Museum. I thought I would take in the Maori Cultural Performance. I didn't make it to Rotorua, where you can participate in a traditional feast and see the long houses, so I thought even if it were contrived, in a museum, it would be a chance to learn and see something I wouldn't elsewhere. So, I walked over to the Domain, a large park where the museum is found. I had an umbrella, so I was okay. If I learned anything living in Victoria, BC, it is to carry an umbrella. Though, the rain and the gloom wasn't ideal for shooting photographs.


Auckland is built on some 50 odd extinct volcanoes - and is not far from possibly active ones. It is very hilly. You can recognize it because the buildings all have the awnings I saw throughout New Zealand, and are on a steep grade. You are perpetually walking up and down. It is ringed by inner-city suburbs. Technically only the downtown core of skycrappers is Auckland proper, but the city effectively spawls as far as is possible on an isthmus, and houses a quarter of the country's population (about 1.2 million).


At the museum, I paid for the tour, which I could have skipped, but also the Maori performance. The museum contains exhibition halls for Polynesian culture with beautiful wood carvings, natural history, volcanoes (of course) and a war museum. After going through all of these quickly with a tour, I saw the performance, which was actually quite good. They were excellent singers. It was song and dance, and demonstrations of traditional games with poi (balls on strings) and various types of sticks, with banter and information. It ended with the Haka, a postural dance traditionally used before entering battle to intimidate one's enemies. It involves chanting, slapping limbs, stamping feet, stiking out tongues and bulging eyes. A version of the Haka has been co-opted by the national rugby team, the All Blacks. So, while not entirely authentic, it has entered the culture as a whole, regardless of heritage - and I have to say it's quite effective. There were images of New Zealand troops performing the Haka during WWII and the Vietnam war in the war museum upstairs. I bet it even serves its purpose on the rugby field. Variations on the Haka had more peaceful uses.




I left the museum and checked out the Wintergarden in the Domain before continuing along the funky Karangahape Road, known universally as K' Road. It was a pretty ethnically diverse neighbourhood with also sorts of different shops, cafés and bars, and it lead to Ponsonby, one of the inner-city suburbs. I quite liked Ponsonby. There was great fashion, interesting shopping, a few little galleries, and lots of restaurants.



The Cookie Time monster was everywhere.





New Zealand is proud of their traditional anti-nuclear stance. Aotearoa is the Maori word for New Zealand, the land of the low-lying cloud. Aotearoa is supposed to be the greatest creation of the god Maui. The North Island is a fish, with Wellington harbour as its mouth, and the South Island Maui's canoe.

Hot Water Beach

So I hiked back to Hahei and then drove down the road to the Hot Water Beach. I found accommodation at Auntie Dawn's B&B which was as cute as its name and Dawn gave me a good price (partially, I think, because I caught her attempting to bathe her terrier, who had been rabbitting, and decided to try to hide behind me rather than have a bath). She was proud he protected her garden but wished he didn't get so filthy. There were patchwork curtains and bedding, chickens, cacti, spades for digging on the beach and an outdoor shower (as well as indoor) to deal with the sand. She introduced me to her other guests, a young American family, who promptly invited me to dinner and a trip to the hot spring fed beach at low tide. So, I went off to the campground (where there actually was wireless internet) to get news from home and a bottle of wine. Then along with the other guests at about 7 pm, we headed down to the beach.

You could see steam rising in places due to yet another volcano. You could feel the sudden heat as you walked along the beach. If you choose your spot right you can dig a big hole as a natural hot tub, with a nearby pool of cool ocean water to moderate the temperature. All this, under the brilliant Milky Way and southern sky. It was a lot of work, actually, to build the pool, but the heat was phenomenal. Soon the beach filled with other visitors making their own pools in the strange patterns, following the heat. People would exclaim in their natural accents and various tongues when they were shocked to find cool ocean water on one foot and too hot water on the other. Eventually the young son and father called it a night, but I stuck around chatting with the mother until the tide came in and washed away our pool. In the morning we got up in time for low tide and sampled the hot springs again.



Then, I checked out and headed for Auckland. I stopped briefly in Thames, despite the rain.

Hahei and Cathedral Cove

In the morning I look the south route (25A) around the Coromandel Forest, through the mountains, rather than the longer route around the coast, because I was tired of driving. The south route proved to be challenging but spectacular. It's through the mountains with sharp twists and turns and sudden climpses of the coast. When making roads through the mountains they need to consider the bends and the grade. Older roads were made for horse and buggy so in order to minimize the grade, they maximize the number of bends. Modern cars can cope with driving uphill, but the constant turning is tiring for a driver. Suddenly, I was in Hahei, and there was the beach. It felt like it was about 25 C, and sunny. After a much needed coffee, I began to hike towards Cathedral Cove. After climbing the hills I was hot.



Earth science nerd photo.




Cathedral Cove gets its name from the spectacular, naturally formed near Gothic arch in the sandstone.



It was so nice I went swimming. Many people followed. The local Kiwis were incredulous and asked, "In the winter?" I believe we define that word differently.



There was a natural fresh water waterfall as a shower.



As I left I met two renegade sheep, making a break for the beach.