Mal and Lauren

March 20, 2024

The central business district of Auckland is not particularly attractive. However, there are some interesting buildings scattered throughout the downtown area. Here are some we passed during our walk.

The St. John Ambulance National Office was built in 1912 and was used for much of its life as the Central Fire Station. Accordingly, the building has a beautiful tower that was used for spotting fires throughout the area. It also has an attractive brick courtyard that was used to house the horses that pulled the fire wagons. Today, the building contains the offices of a number of small businesses, including those of our architect cousin, Neil.

Just a little further down Pitt Street is the current Central Fire Station. Built in 1944, it is one of Auckland’s most prominent Art Deco buildings.

Our next stop was the Smith and Caughey building. In 1880, Marianne Smith opened a drapery shop and was soon joined by her brother Andrew Caughey. Together, they started what is now Auckland’s sole-surviving family-owned department store. Built in 1927, it was designed by American born-and-trained architect Roy Lippinott, who was very familiar with the Chicago School architects, including famous high-rise pioneer, Louis Sullivan. In fact, the building has a formal resemblance to the larger-scaled Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company store that Sullivan had designed for a site in downtown Chicago.

Queen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in Auckland’s central business district. It is not quite that magnet for shoppers that it once was, with new shopping districts in nearby Britomart, Newmarket and Ponsonby Road, becoming the primary hubs for the smaller trendy boutique stores. However, it is still very busy with office workers, students from the nearby university, and tourists off the massive cruise ships that dock at the harbor bottom end of the street.

Having arrived at the bottom of Queen Street, we decided to get some lunch at the nearby Viaduct, a bustling spot of harbor side restaurants and bars.

Having obtained sustenance, we headed back into the streets of downtown Auckland. First stop, were two buildings that sit opposite each other. They are from different eras but are both noteworthy.

The Customhouse, built in 1888 in French Renaissance style, was saved from demolition in the 1970s by public outcry. Perhaps, ironically, for a building that originally served as a customhouse, it is now the home of high end duty-free stores.

Sitting across the road from the customhouse is West Plaza. Built in 1974, it has stood the test of time and is in our view is still one of Auckland’s most beautiful tall buildings.

Just up the hill is Auckland’s most visible structure, the Sky Tower. Built in 1997, the 328-meter high tower is visible from most parts of Auckland. It sits atop the SkyCity casino.

Just a little further up is one of Auckland’s newest buildings. Opened in 2022, Homeground, the home of the Auckland City Mission includes 80 permanent apartment homes for people on the social housing register, a shared rooftop garden, community spaces, a health center, a pharmacy and addiction withdrawal services.

In the 1920s an esoteric religious group called the Higher Thought Temple sprung up in Auckland. Drawing on an eclectic mix of eastern mysticism, Christianity, theosophy, philosophy and spiritualism, it proclaimed itself to be “A Universal Church, without fixed creed, dogma or ritual, where people could study the principles of Higher Thought as a religion, a science and a philosophy”. Despite regularly advertising in the local newspapers, the religion never developed much a following and the temple built in 1926 to hold around 180 people never reached capacity. In the 1980s, the building was sold to an even more esoteric group called The Builders of Adytum, a group that teaches a curriculum based on occult psychology, sacred tarot and Holy Qabalah – the latter a school of thought famously followed by pop star, Madonna. That group sold the building recently but we are not sure who owns the building presently.

The Tepid Baths opened in 1914. Despite their name, the response to their opening was anything but tepid with thousands of swimmers taking a dip within the first couple of months. The tepid in the name actually refers to the temperature of the water in the pools. The baths were originally heated with hot water from a nearby tramways power plant. Despite what it says on the building, the pool is now fresh water, having been transformed from salt water in 1974. Among the Auckland residents who have enjoyed its tepid indoor pools is Lauren who used to swim laps there back in the 1980s.

March 16, 2024

If you are a regular follower of our blog, you will know by now that Auckland is built on a volcanic plain. A few weeks back we climbed Rangitoto, Auckland’s youngest volcano, which erupted and sprung up out of the ocean only 600 years ago. Today, we visited Pupuke Moana (‘overflowing lake’ in maori) which is Auckland’s oldest volcano at approximately 190,000 years old. Today, Pupuke is a large fresh water crater lake. It is very popular with windsurfers and on this breezy day they were out in abundance.

There is a pleasant walk across the bottom of the lawns of the houses that front onto the lake. It is also a bird refuge and we saw a number of pukeko (a native large purple swamp hen) with their young in the rushes. There were also quite a few black swans enjoying the sunshine.

From Pupuke, we walked across to the nearby seaside neighborhood of Takapuna. Along the way we saw some modern castle like homes and one actual castle.

At Takapuna, we stopped for some sustenance at the Takapuna Beach Cafe that was doing good business at its prime spot overlooking the beach.

After lunch, we walked along the coastline to Milford Beach. It is an interesting walk with lots to see, including some beautiful homes that sit right on the edge of the water.

When nearby Pupuke erupted, lava flowed toward the ocean and through a forest of numerous small and large trees. The resulting reef is New Zealand’s best example of a forest killed and fossilised by passing lava flows. There are a number of perfectly round rock pools that resulted from the lava hardening around the existing trees that soon died.

Eventually, we arrived at Milford beach which was lined with an interesting mix of big and small, old and new homes.

March 14, 2024

After a couple of months and numerous sidetracks, we returned to Point Chevalier with its state homes and infill housing. We started out at the Point Chev shops that line Great North Road before heading back into the neighborhood.

We’ve mentioned before how fond New Zealanders are of their native birds. We even go so far as to call ourselves kiwis after the national bird. These home owners took that love to a new level with some beautiful trompe-l’oeil paintings on their front wall.

New Zealanders call thrift stores ‘op shops’. This was one of the nicest ones we have come across during our walks.

February 23, 2024

Today we returned to our old suburb of Remuera. This time we stuck to the south side of Remuera Road which is less hilly and made for a less strenuous walk. Like much of Auckland’s eastern suburbs, there was a lot of new infill housing tucked in behind the original homes. Here are some of the more traditional houses we passed along the way.

February 20, 2024

Auckland is built on a volcanic field and there are approximately 53 volcanoes in the area. Fortunately, they are all dormant. Many have now been built over and are now undetectable. However, there are still over a dozen that can clearly be seen, as they rise above the city and surrounding suburbs. Over the last couple of years we have been climbing those volcanos. Today, we finally climbed Auckland’s most recognizable volcano, Rangitoto.

Rangitoto is Maori for ‘bloody sky’, with the name coming from the full phrase Nga Rangitoto-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua (“the days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua”) Tama-te-kapua was a maori chief who was badly wounded on the island. ‘Bloody Sky’ also appears to be a particularly appropriate name for a volcano that last erupted only 600 years ago.

Not only is Rangitoto the area’s newest volcano, it is also the largest, at 5.5 km (3.4 mi) wide and 260 m (850 ft) high. It is also perfectly symmetrical and looks pretty much identical from any direction. It has that classic volcano look that children draw.

Rangitoto is an island that sits not too far from shore in the middle of Waitemata Harbor. It is a twenty minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland and is well worth the trip. We started our visit by making the one hour climb through lava fields and native forest to the summit.

The crater is huge and filled with native forest.

The walk back down was much less strenuous.

There is a pretty pathway around the shore that passes some historic baches (pronounced ‘batch’, baches are what New Zealanders call beach homes).

There is a man-made pool that fills up for swimming at high tide. Unfortunately, the tide was out.

There is also a short boardwalk over the tidal marshland.

February 18, 2024

With our cousin, Annette, we headed across the Harbour Bridge to Devonport. We dropped in on our friend Astrid who has just moved to the neighborhood. She led us on a walk along the waterfront toward North Head (Maungauika), a dormant volcano that sits on a point with extensive views over the Waitemata Harbour.

Walking through Devonport, it is easy to imagine that you are in an English seaside town, with its ornate Victorian buildings and homes.

On a warm Sunday afternoon, a number of Aucklanders were out enjoying the beach.

Because of its prime position and sweeping views over the harbour, North Head was used by the military as a coastal defense installation and many bunkers and a few canons still remain.

Astrid led us down a path to an idyllic hidden cove. We made a note to return some time in the future for a swim.

From there, we made our way around the rocks for a walk along Cheltenham Beach before heading back to Devonport and back home.

February 14, 2024

On our second morning on Waiheke we headed out for a bush walk. It was less strenuous than the previous day’s walk but just as beautiful.

Silver ferns have become a symbol of New Zealand and you will see them on the uniforms of most of the country’s sports teams, including the All Blacks and the New Zealand Olympic team. Actually, the top of the fern’s fronds are green and it is only the under-surface that is silver.

Many of New Zealand’s native birds are endangered and there is a massive nationwide program to catch and kill their predators, including stoats, rats and feral cats. Hence, we came across a number of traps along the path.

However, the conservation program faces an uphill battle and it is likely that many more species of native bird will be lost in New Zealand by the end of the century. Case in point, we ended the walk at a pretty little bay which is also a breeding spot for the New Zealand dotterel, a native shorebird that is near to extinction. There are actually two subspecies of dotterel in New Zealand. The southern subspecies is particularly endangered with estimates of under a hundred still surviving. The northern subspecies is more widespread but their numbers are still in the low thousands. Perhaps, not surprisingly then, we didn’t see any actual dotterels, just the two on the top of this beautiful sculpture.

And this cardboard cutout of a dotterel and her chick.

February 13, 2024

Waiheke Island is just a 45 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland, but it is a world away from the hustle and bustle of New Zealand’s largest city. Ringed with beautiful beaches and coves and dotted with upscale vineyards and restaurants, it has become a popular destination for Aucklanders and visiting tourists.

We spent two nights as guests of our good friend, Judi, who acted as our island guide. The weather was perfect, so on our first morning Judi and her two dogs, Cuzzie and Bro, led us on a beautiful coastal walk. It was not the easiest walks with lots of steep climbs, but the views made it worth the effort. Along the way, we passed some gorgeous homes, where Auckland’s rich and famous spend their summers.

February 9, 2024

We returned to the quiet streets around Eden Park. Most of the villas you see in Auckland are painted white.

But, of course, there are exceptions to the rule.

Speaking of colorful, today’s car of the day, is this bright orange McLaren. In fact, as followers of Formula I car racing will know, the actual color is papaya orange, the traditional color of the McLaren racing team. Although McLaren is a British team, it was founded in 1963 by a New Zealander, Bruce McLaren. Tragically, he died in a testing accident in 1970 at only 33 years old.

February 7, 2024

Eden Park is New Zealand’s biggest sports stadium with a capacity of around 50,000. It’s used primarily for rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer. It is considered one of international rugby’s most difficult grounds for visiting team to play. In fact, the New Zealand men’s rugby team, called the All Blacks, has been unbeaten there in 48 consecutive matches, stretching back to 1994.

Outside the stadium were a number of statues. This scary looking guy is Tawhirimatea, the Maori God of wind and weather. 

This hipster looking guy is Dave Gallaher who is sometimes known as the father of New Zealand rugby. Born in Ireland in 1873, he came to New Zealand as a child and was one of the country’s first All Blacks. Tragically, he was killed during World War I on the Western Front in 1917. 

Finally, this high flyer is Michael Jones, who scored the first try of the final of the inaugural Rugby World Cup, that was held at Eden Park in 1987. New Zealand went on to beat Australia, 29-9.

Coincidentally, we had just watched a documentary about the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand, that brought back memories for Mal. For those who don’t follow rugby, the Springboks are the South African national rugby team, who happen to be the current World Champions. Back in 1981, South Africa was still an apartheid state. The New Zealand Rugby Union announcement that the Springboks would be touring New Zealand in 1981 left the country divided. Half of the population believed that participating in games against South Africa was showing support for a racist regime. The other half believed that sport should be kept separate from politics. The right wing government of the time agreed with the second group and allowed the tour to continue. Mal, at the time, was in his second year at university and was opposed to the tour. Rugby tours can take a number of months as the visiting side tours the country playing against regional teams as well as a number of Test matches (games between countries). During one of the games, protestors managed to get on to the field and the game had to be abandoned. From that time, protestors continued to try to get into the stadiums to disrupt the games. Mal was protesting at both the Springbok game against the Auckland side and another game when the Springboks played the All Blacks. Unlike most American football stadiums, Eden Park sits right at the center of a quiet suburban neighborhood, which it made the police difficult to defend. The police had created two special riot squads and they were the first to be issued with visored riot helmets and long batons. At the time, New Zealand police did not even carry weapons, so Mal can still remember the shock of seeing these riot police lined up. It was like something out of a movie. He can also remember the thrill of trying to getting around the police lines and the fear while running from a baton charge. During the Test match, a protestor flew a small plane low overhead and dropped bags of flour onto the field, one of which hit a player. It all added to the general confusion and mayhem. The surrounding streets were much quieter during today’s walk.