 |
| Auckland from the Sky Tower |
 |
| 'Black Magic' |
 |
| Auckland City Museum |
Waiting for lost luggage isn't all that bad when you have a year off work and can sit in the sun, drinking beer on the Auckland waterfront.
We wandered around the self styled 'City of Sails' and marvelled at New Zealand's winning America's Cup yacht, 'Black Magic' that towers over the dock side hard standing. Built with the proceeds of a whip round at the local shopping centre by a band of plucky Kiwi shop assistants, using only tooth-picks and super glue, it saw off the mighty Americans and sent them home with their keel between their legs.
At the Auckland museum, we saw the Maori prototype of 'Black Magic', carved from a 30m log and learned about the sensitive colonisation of the place during the 18th century Musket Wars. We walked through the City Botanical Park where they grow in the open air, all the delicate succulents that die within a week of arriving from the garden centre, at home.
I made the arduous 328m climb up the the Sky Tower. The stairs were malfunctioning at the time so I caught the lift instead. Weighing as much as 6000 elephants and as high as 37 double decker buses, it gave spectacular views of the city, or would have done had the view not been obscured by people throwing themselves off the top at 3 minute intervals. There is an unseemly squabble between Kuala Lumpur, Wellington, Melbourne and Auckland as to who has the tallest man made structure in the Southern Hemisphere.
I think the prize should go to the one with the fully operational staircase.
No comments:
Post a Comment