Auckland and surrounds

Early morning Auckland. The sun just coming up on a sleepy city. The view we had from this condo was great. We could see the bridge going to the suburbs, the marina, everything!
On the warm days, we even sat out on the balcony to eat lunch.


















Now we're cooking. The day gets going.















The development in this port area has given a great vitality to the downtown core. There were a lot of swish shops and restaurants.










The parks had some pretty spectacular specimens of old trees. The lichen growing on the tree is supposed to mean the air is very clean.















I see an influence for architecture here, don't you?
















University of Auckland grounds. Very English in style with a few Kiwi twists here and there, mainly the exotic plants.













This is a perfect contrast of summer and winter and trees that are not native to New Zealand doing their winter thing.












The architecture in New Zealand is quite beautiful A lot of it is in woods, because of the ample supplies available during colonization. Hence no more Kauri trees, practically.





















A great example of stencil grafitti. I loved it!

























Karangahape road. This is supposed to be the "cool" area. Lots of fun coffe houses and eateries, alternative and second hand shops mixing with upscale designer shops. Even though it rained on and off, it was warm and "cool".












More of the Street!
An example of post Victorian row housing shops. I was reading a book about an author born in Auckland and living on this road during the depression and second world war.














A city Marai and school for the Maori community. It was located in a beautiful area just a short walk from Karangahape Rd. School was just coming out.








Coming up a street, we passed this behind the scenes of shops on the "K" road and saw that things had not changed much, except for the satellite dishes, of course.















I went back to the train station to take pictures of the interior. It had the most stainless steel I had ever seen in any architectural application.















These were the light openings for the train station. From outside, they looked like tits!


























We took ferries to get to areas of the city that were away from the downtown. This day, we were going to a park to see some Kauri trees.
















A view of the ferry terminal, from a ferry.










A view of Auckland as we pull further out into the harbour.
The portlands from the bay. We walked past it one day and watched with fascination as they moved containers at speed with these great forklifts specially for containers. Kind of scary when you think of the size of those things.










The bridge we are about to pass under. The temperature was very temperate, the only consideration being that the rain could come down at any time, so, be prepared.
We took a ferry to Birkenhead, where we could then walk to a conservation area that boasted some Kauri trees. I really wanted to see these trees.










The walk up from the ferry took us through the "parking lot" a very lovely light with the passing rain.



















This park was a great scrambling climb, skidding down and tramping all around. There was mud and dry and swamp. It was hot work and fun!

























This is just a small portion of a Kauri tree. The top is another 80 feet up! This is apparently a very young tree.


























There were Tuis everywhere. Inquisitive and curious, they followed us around the park.




















This was such a magic place.

















Lacework beyond belief! This was a small park in a suburb.





















Wonderful colour in the plants, even in winter!

















A great view as we come over the bridge back into Auckland. We had had a great day and a great excursion!

Wellington, train ride, Auckland

WELLINGTON

Click on any image to get the large size of it. It's a good way to catch the detail.

I had about four days in Wellington before taking the train to a week in Auckland. The weather was cool and gray, raining on and off, so I enjoyed visiting both inside and outside sights. The sculpture is a lazer cut metal ball that is hung in the air. The is a cone in the same style in Christchurch, obviously by the same artist.













There are a lot of civic sculptures in and around Wellington. It makes for a very picturesque city. There are also bicycles everywhere. Look right, then left and develop the ears of a bat to hear them behind you!













The bollards are leading to a great information/travel place. The whole country is organized with these sites so you can make travel arrangements, tours, etc. You can book your next hostel from there and pay for it too. All is computerized and efficient. I loved it!










The marina is right in the core downtown, also right beside the Te Papa museum. The whole dockside was renewed in the last 15 years or so. From a rough and ready portlands to a very swish place for people, condos and restaurants.














This is the stadium for cricket, also right in the downtown core. I has a vaguely religious feel to it and was clean beyond all words!
















The whole city is built on the sides of hills. Homes are perched (seemingly precarious) on whatever piece of ground they can get. Staircases are all over and getting in and out on them is sometimes the only access to houses.
Here, the contrast of the home on the right to the one on the left is quite startling, for the paint job. Apparently, because of the sea air, paint needs to be refreshed about every 3 to 4 years!











I did a lot of hiking with my sister and we visited a lot of hilltops and saw some great views of the city and it's surroundings.































This is a great view of the city, the harbour and the vegetation that make up this place. The air always has a fresh scrubbed feeling and you can breathe deeply. The wooded areas have that wet moss smell when it rains and the sounds are very shrouded and mysterious.








This really shows the precarious building that goes on in a place that has small quakes going on all the time. I wonder what kind of ties they put in to hold these places on?












This is what I mean about getting to a house with difficult access! The parking platform built way above the house and the staircase to go down. Can you imagine moving day let alone groceries? Or the climb up the hill, with the groceries to get to this place?











The charm of the gardens in Wellington is amazing. Not only are the cottages adorable, the soil is great for the green thumb and the temperate climate does all it can to help. Lots of rain in summer and winter makes everything VERY green.










A great view of Wellington homes and the beautiful grasses being the decoration on this cake.














Amazing aloe has a chance to grow to stupendous sizes. There are tons of varieties and colours to look at.This photo is only one of about 300 pictures I took of flora while on this trip.











Nina and I walked everyday. Even the morning after I arrived. I felt great and the exercise go rid of the kinks from the air trip there. We are on a tootle toward the botanical gardens. They are an amazing visit all on their own!






This is a small park we walked through that had a wonderful spooky feel to it. The city has an enormous amount of preserved and protected green space in it.
















More civic sculpture. I forgot to write the name down of this character and his dog. Of course you already know I took a picture because of the dog. Again, you see all the stairs in the background as this short street has access to the next street by stairs (or sometimes escalator) to the next street.















This is part of the train ride from Wellington to Auckland. We left the station at 7am and all the pictures of the train itself are not quite in focus, thus not on show. The journey was twelve hours long and passed through some spectacular countryside. We saw the clouds that surrounded Mt. Taranaki and gorges with incredible white cliffs, waterfalls and a country side full of all kinds of animals and birds. Train windows can both help and hinder. One of the few pictures of me in the whole trip.




This is the beginning of some nice weather we had for the whole trip. We only got a little rain on the rest of the three weeks in NZ and I was grateful for that. As a matter of fact, I never used my built in backpack rain cover!











I was constantly stunned by the wonderful light during the trip. It is very hard to describe. This picture is still in the morning!














The light coming in and out of the clouds, cutting across the sides of hills. All so gorgeous.















The sheep are everywhere! They carve lines of paths in the hills that make them look like terracing.










These scenes make me think of the old British paintings. The shapes of the trees, the colours. No wonder the new comers to this country loved it so much. Yes, it was a challenge to conquer the landscape, but they had it in them to reproduce their far away homes. And they did. Just visit Christchurch NZ to see a caricature of England.








This picture caught my eye on one of the slow to stop parts of the train journey. It is now a 2' x 5' painting in an impressionistic style. It was the combination of the sky and the dark light on the ground that got me.
















Small town NZ. This was a stop where you could get out and stretch your legs. They had meat pies and drinks in a little tea room, a local dog standing around hoping for handouts and a lot of local people seeing of friends.








We finally arrived in Auckland after eight o'clock and were whisked to a friend's condo in the marina area of the city. We were tired but happy to be there.