Living in Auckland

Having spent the past couple of years living in suburbia, it’s a welcome change of pace to be living in a city again. We’re just starting to uncover all the layers Auckland has, but our experiences thus far have been top notch. Some highlights: (1) if you’re an Auckland resident you can get into museums for free. We've been to the Auckland Museum (see previous post) and the maritime museum (Auckland is the world’s capital for sailing). Planning to visit MOTAT this weekend which is a museum dedicated to transportation and technology in New Zealand. (2) Food is easily accessible. Grocery store is maybe half a mile away and within a couple blocks of the apartment is a diverse selection of ethnic restaurants. (3) The library system is amazing. They have a website that you can look up and request books be sent to the local branch. Dana is reading a few books of John Grisham and I’m working on 1491 – New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. (4) There is a bus that runs every ten minutes from our neighborhood to downtown. (5) Several cool parks with stately trees (expecting they will look even better in the summer) and well maintained open grass areas.

Couple of pictures: 



Cornwall Park



Auckland Skyline



One Tree Hill

There was a native tree at the site of this monument when British settlers arrived, however it was supposedly cut down for an unknown reason (speculated it may have been for firewood). And from my understanding there have been various trees that have been planted at the top of the hill that have either not survived or Maori activists have taken down to show displeasure with the New Zealand government. So now there is a monument, and the hill isn’t living up to its name. A little disappointing. However….the panoramic view of the city is fantastic. Not surprisingly this used to be an area of volcanic activity and this cone erupted 20 – 30,000 years ago.

I’ll leave you with two other highlights for us. Dana found some hazelnut coffee. Upon seeing it in the store she tossed it into the cart and flashed the biggest smile I’ve seen out of her in NZ. New Zealanders love their coffee strong, Dana likes her coffee weak and flavored- looks like she won this round! We also found an Asian farmers market with tons of cheap produce. Eleven kiwi fruit for $0.90 NZ. Should have bought more, we’re down to just one remaining kiwi fruit after 3 days. All of you in the US, keep an eye out for my new kiwi fruit import/export business.

This week has been bitter cold with some parts of the country seeing snow for the first time in over 35 years! Dana has the weekend off, so we are hoping it warms up enough to explore one of the islands in the Auckland harbour...