Bishop Auckland

I've only written 2 words in 3 days. So this is likely to be a mess. Before getting to Auckland few people were gushing about it. Once here I've met a number of long termers who are working and a lot of folk who're just here to catch a flight. One girl arrived at 7 pm and left for the airport 8 hours later. I guess I've been a little disappointed in Auckland, as I haven't really spent that much time strictly in the city, but it's been good final few days.

I had half a day after my arrived from Paihia and decided to head straight over to Devonport. It’s one of those cute suburbs that gets recommended to tourists. The twist is that you take a ferry to cross over the bay to get there. I had a bit of a potter round, even looked in shop windows (which is pretty unlike me) as I looked for the second hand bookshop I’d read about. It was a blinder and had far too much for me as I had nothing particular in mind. After stumbling around aimlessly, I got some more literature as I seem to be into worthy (as opposed to sport) reading at the moment. The lady who owned the place was well fired up to hear about my trip, maybe they don’t get a lot of tourists-seemed hard to believe. After that I went up one of the volcanic craters for some panoramic views, including this sight of Rangitoto, Auckland’s most recent volcano (it came out of the sea 600 years ago) and Thursday’s destination.



Tuesday was the only day I really spent in Auckland and even that was a little broken up. I started the day by hiking across to the big car hire street to arrange something for tomorrow’s trip to the Coromandel peninsula. Needless to say I was delighted to give my money to Racing Ray Williams, who won a lot of things racing Porsches-he’d even been to Britain to win stuff. Top bloke Ray and he gave me lot of helpful info and let me pick up the car in the evening and drop it the following morning so I really got my day’s worth of hire.

I then walked to the Auckland Museum, thinking how flat and close this had all looked on the map. The museum is over 3 levels and each one has a focus-NZ, Natural History and War. It was all pretty well done; I found the war section, especially WW2 the most interesting. They had a room just on the holocaust, which made me think how wise Austria is to make holocaust denial a criminal offence. There are still survivors out there.

Then I had some more organisation to do before heading off to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater world. From the photos and all it is abundantly clear that Kelly Tarlton was a right old hippy, who loved diving. His place, completed just 7 weeks before his death aged 47, is an interesting mix of aquarium and Antarctic centre. I’ve seen a lot of fish, so was drawn by the latter complete with a mock up of Scott’s hut (he was the only not to sleep in a bunk) and penguins



which we saw from a snowmobile moving round a fake Antarctic. The feeding of the rays was impressive-they got out the water quite a lot. I was just about to leave when I saw that the ‘cinema’ at the end was playing the Blue Planet. Not wishing to miss a bit of the greatest living Englishman, I decided to head in and catch the next shuttle an hour later-time enough to watch the Open Ocean. The shuttle bus of course was the single biggest reason for going.



As it was getting dark and I was unable to walk much further I picked up my car from Ray and headed for Mount Eden, which I eventually found (signposting is not an art here). By now it was dark and I just some night views over the city. I was most taken by the cows living up the mountain, so may I present ‘Auckland and Cow, by night’




Coromandel

Everyone I met who’d been said it was lovely, so I made the early start as the Coromandel peninsula is a long drive. Staying up talking with Jill till 2 a.m. was obviously great preparation. I made good time as I was heading out of the city and against the traffic. Even so this became a day of near misses-I was meant to go on a weird train ride. I can’t tell you any more as I got stuck behind some old Percy on the road and missed it by a couple of minutes. I was a bit pissed to say the least, as I had put my foot down, missed a couple of scenic photos and didn’t even stop for Die Hard Creek. Similarly when I went to Hot Water Beach (dig a hole in beach, sit in hot thermal water), I was just too late for the tides. So it’s just as well I went bone carving. I stood outside the shop as I was unsure, but decided to give it a go. You get to choose what to carve and I went for one of the fish hook designs, due mostly to the meaning



Most appropriate. You start with a rough cut, which you then attack with a dentist’s drill taking out the centre and rounding the edges. This gives a genuine sense of the shape to come and when I’d done this I thought I was well on the way. Then I found that the real time is spent sanding. It’s a tough old bit of bone and you hold it in your hands and a vice and really give it some. Even so it’s fiddly and I needed a bit of help tidying up so that the shape was consistent. Finally it’s a wet sand, which was cool, and a polish. The whole thing took over 2 hours and I think I achieved quite a transformation.



I don’t think the bone carvers of the world need fear much from me, but I did get quite a lot of encouragement from my lovely teachers. One even enquired if I did a lot craft work-I bet she says that to all the boys. And no, I do not know what the Vegetarian Society’s stance on bone carving is.

I made a couple of swift stops at Cathedral cove and a Captain Cook memorial, then headed back to Auckland. 12 hours after leaving, having missed 2 of the main sights, I was back at Verandahs. If you do go, go for 2 days. 1 was silly.


Rangitoto

It’s a conspiracy, due a lack of maps I didn’t make the most of the trip Rangitoto. I was going to pick one up from the DOC, whose office is by the ferry. I dropped my car off before 8, bought lunch and had an hour before the ferry went at 9.15. Conveniently, the DOC opened at 9.30, so I was left to follow signs and hope I picked a good route. This led to me missing the larva caves, which sounded very exciting. Hopefully there are some on Easter Island. The development of flora on the island is fascinating as rock isn’t usually great for plants and in places just rock remains, next to trees and bushes.



There were even mangroves growing in rock (with a bit of mud). Here I am sat on top of a volcano.



And if I was planning to take over the world and needed a secret evil base, then this crater would be a winner.



I finished up the day packing, buying a few bits and reconfirming my flights. After a charm offensive in person at the Qantas office I can now fly back from Rio to the UK in October, saving me a few air miles.....to go somewhere else.


The Longest Day

My name is John van de Poll, and today is the longest day of my life.

I pity Jack Bauer when the international date line gets involved in 24. My flight to Santiago takes off just before dinner time, then lands just before lunchtime-11 and a half hours later ON THE SAME DAY. I know it's essentially arbitrary, but that messes with my brain.

I spent the morning at the Art Gallery, where I managed to go to the wrong building for the Passion and Politics show I wanted to see, paid to get in to see something much better. Then I went to the British stuff round the corner. Now I’m waiting to go to the airport.