Auckland

The Auckland Quaker Centre is a larger, roomier, and sunnier building than the one here. On the other hand, guests stay right in the same house with the Resident Friends in Auckland, whereas here we have more privacy, with the guest rooms separate and having their own entrance. There were lots of activities during our week. Besides Sunday Meeting for Worship, we participated in two different discussion groups, one Thursday evening and one before the Wednesday noon Meeting for Worship. There was a Tuesday morning walking group, which included many of the same people as the Thursday evening discussion group, all of whom we knew from Yearly Meeting or visits to Wellington. There was also a Saturday evening shared meal and activity, which for October was decorating Christmas fruitcakes. This was a real cross-cultural experience, because we have nothing like it that I know of in the States. First, we don’t decorate fruit cake; second, I don’t think you could get similar icing. To decorate, first you roll out an almond paste icing from a can until it is big enough to drape over the cake, which is about 8 inches square, encasing and preserving it so you can store it in a cupboard until Christmas. Then you roll out sugar icing from a can until you can drape it over the almond icing. Then you take sugar icing that you have mixed with various food colors, and cut out or form shapes to stick on top. People made Santa Clauses, angels, trees, holly leaves, stars and animals. It was fun to watch.

One of the things that surprised us about Auckland is that I think of it as flat and Wellington as hilly. However, walking around Auckland, we went up and down hills much more frequently than we do walking around Wellington, so I felt we got in good shape there. Walking downtown is at least a kilometer down hill; often we took the bus or train back, but sometimes we walked. As I said before, our first day there we mostly rested up, so Friday when we were on our own, we walked downtown and went first to the Auckland Art Gallery. They had a special show of the paintings of Rita Angus, a 20th century NZ artist. I was very impressed. In some ways she reminded me of Frida Kahlo in her use of color and a somewhat flat and stylized design. There were landscapes, portraits and still lifes.
http://images.google.co.nz/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=rita+angus+paintings&cr=countryNZ&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=sfMNS46_CpHSsQPO_sDHDA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQsAQwAA

Next we walked down to the harbor and took the short ferry ride to Devonport. We walked up to the top of the hill there and had a great view of the outer bay with all its islands. The closest is the newest volcano in the Auckland region, Rangitoto, which erupted out of the sea about 600 years ago – within Maori times. Apparently each period of volcanic activity is centered around a new vent, so none of the volcanoes get very tall, but that is why there are some 40 volcanic hills within Auckland. Wellington only has an earthquake threat! After lunch, we continued walking around the town, which has many examples of 19th century NZ houses.

We went to the Auckland Museum in the Domain, a big park, twice. We enjoyed their Maori and Pacific Island wings. They also had one of the better displays on natural history and NZ evolution that I have seen. It was easy to follow and not too overwhelming. Did you know that the kiwi, about the size of a chicken, lays an egg about the same size as an ostrich’s? I also really enjoyed their exhibit on volcanoes. In one area, you are sitting in a living room with a lovely view of the harbor and Devonport while the TV is telling you about the warning signs that a volcanic eruption is imminent, so Auckland is being evacuated. Then the building shakes, the electricity goes off, the sea in front of you starts to boil, a volcano starts to appear, and then a pyroclastic wave sweeps through and we all die. Very realistic. I should think most people would move somewhere else. Of course, no one thinks it will happen in their life time. At least you do get warnings about volcanic activity. Earthquakes usually strike without warning. The Domain also has a lovely pair of conservatories, called the Winter Gardens, with orchids and other tropical plants. For some reason there is a tall plinth in the outside garden with a statue of a cat on it, which looks like it is batting at a butterfly.

Saturday, October 24, was a World Climate Day of Action, sponsored by 350.org. 350 is the level of carbon in the atmosphere we should try and stay under, except that I think we have already exceeded it. A number of people from the Meeting joined a couple of hundred people on the top of Mt. Eden where there was a large 350 sign on the hillside. We could see at least one other group on another nearby hill. We sang and made noise for about an hour, and then trooped down the hill to a small festival in the park. It was fun, but I didn’t see anything in the newspaper the next day. We had also seen an interesting school kid demonstration downtown the previous day. The kids were at an intersection where the “walk” signal is for all four directions. They would wait at all four corners and when the walk signal went green, they would all cross, making noise and shouting 350. In between, on the corners, they were singing “We are the Children.” Although there seems to be a lot of grassroots concern about climate change in NZ, the recent election voted in a more conservative government, which does not want to make farmers or business pay to reduce carbon emissions.


Among other places we saw was the new Anglican Cathedral, which has the largest expanse of stained glass in the Southern Hemisphere. On the same property is an old wooden church, which is even bigger than the wooden one here in Wellington. We thought one window there depicted St. Eustatius, since it had a deer in it, but it turned out to be the Welsh St. Aidan.






The walking group went to One Tree Hill, which is a large park with many interesting trees, some old buildings, and another hill top view of Auckland. We also went to an historic home, Highwic, built by a well-to-do landowner in the 19th century.






And we saw the Rainbow Warrior memorial at the waterfront where it was bombed.







One day we took a ferry ride to one of the bigger, further out islands, Waiheke, where there is a Quaker House. It is used for retreats by individuals or small groups and has a Meeting for Worship twice a month. Monday October 26 was NZ’s Labor Day long weekend, so they were having a work weekend, and we went out to help. Ron got to cut down brush and I weeded a gravel path. We also got to walk on the beach, of course.




We returned to Wellington on the Overlander Train. Our seats were right in the back just in front of the observation seating area, so we had good views. The half way point and mid-day break was at the National Park in the center of the North Island. We had good views of two of the volcanic peaks there, but the biggest, Ruapehu, was still obscured by clouds. We caught a little snow just after we left the park.

November has been a quiet month back here in Wellington, centered around a German Film Festival in the second week, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. I won’t bother describing most of the films, because there is little chance you would see any of them. The festival’s guest of honor, Andreas Dresen, directed four of the films presented. After each film he had a question and answer session, which usually only had 25-30 people. We all started to recognize each other after a while! This kind of opportunity to interact with important people in their fields is very New Zealand, since it is such a comparatively small country where it seems like there is only one or two degrees of separation between everyone.

Today is Thanksgiving, although we are of course 16 hours in advance of the East Coast. We are going out to an evening of astronomy talks. It is a group we have not gone to before. One advantage that we do see to Thanksgiving is that at least it holds off the worst of the Christmas rush. There has been Christmas hype here since Labor Day at the end of October. It still feels strange to see the decorations and parades and such as we approach summer. Still, we are looking forward to Christmas at the beach with Cici.