Where 25% of New Zealanders call home

  Auckland, New Zealand
Monday, April 16, 2007

Auckland is by far the largest city in New Zealand. In fact over 25% of the country's population is there. It was the first time we felt like we were really in a city. All the diversity that was lacking in the rest of the country was here. There are not just Polynesians but Asians, Indians, and all the other communities that we have found pocketed all over the world.

Of course there are campervan parks in the outskirts of the city. We chose the one closest to the rugby stadium. Dad decided when he came that he needed to see a rugby match while he was here. Not that he has any idea of how rugby is played. None of us have any idea how rugby is played. But, Kiwis are crazy about rugby so we thought it would be a good cultural experience.

We got tickets to the Blues game, the undefeated Auckland rugby team. They were playing the South African Sharks. Like Cricket, people have to travel a bit to compete in Rugby, even league rugby. Rugby was spread through the world by the British so many the far flung members of the British Commonwealth have a rugby league. While soccer eventually trumped rugby in worldwide popularity, New Zealand still see it as number one (followed next by cricket). They are obsessed. Every town has a rugby team and a rugby pitch.

We assumed that since it is was such a far away team the stadium would be full of Blues fans. This was not the case. It turns out a number of South Africans immigrated to New Zealand over the last few decades and they showed up in force. At least a third of of the fans in the stands were waving South African flags. The stadium announcer was terribly considerate to the Sharks and the Shark Fans "Thanks for coming to support your team, Shark fans." When the game was late in starting a guy walked through the stands and interviewed fans on the jumbotron, both Blues and Sharks fans. Some good natured ribbing took place but mostly they interviewed kids. Rugby is unbelievably brutal and played without pads of any sort but apparently the fans in NZ try to take the high road. No beating up opposing fans in the bathroom like Qwest Field.

We had read a "Rugby 101" primer on the internet but otherwise we were pretty lost. It is always harder to watch a game in person because you don't get the commentary from the play by play announcers. All we learned by the end is that rugby is much more physically strenuous than American football, you can't pass the ball forward with your hands and the Sharks are much better than the Blues. Much to the delight of the South African's present, the Sharks dominated the game and won by a wide margin.

We went to some farmers markets, always a hit with mom. It did give us a chance to get more of the delicious apples. We went into the city as well, to walk around a bit. It looks bad to say that you have been to a city if you haven't seen the downtown. The ferry to and from the city reminded us a bit of home.

It was finally time to say goodbye to Mom and Dad, as their plane left two days before ours. We did manage to fit in a trip to the Babich Winery, in the western suburbs. 

Wine Tasting at Babich Winery

Our great grandma was a Babich but we found out from the very nice Babich sister running the place that we are from a different region in Croatia. Babich is just a common name. We did do some wine tasting and bought some Babich t-shirts and hats to take back to the family.

After saying goodbye to Mom and Dad at the airport Julius and I went back to the campervan park for one last night in our van. Sniff. We will miss our campervan. It was a good home for the month. The next day it was turned in and we spent our last night in the downtown.

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Our downtown hostel was a dump. It was owned by the same people who owned the holiday park. The holiday park was nice enough so we figured, why not? We should of noticed all the descriptions of the views from the pamphlet. "Great Views" in a hostel description often means "We don't clean our rooms". It was an experiment in what will happen to a hostel if no one is in charge and no one wants to be in charge. They hired the most unmotivated people they could find, allowed them to not do their job and offered nothing to the guests. No toilet paper. No sheets. No chance to rent sheets. The receptionists explanation that they change their mattress covers every day was totally unconvincing. Our place had week old garbage in the room. She finally relented and gave us a sheet. We had our own toilet paper. The fridge was jammed with rotting food and condiments. I threw it all away. It felt great. The kitchen was filthy, the rooms were filthy but for some reason the housekeeper was very diligent about the toilet and sinks. The bathroom floor was caked with hair but the toilets and sinks were spotless. Thank goodness it was one night.

We had a few days to see the sights. We hit the maritime museum which kept the multicultural themes of the other museums. It focused many exhibits on the Polynesian ships that managed to sail the Polynesians all over the Pacific, including New Zealand. Quite impressive when you think that they did it over 1300 years ago. It is laughable that people used to think that the Polynesians just got on rafts and aimlessly drifted from island to island. Finally some Maori's built a ship like the ones their ancestors used (see their website here) They have traveled with it all over Polynesia to prove it could be done by using the stars. It also had plenty of exhibits on recent sailing and yachting exploits of the New Zealanders.

When we finished there we went to the Sky Tower, the major landmark on the New Zealand skyline. Very similar to the Space Needle but much taller. We were impressed. Read all about it here.

Our last day in NZ was spent at the Auckland Museum, a little bit of everything Kiwi all rolled into one place. The usual natural history and Maori history but this time with a floor dedicated to the armed forces of Australia and NZ (Known as the Anzac troops) and the later independent New Zealand troops. They did the Queen's bidding during WWI and WWII and suffered a lot for it, getting some bad assignments. In WWI they had a 58% casualty rate (killed or wounded), the largest percentage of any country in the war.

We had a late night flight to Cook Islands and yet another airport tax. This drives Julius crazy. It seems we never escape a country without forking over more money. At least the security people were all jolly at 11pm. Off we went to sunny weather and a much clearer calendar.
See all our Auckland photos on our Auckland Smugmug Page!