Auckland

Dearest Rachel –

I really need to start getting these reports prepared beforehand a little more; best to use the sea days while I have them, as they’ll be much fewer and farther between once we arrive in New Zealand. Sure, the trip from there to Australia will take a day or two of sailing, but after that, it will be much more of a port-after-port-after-port kind of thing, and seeing as I’m also trying to put together videos as I go along, the challenge is going to grow with each succeeding country we visit – as is, most likely, the backlog of output. So let’s see if I can’t finally start getting just a little ahead of myself, for once.

Auckland is the largest city in all of New Zealand, and the fifth-largest in Oceania proper (behind Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, in that order). At just under one and a half million people, it may not sound like much in comparison to say, Chicago, but considering the area they’re crammed into, the population density is almost twice that of our anchor city, at sixty-three hundred people per square mile compared to thirty-seven hundred back ‘home’ (which until now, I never thought to compare to our hometown’s density of forty-seven hundred. I didn’t expect a suburb to be more crowded than the city it orbits. Maybe it’s all that land making up O’Hare that skews things?).

It’s not the capital of New Zealand, however – although it was at its founding – that would be Wellington, located at the southernmost tip of the northern island of New Zealand (thereby giving it a certain level of geographical balance between the two, a political positioning move that’s similar to that of Ottawa and Washington). Auckland, on the other hand, is on the northern spit of the North Island, nestled in a bay that makes it ideal for marine commerce (and having harbors on both the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean by way of Hauraki Bay to the east doesn’t hurt any in that regard).

Auckland was first found and settled in the mid-1300s by the Māori, with the Te Waiohua confederation becoming the main influential force on the Auckland isthmus prior to the arrival of European settlers (although even prior to settlement, the Māori were already trading with the Europeans, leading to certain northern tribes obtaining firearms before others, and a gross imbalance between the tribes as a result). In early 1840, in the Manukau Harbour area where the Ngāti Whātua tribe farmed, leading chief Apihai Te Kawau signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi (or the ‘Treaty of Waitangi’). The Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from the Ngāpuhi tribe, as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing Te Tiriti, the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei hapu, or sub-tribe, gifted 3,500 acres of land on the Waitematā Harbour to the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, for the new capital, which Hobson named for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, then Viceroy of India.

In the mid-1840s, a Ngāpuhi chieftain, Hōne Heke, began an offensive campaign against the settlement at Auckland. As a result, retired but fit British soldiers and their families were encouraged to migrate to Auckland to form a defense line around the port settlement as garrison soldiers. However, by the time the first of them arrived in 1848, the war with Hōne Heke had concluded two years previously. Still, because of this encouraged emigration, Auckland’s population of ex-soldiers was far greater than that of other settlements: about 50% of the population was Irish, which contrasted heavily with the majority English settlers in Wellington, Christchurch or New Plymouth. The majority of settlers in the early period were assisted by receiving cheap passage to New Zealand.

Today, however, Auckland has the fourth largest foreign-born population in the world, with 39% of its residents having been born overseas. With its large population of Pasifika New Zealanders, the city is also home to the largest ethnic Polynesian population in the world.

Enough history, I suppose; what is there to do here? And what will I get to do in the limited time I have here? Well, I’ve checked, and it’s claimed that the downtown area is barely a five minute walk from the harbor – which I suppose explains why the shore excursion I’ve signed up for is a walking tour of the city. At least with a guide, I won’t necessarily miss the more interesting parts of the area, and maybe make a few notes of places to visit later on in the day, given that the walkabout lasts for only a couple of hours.

I will probably not be able to visit the SkyTower, the second-tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, but I should mention an attraction there that might have appealed to you (and I can think of at least one person we know that it would almost certainly appeal to): the SkyJump. It’s an activity that allows one to experience the ultimate adrenaline rush by leaping off the iconic tower and free-falling toward the ground below. Participants are given a safety briefing and are fitted with a special harness that is securely attached to a controlled descent system. After a briefing, they are geared up with all the necessary safety equipment, including a full-body harness and helmet. When everything is set, participants step out onto a special platform located at the top of the Sky Tower, at which point, they are to steel themselves and jump off the platform and begin their free-fall descent toward the ground. As they near the ground, the controlled descent system kicks in, slowing their descent and ensuring a safe landing.

For my own part, I’m hoping to lunch on some of the local specialties, which might include seafood, lamb, or Māori-inspired dishes. That last would include dishes like hangi (which, in fairness, more is a traditional method of cooking, as opposed to a specific dish. The food, which typically includes meats like chicken, pork, and lamb, as well as vegetables such as potatoes, kumara or sweet potato, and pumpkin, would be wrapped in leaves or cloth and cooked slowly underground, resulting in tender, flavorful food with a smoky taste), boil-up (a hearty stew made with a variety of ingredients, including meats like pork or lamb, vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, and potatoes, and sometimes dumplings, that is simmered slowly in a flavorful broth until all the ingredients are tender and cooked through) and rewena bread, which is basically sourdough, but uses fermented potatoes as its starter, rather than wheat flour and water. Rewena bread supposedly has a milder, sweeter flavor and a denser, chewier texture compared to traditional sourdough bread, with a denser crumb and a slightly different mouthfeel. If I can get my hands on this, I’m not going to sweat the carbs; I want to try this out.

On the other hand, I’ve been warned that it’s likely to be raining tomorrow once we get there. I have to admit, that always seems to make a suboptimal impression with me, as it’s not particularly great for walking around in. It seems a shame to think poorly of a place that’s apparently considered one of the world’s most livable cities – although the fact that it’s also one of the most expensive doesn’t exactly help its case, to be perfectly honest. Then again, since I won’t get another chance to visit the area, what’s a little extra expense between friends – or at least, between a visitor and the city he’s visiting?

Anyway, that’s a quick overview of what I can expect of this upcoming port. So for now, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck; I’m probably going to need it.