New Zealand Diaries – Auckland City tour

Phew, it was a memorable week. After a day or two of rest following the hectic trip, we carried out local sightseeing in and around Auckland. Auckland is NZ’s most populous city with multicultural people and the financial & commercial centre of NZ. It was the capital of New Zealand until it was replaced by Wellington in 1865. The forecast for the weather in Auckland when we were planning our sightseeing was rain, rain and more rain. Hence, we chose indoor destinations during these days.

We went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum on one of these occasions. Though it is dedicated to the World Wars I & II martyrs majorly, it has exhibits of the local Maori culture and NZ’s natural history as well. Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand, who have a unique culture and tradition. The Maoris believed in Mother Nature and considered everything natural sacred. They understood, respected and preserved the various forms of natural energy around them. The Treaty of Waitangi signed with the British government helped save their culture for generations to come. We were even in Auckland on the anniversary of this treaty, the Waitangi day. We had a chance to see Maoris in their traditional attire, and their earlier habitats in the museum. The Maori language uses the same script as modern English with a few tweaks. I learnt a few phrases too: Haere Mai (Welcome), Kia Ora (Be well/ used as a greeting), Wahine (Women, you can guess how I learnt this word) to name a few.

The first floor had the fossils (put together into their original forms) of dinosaurs and other extinct animals found in New Zealand. Now for some fun trivia that I learnt here, most of the flightless birds were in Gondwana, that split into modern day New Zealand and Australia. Flightless birds include, ostrich, emus, kiwis, moa (extinct), penguins, cassowaries etc. One of the theories why the birds became flightless with evolution is the lack of predators. Moa and Kiwis are also considered as wingless birds. Then we went to the memorial section of the museum. This part of the museum is inspiring as well as depressing. So many lives lost – a minute of silence for the numerous lives lost in the World Wars. There was a section with the life story of Anne Frank. I have read the book a long time ago but every time I read about her, it hits me hard. Overall, the museum was an engaging experience to learn about the history of New Zealand.

To experience the flora and fauna of New Zealand, we went to the Auckland Zoo and the Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life aquarium. Auckland Zoo comprises of animals and birds native to Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Sri Lanka and South America. I saw for the first time, marsupials (Wallaby), emus and kiwis among numerous others, in this zoo. Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand and is unique to this country. Kiwis are nocturnal, flightless, colour blind endangered birds, approximately the size of a domestic hen. While we are on the subject of national symbols of New Zealand, another symbol is a fern leaf silver in colour. If you can’t straight away remember it, recollect the jersey of New Zealand cricket team. The silver fern is unique to New Zealand and is very pretty to look at. The upside of the leaf is in the usual green colour (found in other countries as well). However, the uniqueness of this fern is that it turns silver at the bottom side of the leaf. I wish I could carry one home but alas, that won’t work out. I fell in love with the silver fern and it will remain my favourite thing about New Zealand. In the Aquarium, I got to see penguins for the first time as well, along with stingrays, octopuses, seahorses, jellyfish, sharks, turtles, clown fish (Nemo) and other fish. Informative and intriguing, you should definitely visit these places when you are in Auckland if you love animals. In all of these indoor destinations in Auckland, there are interactive media to inspire, intrigue and teach children.

Whenever the weather permitted, we went to the beaches in Auckland – Mission Bay, Muriwai, Piha, Bethells and the North Shore beaches. From the city beaches on the eastern coast in the Pacific Ocean, you can see the grand, looming dormant volcano of the Rangitoto Island. These beaches swept still existent volcano debris to the shore. Muruwai, Piha and Bethells are on the western coast, which is the Tasman Sea. Each beach had their unique feature. On the way to Bethells beach, we pass through desert-like sand dunes formed over time. It is an intriguing phenomenon how a desert can exist so near to the sea. New Zealand is surrounded by Pacific Ocean on all sides. Quiz question, name all the 5 oceans. Keep thinking, google if you have to, but I am not giving you the answer. This also led me thinking, how many oceans I got to glimpse so far. Obvious one, Indian ocean around the Indian Peninsula, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. After a little research, Huntington Beach in Los Angeles flows into a part of Pacific Ocean, the Niagara Falls and Venice in Italy, Adriatic Sea meet the Atlantic Ocean. Yay!

You might be wondering how come I have come to the end of the article about Auckland without mentioning the Sky Tower or the Harbour Bridge. On the week leading to Waitangi Day, we got to witness the light show on the Harbour bridge. It was a spectacular sight with the backdrop of the dark night. The amazing part of the Sky Tower is that, it is visible from many parts of the city, on a clear day, even kilometres away. The view of the city from the ferry (we took one to Devonport) was picturesque. I don't know what it is with me and skylines, always love them, especially at night, be it of our own Mumbai, Singapore, New York City, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Paris, or Auckland.  

This chapter finishes but not my journey. 

Stay tuned, my friend, for more awe-inspiring tales from New Zealand.

Till then, Haere ra!