More City of Sails

Yesterday, K and I enjoyed a visit to two local farmers markets to start our day 2 in Auckland, New Zealand.  Our first market stop was one near our hotel and center city.  Below, K is making friends with the local "wildlife" feeding them part of her morning pastry we picked up at the market.

The other market we visited was much larger and was out in Parnell.  Parnell is one of Auckland's oldest - and now very quaint - suburbs.  Cute little shops and restaurants line the street (picture below).  For those from the Twin Cities it would be like Edina.  For those from Buffalo, it would be Orchard Park.

From Parnell, it was a short bus ride up to the Domain (Auckland's large city park - kind of like its Central Park) and the Auckland War Museum (their Smithsonian - but on a much smaller scale).  Auckland has been wonderful, but if you take the bus (very clean but also a little more expensive than buses in the US) listen carefully to the announcements, know where you are, and know your stops.  If there is a hit against anything in Auckland it is that streets are not real well marked and the bus announcements leave you wanting.  Also, you need to tell the bus driver when you want off (you push a button to ring a bell) or he/she just keeps on trucking past your stop (yep - we missed one or two stops).

The Auckland War Museum sits on top of a hill in the Domain and looks down over the city.  The Domain is actually an old volcano.  My posting from yesterday shows the Domain in one of the pictures I took from Skytower.  You can see it was a little cloudier/damp yesterday in Auckland (but still quite warm).

 

 

The Auckland War Museum (they now just call it the Auckland Museum, but many disagree with that renaming) is again focused on New Zealand and to a lesser extent to the surrounding Pacific islands.  Below are some pictures from some of the museum.

 Some Maori artifacts

 A Maori storage hut (for food, valuables, etc.)

 A Maori War boat - carried 80-100 warriors to battle.  One of the last known surviving boats.
We also attended a Maori cultural show there where they explained some of their customs and dance.  Here is a small video.  [Note:  K and I found that videos didn't seem to show up when using a tablet or smartphone.  To see the videos you may need to view this post using a laptop or other full computer.]

The Maori were many things but two become evident as you see their works and learn about them as a people.  They were master craftsmen and they were a warring people. From simple raw materials, they were able to fashion some ingenious and ornate items  Some very practical (fishing gear, clothes, etc.).  Other items were just ceremonial or had religious meaning.  From boats, to clothes, to tools... everything was decorated.  They were amazing wood workers.  The art of carving and woodworking was a man-only occupation of great honor.  Women were not allowed to watch or even clean up after the woodworking.  The carving debris was clean up and burned in sacred ritual -less the women use the shavings for something as unholy as cooking.  Try to square that with the wives fellas.

The art work got more sophisticated after Europeans arrived and provided the Maori with sharper metal instruments.  Below, similar hut roofs are shown before (black) and after European arrival (red).  While both were amazing, I hope you can tell the kind of minute detail that was carved into the red/latter piece.  Entire buildings were made in this type of fashion.  I can't imagine the amount of time that went into work like this.

As I indicated, they also fought a lot.  I asked our tour guide (Pamela) how often and who thee Maori fought.  She kind of chuckled and said (quietly) "each other all the time."  "Tribes versus tribe, subtribe versus subtribe...", sometimes it was over something significant and sometimes it could have been a small slight between head tribesmen.  A lot of time and preparation - by whole groups of people - was spent preparing for war and in fighting.

The relationship with the British started off very peaceful and fairly advanced for the time.  Back in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British and the Maori, which put New Zealand and the Maori under the British crown but promised no taking of lands/resources without permission of the Maori.  Of course, the interpretation and understanding of the treaty was something the Maori argue (even to this day).  As is the case in history, there were many abuses by the "western" settlers.  So, it is not surprising that this warring people ultimately started warring with the British as well.

As mentioned, the museum was ultimately established as a memorial for New Zealand's war dead and wounded.  Most of the third floor of the museum is a marble wall scroll of those killed in NZ's various wars (see picture below).  If you will, very much like a Vietnam Memorial indoors.  There are many markers and remembrances to the wars and those that fought in them on the grounds and in the museum.  The architects of the building were 3 veterans from WWI.  That is why the name change is a bit of a issue among some Kiwi's.  The museum appears to be trying to decide if it wants to be a museum of all things NZ or does it want to be a war memorial.  It tries to be both right now - and I think well - but I could see where for a small/younger country it is still trying to define that which is educational from that which is sacred and about honor.

There are a lot of interesting artifacts from the wars (all the way from Maori wars to Afghanistan war) in the museum to compliment the war museum aspect as well (including the Japaneses Zero pictured above).

To conclude our day, we hiked Mt. Eden.  This is an extinct volcano that lies on the edge of downtown Auckland and provides stunning views of Auckland.  It served as a triangulation point when the city was first being planned in the 1800's.  Auckland sits atop 55 volcanoes.  As one of the exhibits in the War Museum suggested, "it is not if but when" that the next one (or an old one) will start up again.  They predict a 15-60% chance of one developing in the next 50 years. Here are a few pictures from the mountain (note the picture of the crater found at the top - not that's a hole!).

After hiking to the top, we stopped off at a set of restaurants/shops at the foot of the mountain for beer/wine and snack.  I snapped this picture from our table looking back up to the mountain.  Yep - we climbed the whole way to the top folks - and K didn't complain a bit (well not too much).

Lastly, I don't remember how or where I got turned on to the discussions of the various don't walk/walk street signs around the world, but it is something silly that has always fascinated me during our travels.  You can read a bit about this issue here.  Back in the days of west vs. communist block, there were whole philosophical discussions about the don't walk/walk signs and how they represented cultural decisions.  In NZ, they have a cute little walking man sign that I tried to capture on video.  Its a little grainy but you get the idea.  Far more exciting than the "DONT WALK" lights we have in the US.

We had dinner in a little Italian restaurant back in Parnell.  Don't believe any Kiwi that tells you the pizza is fit for one - split it with the one you love or suffer another notch in your belt that night.