They arrived on the previous Saturday afternoon. Their plane touched down half an hour earlier than scheduled, due to a significant tail wind. A strong wind across the Tasman Sea usually heralds wet weather in New Zealand, and, sure enough, the rain started almost as soon as they landed, and it’s still raining now! On Saturday night we braved the elements and walked to Toby’s, a local restaurant, which we’d heard good things about but had never been to. Toby’s is a small, shed-like building with a black metal cat on the roof. Inside it has wooden floors and low ceilings, and the tables are closely spaced, with lots of pot plants and wooden sculptures wedged in between them. The atmosphere was lively, with live music from a guitarist, and all the tables were full. However, people started leaving early, and by nine o’clock the place was almost entirely empty! I know that most Aucklanders get up early in the morning to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic, but the next day was Sunday, for goodness’ sake! Maybe everyone was hurrying off to a nightclub, but I doubt it.
On Sunday we did a few of the things on our wet weather itinerary. I can’t remember what we did in the morning. Maybe either Phil or Sally could help me out here! We spent most of the afternoon at Auckland Museum, and lost Phil amongst the aeroplanes in the World War II gallery. In the early evening we went to the viaduct harbour, the beating entertainment heart of central Auckland, but the torrential rain, coupled with the fact that it was a Sunday, meant that the usually lively bars and restaurants were almost completely deserted. It was a real washout. Nevertheless, we got to see the ice bar, and Phil took some pictures of the ice sculptures.
On Monday we went to Rotorua for a few days. We stayed at the Prince’s Gate Hotel, where Iain and I had stayed before. Like the Hotel de Wheels in Wellington, this hotel isn’t on it original site. It was built in the 1880s in another town entirely, but was moved to Rotorua during the First World War, where it was used as a military hospital.
We spent the evening at a traditional ‘Maori village’. This is the sort of thing that we probably would never have done if we’d been on our own, but we’re glad we did it because it was excellent. We watched a concert with traditional Maori dancing and singing, and the ‘chief’ told us a few traditional stories and explained some of the weapons, as well as the meaning of his ‘moko’, or tattoos. After the concert we had a meal that included meat and vegetables cooked in the traditional way, in a ‘hangi’ or earth pit oven. After the meal, which was very good, we went for a bush walk. Our guide told us about some of the trees and how the Maori used them, and we saw hundreds of blue-green glow-worms and a freshwater spring containing a family of eels. We had a really enjoyable evening. Here are some pictures of it.
Scary Haka
The Chief gives a graphic explanation of the use of the greenstone club
Beer, puddings and jetlag catch up with Phil
You may be thinking that because we’re updating our blog properly, that we’ve now got the internet at home at last. You’d be wrong. This blog entry is courtesy of ‘cut and paste’. We’ve been waiting for ten weeks now, and Telecom have put our connection date back EIGHT times. It’s getting beyond a joke. Iain rang them yesterday afternoon and managed to speak to a senior manager, who told him he had no idea when we would get connected as they were having technical problems, so it looks like we’ll be making daily visits to Starbucks for a while yet! ☹
I’ll post the next instalment of the visit report some time in the next few days.
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