{"id":14346,"date":"2018-10-20T06:47:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-20T10:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14346"},"modified":"2018-10-21T04:51:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T08:51:34","slug":"auckland-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14346","title":{"rendered":"Auckland, New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, October 20, 2018<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve been in Auckland for a week exploring the city, visiting sights, and learning about the \u201cKiwi\u201d lifestyle. \u00a0The city is in a well protected harbor on a huge bay in the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand. \u00a0Ferries connect many parts of the region to the downtown area, which they call The Central Business District or CBD. \u00a0Here are some things we did this week:<\/p>\n

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The Sky Tower is an observation and telecommunication tower which dominates the Auckland cityscape. \u00a0At 728 feet, it’s the highest building in New Zealand and a dynamic symbol of the city. \u00a0Visitors take an elevator up to the 52nd and 60th floors. \u00a0Adventurers and thrill seekers can bungy-jump off the 55th floor. \u00a0One person jumped while we were there. \u00a0They made it to the ground safely and quickly!<\/p>\n

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The conical shaped island in the harbor is Rangitoto Island which was created 600 years ago from a volcanic eruption. \u00a0The 360 degree view from the top of the Sky Tower was spectacular.<\/p>\n

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We visited the War Memorial Museum aka The Auckland Museum to see their permanent exhibit of Maori art and artifacts.<\/p>\n

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There were other excellent exhibits and we spent several enjoyable hours in the museum. \u00a0One special temporary exhibit which I really enjoyed described the evolution of Women\u2019s Rights in New Zealand during the last hundred years. \u00a0\u201cAotearoa\u201d is the Maori name for the two island which comprise New Zealand.<\/p>\n

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We walked up the main shopping street of Queen Street many times during the week. \u00a0There are familiar international stores like H&M as well as Gucci and Dior.<\/p>\n

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One day we visited the New Zealand Maritime Museum which exhibited a wide variety of boats from outrigger canoes used by the Polynesian islanders and Maori seafarers to modern workboats and sailing vessels.<\/p>\n

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We saw the famous yacht, Black Magic which won the America\u2019s Cup race in 1995. \u00a0It was the height of yacht design and technology at the time. \u00a0The black and red torpedo-shaped object in the lower right hand corner of my photo below is the bottom of the keel of Black Magic.<\/p>\n

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On another day, Jeff and I also visited the Museum of Transport and Technology aka MOTAT. \u00a0Another fun museum with displays of steam engines, old telephones, computers, simple machines, trolleys, old cars, tractors, airplanes, and an original steam-driven pump station.<\/p>\n

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Britomart is a new neighborhood just off the CBD which has been renovated from old warehouses to modern office buildings, restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. \u00a0We found a French pastry shop that had delicious croissants and really good “flat white” coffee. \u00a0A Mano was another good Britomart restaurant with an Italian inspiration.<\/p>\n

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The Auckland Bridge which connects the city with the northern suburbs was lighted at night with flashing computer-controlled LEDs in many bright colors. \u00a0It\u2019s a three-hour light-show every night!<\/p>\n

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We will be sad to leave Auckland next week. \u00a0It\u2019s a vibrant, young, and exciting city with great potential for growth and development. \u00a0The people were friendly and there were many things to see and do. \u00a0Did I mention perfect weather? \u00a0It\u2019s been 65 to 70 degrees during the day and frequently breezy. \u00a0The skies have been partly cloudy to very sunny. \u00a0Locals told us it never snows in the winter and summers are never too hot.<\/p>\n

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The current Prime Minister is 38 year old Jacinda Ardern who recently gave birth to a daughter, while in office. \u00a0She is not married to her partner who is a stay-at-home dad. \u00a0Jacinda is a champion of progressive ideas. \u00a0It\u2019s nice to know there are places in the world like New Zealand that are moving forward into the 21st century. \u00a0Unlike the United States, which seems to be regressing since the last election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, October 20, 2018 We\u2019ve been in Auckland for a week exploring the city, visiting sights, and learning about the \u201cKiwi\u201d lifestyle. \u00a0The city is in a well protected harbor on a huge bay in the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand. \u00a0Ferries connect many parts of the region to the downtown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14346"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14351,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346\/revisions\/14351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}