Auckland 9.30.2009

I started off my last day in Auckland by walking to the Auckland Domain. Along the way was the original cemetary of the city. It was only used between 1842 and 1886, shortly after colonization when the need for a cemetary first arose. After the city was more developed, the CBD had grown to contain the cemetary and construction in the area destroyed many of the tombstones. Some of these stones have since been replaced, but throughout the cemetary there are piles of rubble scattered over the graves instead of the headstones they once were.

The domain contains numerous modern art sculptures spread around the park in fields between trees and forested areas. In the center of the domain are two greenhouses and fernery. The fernery contains New Zealand endemic ferns (of which there are 80) as well as some native species that are found in other countries as well.

Also in the domain is the Auckland museum. It has an overwhelming amount of information covering Maori and Pacific island heritage, white settler history, geology, ecology and dinosaurs—who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

Next, I headed through Albert Park to get to the Auckland Art Gallery. It had an exhibition of New Zealand painter Rita Angus as well as one with various works relating to Captain Cook’s arrival and the interaction of Maori with white settlers.

I finally headed off to the library for a look at an exhibition on “Jumping Sundays” in Albert Park in 1969. On Sundays during that year, Aucklanders upset over the Vietnam war gathered in the park for concerts and protest speeches. The name was coined because of the jumping, dancing and musical (read: hippie) methods of protesting the war.

I got to the airport well ahead of schedule. My flight was at 10pm, but being an international flight I got there a couple hours early. The entire place was near empty. It was actually rather eerie. Five people stood at the security checkpoint waiting for me to approach, and within seconds I was on my way to the gate with two hours to kill. I opted to spend the time browsing through duty free shops for absolutely nothing in particular. I compared prices between stores, calculated how much items cost in Australian dollars and in U.S. dollars, and learned about the region’s wine selection by an enthusiastic fellow in one of the stores. I ended up buying some gifts for my housemates and spent the rest of the time being bored and drawing on a note for them to see when they woke up in the morning.

My flight was amazing. For some reason Qantas has yet to give into the general mentality of not serving complimentary food to its passengers. On the three-hour red-eye flight they served dinner with drinks (incl. wine), a post-dinner tea and coffee, and ice cream for dessert.