Rangitoto island & Auckland arts 9.24.2009

In the morning, my cell phone had somehow managed to revert to Melbourne time. I had missed the first boat to Rangitoto. So I ran off to the wharf and found out there was a little more than an hour before the next boat. To kill time, I opted to wander some more and came across an exhibition of design proposals for Queen's Wharf. There was an entire room full of these proposals created by citizens and architects alike. Everyone who visited was encouraged to vote on the designs and write comments to the artists to consider before the next round. It was interesting to see what type of designs people were interested in, and fun to think I may have had a part in the future of Auckland's cityscape.

Rangitoto Island, the newest and largest of the 48 volcanoes in the Auckland area, was once a popular vacation spot. People had baches (short for bachelor's house) and would escape the city life and/or family to go on holiday at their bach. These houses were deemed illegal use of the land when it became a scenic reserve, so now there are only a few, uninhabited ones left standing. There was also a jail on the island for Auckland area inmates. The prisoners did public service by building the restrooms, boardwalks and paths to the summit on the island.

Environmentally, the island had an interesting mix of things to take note of. There are typical volcanic features, such as heaps of aa and lava caves. Then there are gullies (with the rare kidney fern), open fields and forest. There is also an extensive amount of red dirt.

I hiked the path to the summit, though it was foggy and I did not expect to have a good view from the top. My assumption was correct, but the hike was enjoyable and allowed me to see how the different areas produced significantly different types of flora. Along the way I passed through the kidney fern gully, which was gorgeous. The fern is a ground cover, but also grows up tree trunks and covers them in a bright green, bubbly looking coat.

Though I did not have a flashlight, I also took a side trip to the lava caves because, well, I love spelunking. My plan was to just go a slight way inside and come back out, but then I realized I had my keys in my bag--and the keychain light that my father gave me a while back did the job perfectly. If they don't yet advertise "impulsive spelunking" on the package, they should.

Earlier in the day, at the wharf design exhibition, I had picked up an event brochure for Auckland's Heritage Week. So on the boat ride back to the city, I looked it through and found a free event to go to that evening. It was only a few blocks from my hotel, too. The event was highlighting High Street and included a small art exhibition and two folk musicians. I had arrived early, being of the impression that the show would start at the time specified in the little booklet (why wouldn't I assume that?) so I struck up a conversation with a very sweet Kiwi woman. Rather, she struck up a conversation with me and decided we should be friends for the evening. She was quite enamoured with some of my American snippets and told me all about her family's history, as well as some general Auckland history. The musicians were great. There was also free food, cake and wine. New Zealand really does make a good Sauvingon Blanc.