Auckland and Wellington battled it out to be the capitol city, in a manner similar to Australia's Sydney and Melbourne. Unlike Australia, which settled on a capitol built in a location in between these two cities, New Zealand simply decided based on equity: Wellington is about in the middle of the country (setting aside, for the purposes of agreement, the fact that there is a strait separating the two islands).
Auckland hosts about 1.5 million people, which is 1/3 of the country's entire population. Less than 50% of the population is of European descent. Lots and lots of Asians and Polynesians emigrated here. In fact, Auckland boasts the largest population of Polynesians in the world. There just isn't enough work in Polynesia, plus many nations have tested nuclear weapons on or near to settled island, thus making life a true hell for the native peoples (high cancer rates, contamination preventing cultivation or fishing, to name but two). In some cases, whole island populations were moved out in order to make room for the bomb (remember Bikini Atoll?).
Which brings me to the 1980's, when a protest movement arose in NZ and the South Pacific, to ban both nuclear testing and the entry of nuclear powered or nuclear armed vessels into local harbors. It succeded because one by one, New Zealand cities voted to be nuclear-free, thus forcing the central government to pass national legislation. But not until several nasty incidents occurred, including the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor by the French intelligence agency (causing the death of the ship's photographer, who was not supposed to be on board). The Warrior was subsequently refloated but could not be repaired economically. It was moved and scuttled in Matauri Bay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior
I was privileged to dive the Warrior, and enter it's hull for a peek into the dark interior - full of fish! More on that in the next installment.
Auckland has a harbor bridge, bit it isn't as tall as that in Sydney. It has fireworks on New Year's and Guy Fawkes Day (and maybe other days), and the locals are a little bit defensive when people comment on it's lack of spectacle. You can climb it, also.
You can bungy from it - after all, the sport was invented in New Zealand and these nutballs bungy from anything taller than a wardrobe (chest of drawers to us Colonials). Nice of them to warn the boats, don't you think? Who warns the jumpers?????
There are 3 types of jump from the bridge: The regular, one where your hands touch the water, and one they nickname "The Teabag." The boat is staffed to retrieve the jumpers, or to help them get vertical for the "pulling up" - I never found out which. Some venues do one or the other.
Night shot. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.
It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas - even though, in Australia, I saw Xmas candy in the stores before Halloween (which isn't ceebrated either in Australia or NZ). This must be a little like what Hawaii feels like for Xmas - All the trappings, but warm weather.
One Tree Hill is a special place to the Maori people. As usual, the European settlers did something stupid to anger the local tribe, which then led to a tit-for-tat exchange and the eventual agreement to preserve the sanctity of the hill.
It's a long walk to the top.
All in all, the city has a fair museum, an art gallery that is being upgraded and expanded (and sorely needs it), and 64 dormant volcanoes. Dormant, not extinct. No housing is allowed on the top, but people have built awfully close to the top.
On the way to Paihia, on the northeast coast, we stopped at Sheepworld for tea. Morning tea is when you have a small meal, because breakfast for continentals (Europeans) usually consists of several pieces of bread, jam, and coffee. Thus, by 10 am, the hunger needs to be satisfied.
Sheepworld is a tribute to one of the major industries in New Zealand, if not the number one source of gross national product. Not only are sheep a source of meat and wool, they fertilize the soils and keep the weeds down quite effectively. If goats had useful wool, they would be even more effective at weed control because they eat more noxious weeds than do sheep.
No comments:
Post a Comment