Auckland
Auckland is a cool, clean, very hipster city, in my view. More yachts in the harbor than you can shake a stick at, and a foodie scene that’s expensive beyond perhaps its value. (We’re not crazy about green-lipped mussels.)
One of the attractions in the harbor is to take a two-hour tour aboard an Americas Cup-style yacht. This is my harbor-side sketch of one belonging to the “explore” company:
We took a tour of the area, very touristy, but with limited contacts and time, I think it was a good choice. It was led by a half Maori (pronounced MA-di, by the way) half Irish woman who was very proud of her Maori heritage. Justifiably, I think. More on that? buy me a beer sometime.
One of the stops was a black-sand beach. To be honest, to me the more interesting bit was the view from the beach:
On the whole, though, I’m eager to see the other cities of New Zealand.
Friday, December 29 — we drive to the Coromandel Peninsula
The nature in New Zealand is simply amazing. I absolutely love the trees, the flowers that seem to take over the ground. Love it. There’s one tree in particular that I fell in love with at first sight, the pohutukawa. It’s in bloom now, and has red flowers that just cover the crowns of some trees, as in the picture above. Here’s a not-very-good watercolor I did on New Year’s Eve of groves of pohutukawa, accented with the red flowers. I was standing in a meadow at the top of Shakespeare Lookout over Lonely Bay in Coromandel, and one of the groves had a sort of arched entrance into it. Enchanting.
The view of the bay below is lovely. There is just something appealing about the landscape here.
We had a terrific tour of the peninsula by a conservationist/environmentalist, Doug Johansen, the great-grandson of a gold miner. He showed us specimens of various other indigenous New Zealand trees, such as the kauri, which resembles the American redwood, and can reach sizes that match those of our sequoias, and the rata, which reminds me of strangler vine, but also of the banyan. I will try to do paintings of these. The photos we’ve attempted don’t do these justice.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Well, we lorded it over our friends back home that we got to the New Year ’way before they did. The standard, smart-ass response by Kiwis to New Year’s wishes from other parts of the world is “Oh, that’s so last year!” Yes, they can be that way.
In the morning, right after breakfast we headed south for Taupo. On the way, we stopped to see Hobbiton, the tourist site that is a preserved set from the Lord of the Rings movies. I thought, “Oh, well. We’ll be right there. Let’s do it.” It was actually amazing. Yes, it is a tourist trap, attracting thousands, but what is impressive is the amount of loving care and detail that went into its construction. Let me give you an example: According to our guide, for the two weeks before the camera crews arrived on set, Jackson had someone walk to each of the closthelines that dot the set twice a day. In the morning he hung wash on each line; each evening he brought in the laundry. The purpose of this exercise had nothing to do with the laundry. By making these repetitive trips, the “launderer” carved paths in the lawns, making them look worn-in!
Tomorrow we do some touring around Lake Taupo.