Without much to do on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to grab some lunch and head to Western Park. The sculptures in the photograph are modeled after three buildings that used to stand in Auckland. They frame the entrance to Western Park on Ponsonby Road. This is near the Brown Kiwi, where we stayed our first weeks in Auckland.

Western Park is one of the oldest parks in Auckland. It was built in the 1870’s, and is shaped like a coffin. Click here for more info.

After lunch, Beth tried to identify trees with the help of her Nature Guide to the New Zealand Forrest. Unfortunately, the trees in the park were mostly imported from Brittain and not found in the native field guide. We did locate a rather large zip line in the park. We swung down that a few times, and then some kids asked me what country I was from. They then asked if I was a gangster. I must look rather intimidating in my collared shirt and tortoise shelled spectacles.

While visiting the Auckland Museum, we watched a Maori group perform many traditional dances including the war dance, or Haka, shown above.

Haka is a dance traditionally performed by Maori (New Zealand natives of Polynesian descent) wariors before a battle, intended to intimidate the enemy. While performing Haka, Maori wariors stick out their tongues, dilate and contract their eyes so they appear to bulge with white, stomp, slap their chests, and chant.

Haka is also performed by the New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, before matches.

After the show, we explored the museum. It is huge, and I only had time for the first floor (Maori Court) dedicated to Maori history and culture. A large part of Maori Court is filled with carvings that resemble what we would call totem poles, but with distinctively Maori designs. Most feature faces sticking their tongues out. There were also large collections of Maori tools, clothing, jewelry, and weapons as well as an exhibit showing similar items from different polynesian islands. The Polynesian people spread from southeast Asia through Melenasia (New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, etc.) and then to Polynesia (Somoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, French Polynesia/Tahiti, Marshal Islands, Easter Island, New Zealand, etc). New Zealand was one of the last stops, believed to be populated around 1000AD.

I went looking for the public library and found out it is in the building next to ours. It is about a 100m walk from our door. I got a library card and checked out the library (no pun intended).

The library is a decent size, but not huge. There are three levels, one for fiction, one for non-fiction, and one for archives and special books on display.

Time to go make dinner.

The top of our building, St. James Apartments, has a rooftop deck. The deck comes equiped with a large grill, chairs, plants, sauna, and a view into downtown. The other night we had some friends over to grill and spend the evening hanging out on our rooftop patio.

Internet Update: No internet yet. Hopefully sometime in the next month. Telecom (the goverment owned phone/internet/everything company) had to reschedule our install date.

Telecom is also one of only two providers of mobile phone service in NZ. Becuase there are only two providers, and one is goverment owned, there is no real competition and prices are rediculous. Beth has a prepayed phone from Vodafone, the other provider. She pays 81c/minute to place any type of call. Most people here text instead, which costs 20c/text. Calling mobile phones from landlines is also expensive, costing something like $1.30/min. In short, Telecom is the enemy. But at the same time, they will be providing me with an internet connection.

Saturday morning we woke up early and caught the first (9:15am) ferry to Rangitoto. Rangitoto is a volcanic island not far from Auckland city. Rangitoto is the most recently formed volcano in the Auckland Volcanic field. It was formed from an eruption only six-hundred years ago. The entire island is volcanic rock. The black lava looks like plowed fields.

We walked to the summit (260m up) and around the crater rim. We ate lunch at the top – leftover sushi we had made the night before. We then walked down another side of the volcano to a beach, and then around the island to pick up the last ferry back at 5pm.

By the time we got back to Auckland everyone was exausted. We ate some Asian food at one of the many food courts, went home, and fell immediately asleep.

Note: I am writing this from one of the three internet cafes within 50m of our apartment. The internet cafes are filled with Koreans seemingly 24 hours a day playing Warcraft and other games.