Microblog

Walked across New Zealand from coast to coast today. It was at a narrow point: starting at Auckland Harbor and heading southeast to a harbor on the other side. ​I took these photos from Maungawhau / Mount Eden, the highest point in the city. The top photo looks back toward where we started this morning, while the bottom photo looks ahead toward this afternoon’s hike. Along the way, we wound through several parks, past Aucklanders out enjoying their Sunday.

Joined a docent-led art walk from the Auckland Art Gallery through downtown to the harbor. Since the group was all locals, we dove straight into the deep end. Our docent expertly connected several public installations by Māori artists to foundational myths and the origins of Aotearoa (New Zealand). (The audio receivers shown in the photo let us hear the commentary clearly over the bustle of the city.)

Attended a wonderful session at the Auckland War Memorial Museum featuring seven Māori, a model for how to educate people about an indigenous culture. Later, we took an audio tour of about a dozen artifacts scattered throughout the museum, each with a queer story to tell. Here, I’m learning about Labour Party representative Louisa Wall, who was wearing this dress when the Marriage Amendment Bill was passed in 2013.

​Caught some stand-up comedy as part of Auckland’s Pride Month. The venue was wonderful: the Aviation Hall at the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT). Our backdrop for the night was a 1945 Belfast-built flying boat, once used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force for maritime search and rescue.

The greater Auckland area is full of peninsulas, sometimes featuring scenic trails, a ferry port, and great lunch spots. Today was one of those days. We took a fast bus to the start of the trail at Takapuna then walked to Devonport through parks and residential areas. After a late lunch in Devonport, we caught the ferry back to Auckland. In this photo, we’re crossing a mangrove swamp.

Today’s adventure was the Auckland Botanical Gardens, with the added bonus of taking the train to get there. While I found it a lovely place for a stroll, Dwight was taking it in on a deeper level. He spotted several plants he recognized from the university greenhouse back home. Here, he’s fully immersed in the native plantings along a trail designed to teach visitors how to identify the local flora.

We’ve been in Auckland for ten days, and we finally walked onto the beach directly in front of our rental. Normally the tide has been in when we wanted to go exploring. Today we stuck to our Point Chevalier neighborhood rather than exploring further. Wandering along the peninsula, we found sandy stretches, parks, a great view of downtown, and yet another decent hole-in-the-wall cafe.

Ferry to Waiheke Island, followed by a coastal trek: steep up, steep down, repeat. Revived by a fine mid-afternoon lunch of grilled fish overlooking the water. Waiheke’s own Passage Rock Pinot Gris made the revival complete.

Our urban walk took us to a different community center today, where we stocked up on veggies at the Sunday farmers market. A truck served a decent flat white and a long black, which we sipped while nibbling those tiny bananas you only find near where they’re grown. At lunch, the cafe seemed to be attracting characters straight out of British sitcom archives: namely, Mrs. Slocombe (Are You Being Served?) and Violet (Vicious).

A goal of our month in Auckland is to live like the locals do. Today, we walked a large loop that took us past a lively community center. In one room, there was a flower show; in another, a cake social. A cake social! ​We opted for a long black and a flat white served from a coffee truck. Later, at our neighborhood French cafe, the server asked if we had moved into the area. Their food is so good, we keep going back.

We didn’t need to line up for the ferry from Hobsonville back to Auckland. Earlier today, we’d traveled to Hobsonville by city bus and, after a delicious lunch, hiked the trail that circles the town. William Hobson, the town’s namesake, was the first governor of New Zealand and a co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi, which he and several Māori chiefs signed on February 6, 1840. Today is Waitangi Day, a public holiday.

A massive cruise ship dwarfed the Island Direct Waiheke Island ferry. With 5,000 passengers suddenly in town for the day and a long holiday weekend approaching, the ferry lines were daunting. We quickly abandoned our plan to hike on Waiheke and instead trekked several miles back home, following the coastline for much of the way. Next week will be much quieter for our Waiheke hike.

Our dead-end road leads to a coastal path, but high tide had other plans for us. We detoured a few blocks over to pick up the trail through parks and urban stretches. A few miles later, we looped back to the start via train and bus.

Our rental only has a pod machine, so today we went searching for a pour-over cone, our preferred way to brew. It turns out pour-overs aren’t really a “thing” here, so we pivoted to a French press. Tracking one down required a fruitless trip downtown followed by a trek into suburbia, but we finally snagged one at a big-box store. Between Google Maps, tap-to-pay transit, and a fine lunch, it turned out to be an excellent day.

High tide at our Auckland home for the next month. We plan to just relax here, doing things that locals do at the weekend. We’ll manage easily without a car, relying on our feet, public transit, and the occasional Uber. Today we stocked up at the local Woolworths supermarket, a step up from the dingy Woolworths I remember from my childhood.

Arrival of the inbound kite, a sturdy ATR 72 turboprop, for our wizard flight to Auckland from Marlborough Airport (BHE). Hoping for no flak (turbulence) en route. (Word choices inspired by Biggles, fictional WW1 and WW2 British pilot.)