Girls Lunch

After all the excitement of James and Felicity's  wedding, my late return to Manly and Issie's diary, I was unable to go visit  her home in Wollombi.  However..... mountain and Mohammed.... !

It is too many years since I have seen Issie's sister Pat who came out to Oz first as a young 23 year old in the early seventies and as she just happened to be visiting so....

Lunch (pretty expensive!) at Hugos on the Wharf. It was lovely catching up again as if we had met just the day before. Marriage, children and several decades don't fundamentally change the person you are. We laughed and giggled at past exploits and Jim has reminded me of a tale from your youth Pat, an unexpected  Friday night appearance in the winter at Loch Morlich! Won't post here publically but will fill in when next we speak/email!

A good lunch and bottle of wine  in beautiful surroundings with great company, what more could a body ask? I had a great time!

Pat keep me posted re your events in April and there is always a bed here for you when you next visit Scotland.  I will see you Issie  when you visit in April...you are going up the hill......not me!  Bye sweetie!!!!

Manly Revisited!

It is fitting I put this post towards the end of this blog. By the way someone asked me the other day whilst I was sitting on the wharf writing this blog...what is a blog? I suppose I have been using the term for several years now and just thought the term was in everyday usage.  Just in case, simply a web log, an online diary. Just like any diary it can get a bit out of sinc, a bit messy.

On reflection I can't believe 6 weeks are almost up....where does time go when you are enjoying yourself?

I am glad  I've managed to keep it going even if occasionally out of sinc. I would never have remembered all the place names and the people and it has been the photos.........don't worry Jim you won't have to look at all x thousand of them.......... which have kept the order and the sequence for me.

What would I do without my trusty Mac?

It has been just great staying in Blair's flat with this view every morning from bed. 

I almost felt young  again....... well maybe not so young.... as I listened to all the chat about work and "things" as Ali, Christina and Eve brought a very familiar  female context into Blair's Manly world!  I'd forgotten what a 'female' world is like having lived in a family of three males for the last 30+ years.

It did remind me a little of my time pre-marriage as a 17 year old student I also shared a flat with 3 other females............dear me,  tempest fuget! It doesn't really feel like 10 lifetimes ago...........until maybe I try to get up out of the very soft sofa! (keep remembering however that Blair gave me his bed and has been sleeping on said sofa)! 

Regardless of the weather, even in the pouring rain - it is warm of course, circa 22C - the girls  go for their daily run and swim or, if not in the morning, when they come home from work! No need to take anything with them, they are wet anyway so a dip in the sea on route back home? 

Path signs are very clear about any lurking dangers on the ground although no mention of the "dangers' of what lurks just above your head. I did note some webs gone and a few new ones in their place!

The girls  leave the house, cross the road and are immediately straight onto the footpath. I should add that Blair also runs along the coastal path but you will not be surprised that his preference is to do it in the evening, after he comes home from work, rather than in the morning! 

The route is so beautiful. Round the little  bay along towards the Wharf and the Ferry, up along the Corso, the shopping street in Manly and out onto the Ocean side (the view from the apartment I had for a couple of weeks) and either in one direction southwards towards Shelly Bay (my still favourite beach) or in the northerly  direction along past the volleyball nets and out to Queenscliff.

A round trip of 5 miles...........could almost encourage me to take up running again...well maybe not!

If they are not running they are surfing, biking, snorkling, playing volleyball and football, dancing, partying,  they are working to allow themselves this kind of lifestyle. A healthy and good lifestyle, why wouldn't you want to live here?

I should add that on my daily walks I see lots of young mums running and pushing their babies, toddlers in three wheeled buggies, people of all ages running and jogging at various rates, and lots of women of all ages either individually or in pairs or with their dogs purposefully striding out. There are many, many retired folks here. Keeping fit and healthy is part of the lifestyle for all. 

Not too dissimilar to those I see down by the river on the Millenium Pathway but everybody seems to walk or jog here. Everyone makes full use of the beach even in the rain....it is warm, a bit different to georgeous St Andrew's Beach, a bit too cold for this!

One important aspect is that folks feel very safe. I did ask about walking along an unlit path in the dark but that is not a problem and I certainly felt very safe at all times when on my own.

A regular weekly school swimming lesson takes on a whole new meaning when you are at the Pacific Ocean (Shelly Beach round the other path on the left side of the pic.). 

Why is it that the classes always ended up depositing themselves close by me?  

Perhaps I shouldn't say but I will anyway 'cause I can! The teacher was a real moaner, he kept shouting at the children and they were just great. He's the kind of person I didn't want in my schools, didn't seem to like kids!  It seemed such a chore for him to have to bring the children here!!!!!

Home again and The Manly Daily update

Returning to Sydney in the rain overlooking the Bay, The Harbour Bridge and maybe you can just see the Opera House!

The last few days have just been what I needed, some quiet chill out time. It was strange but I felt as if I was coming home when I arrived back in Manly from Sydney Airport. 

I knew how to get out of the airport, go find the train, then get the ferry at Circular Quay and take that amazing ferry ride back to Manly before I must admit, jumping on a taxi rather than the lovely coastal walk....excuse.... too much luggage!  It was a good feeling.

The view from Blair's bedroom window, my bed for my last few days! It has been raining but after all it is autumn now and averaging 22C?

I found I was looking for the free paper, The Manly Daily to see what quirky things, were happening locally. What had gone on in my absence?   Well....not too much!   

However if you see a cockateil flying by you'll know the number to phone. It makes a change from the lost cats and dogs notices in the village shop or the Kinross Newsletter.

Education and its issues are often the same the world over!  Interesting to see the School's Wish List as sent to the NSW Education Minister!


What about:


Funding and spending to be decided by schools themselves.
or
Abolish the School Certificate
or
Bring back discipline and set up boot camps for kids
or
Scrap outcomes-based education


Mmmmmmm?

Just in case you had forgotten it was St Patrick's Day on Thursday, the little sweet shop on the Corso in Manly remember the one giving discount to pensioners, teachers and carers! Notice the chocolate limes, mmmmmmm...... think about how much I could save if I could eat sweets?

Sydney Opera House and You Tube's Symphony Orchestra

I would love to have seen this piece of artistry tonight having been there with Blair this afternoon. However I am passing the Opera House en route to airport at the time of the performance.    Still no doubt I will catch up with the results on You Tube once home........... but not quite the same! Have a look here, I find it really impressive!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOFuzE42z58

YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 will be live-streamed at: www.youtube.com/symphony

“YouTube‘s Symphony Orchestra will use lighting to allow the Sydney Opera House to become a living, breathing artistic representation of the music.”

Hyundai Motor Company is the presenting partner of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, the world's first collaborative, online, international orchestra. 101 young  musicians from over 30 countries will be flown to Sydney for a week of concerts culminating in a Grand Finale performance at Sydney Opera House, which will be streamed live globally via YouTube. 

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 will showcase the extraordinary talents of this truly global ensemble. Under the inspiring leadership of internationally acclaimed conductor and Grammy award-winner Michael Tilson Thomas, the orchestra will perform over a week of festivities, culminating in a Grand Finale performance on 20th March, 2011.

This spectacular Grand Finale event will be streamed live via YouTube to a world audience and promises to be a multimedia extravaganza of soaring music accompanied by extraordinary projections within the interior of Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall as well as outside on its iconic Sails. 

Circular Quay will come alive to the sounds of symphony when Hyundai presents an outdoor LIVE SITE designed to give the general public a prime location from which to enjoy the spectacular event. Located at First Fleet Park (adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art), the precinct provides the perfect vantage point for the magnificent Opera House projections. The entire performance will be streamed live from the Opera House Concert Hall to a giant onsite screen located at the Hyundai LIVE SITE, while live audio will be broadcast across the precinct. 

The Lighting will Create Optical Illusions

“If we achieve what we are trying to do, we will be creating musically expressive architecture,” explained Travis Threlkel, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Obscura Digital. “We will enable audiences to experience the Sydney Opera House in a new light by using optical illusions that make it appear to be moving and accentuating itself based on what is taking place with the live performance inside the concert hall, essentially allowing the building to become a living, breathing artistic representation of the music.”

Obscura Digital will be supporting YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 by designing and deploying sophisticated multiple vantage point projections to create a transparent architectural experience for the live event. Obscura Digital’s team of creatives, technologists, and strategists conceptualized and designed an interactive visual performance component to the music so audiences can be exposed to a show of light and sound from all angles.

To the People of Christchurch

Te Papa Tongarewa

This was just the most perfect ending to my New Zealand visit. I know some folks felt they had been "museumed" out but,  maybe sadly,  once a teacher....always a teacher! This was not a museum but an incredible interpretive centre and one which obviously catered to all my needs. It is a must visit if you ever go to Wellington. The entrance here is a waharoa or gateway which was especially carved for the New Zealand International  Exhibition held in Christchurch in 1906-07.

Forget the "stuffy" understanding of a museum, look but don't touch. This was a modern, contemporary, functional and well laid out building with such a wealth of knowledge and information attractively and excitingly displayed. 

The information contained in whole sets of Encyclopedia Britannicas,  all the National Geographics ever published, wonderful David Attenborough TV programmes, so many websites, collectively represented in different ways under one roof.  You couldn't help but follow the trail through adventures known and unknown.

Te Papa is New Zealand's bold and innovative national museum and a recognised world leader in interactive and visitor-focused museum experiences.

 Entry is free, though charges apply to some short-term exhibitions and activities. New Zealand's geology and natural environment and the stories of New Zealand's indigenous people, the Māori, are celebrated in Te Papa's permanent exhibitions, while Te Papa's Marae is a vibrant contemporary meeting house and a living communal centre, unique in a museum.

An exciting range of exhibitions display New Zealand's diverse art and visual culture and top-rating international exhibitions tour regularly. Te Papa's event programme features free events and entertainment, performances, floortalks, lectures, and more.

 

I wanted to give a sense of how well information is shared and displayed. Diagrams are large, colourful and often interactive to try to clarify the information/ make more easily understood.

The whole area on "Awesome Forces" is just superb. Folks in New Zealand live with the constant threat of the shifting tectonic plates  and a land full of volcanoes even if apparently extinct?  

It is fundamental to the school curriculum that children have knowledge and understand not just the implications but know what to do in any emergency.

We practice fire drills regularly in our schools but no-one ever really expects to be involved in a real one. Schools in New Zealand need to ensure children are not frightened but they live with a "reality" which is really hard to comprehend when we live so very far away.

Recent events have brought this to the fore.  Man even with ever increasing knowledge and constantly evolving technologies is no match for mother nature.  

Many of the displays are interactive and here, using large touchscreens you can see and add to the information you need/want. This particular display is updated on a daily basis from the GNS Science website and you can clearly see the intensity of the many, many aftershocks in Christchurch and its surrounds. 

I listened to a group of youngsters circa ten years old in a school party  as they went around this area and they had  already had a couple of fundraisers for the children in Christchurch schools and had several more things planned.

They were very aware of the practical difficulties living in temporary accommodation etc but were most revealing when they were talking about the emotional traumas  children must have experienced and what they might do to help.It never ceases to amaze me how "adult, systematic and action orientated children of this age can be. They often deliver the goods when the adults cannot!

Another example helping folks to understand what happens during a quake, simple but effective.

Using a lever you build pressure between the plates ultimately causing movement.

I have possibly another 50 pics taken throughout this particular section and none can give the "immensity of impact".

On this display can be seen the volcanoes in the Northern Island. Clicking on any one gives detailed information of its history and current status. (This is a photo of display so not interactive).

These are great websites for those of you out there interested in following up. I think you will have picked up I would love to take students to a place like this! 

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/Education/Pages/Education.aspx

I haven't even talked about me going on a submarine two kilometres deep  on the Kermadac Arc and exploring the depths of Brothers Volcano, a spectacular  area of  hydrothermal volcanic activity and undersea creatures! (by the way I was only in a simulator sadly not for real!)

Te Aka Matua Research Library is a major research and reference resource, with particular strengths in New Zealand, Māori, natural history, art, photography and museum studies. 

Three hours was too short, allow at least a whole day and for me I could have spent three days here. I have no idea how I will condense my visit into a few photos and a few paragraphs.

Websites:   http://www.gns.cri.nz/ 

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/pages/default.aspx

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/ResearchAtTePapa/LibraryAndInfoCentre/Pages/Overview.aspx

Research library

Wellington, The Windy City or Te Upoko o Te Ika a Mau

Geographically it is a fascinating city with a turbulent history of earthquakes  and tsunamis. Sadly there is a tension at the moment because of horrendous recent events in the southern hemisphere but I do not want this to detract from a what is indeed architecturally a city which displays an eclectic mix of buildings since it started to expand some 150 years ago , a city worth spending at least a few days to discover its delights.

However only one evening and one morning to see what I can pack in!

Maori legends date back as far as 950 AD when Kupe first discovered Wellington. In the 1840s european settlers began to arrive and colonise the region. Later the seat of government of New Zealand would move from Auckland to Wellington, to become the capital city as it remains today.

The harbour that surrounds Wellington city, and the greater Wellington region, have been known by several names throughout history. Maori legends name the greater Wellington region as "Te Upoko o Te Ika a Maui" or "the Head of Maui's fish".

Kupe is believed to be the first Polynesian explorer to come to Wellington in 950 AD. He was followed by Tara, who named the area "Whanganui-a-Tara" or "the great harbour of Tara".

In 1773 Captain Cook first anchored in Wellington harbour. The harbour was later charted in 1826 by Captain Herd who named it Port Nicholson, in honour of John Nicholson, a harbour-master of Port Jackson, New South Wales.

In 1839, when the first European settlers arrived by ship in Wellington harbour, they found a number of Māori settlements on its shores. These were predominantly of the Taranaki Whanui and Ngati Toa tribes who, because of their continuous occupation and rights through ohaki (gifting) and conquest, remain the recognised tangata whenua (people of the land) of Wellington.

In 1840 the directors of the New Zealand Company settled on the name Wellington. The name was chosen in order to express their gratitude to the Duke of Wellington, a supporter of the company in England.

Throughout its history, Wellington has also been a city of commerce, with a busy port and airport, and thriving industrial and commercial sector. The opening up of the economy to international competition in the 1980s led to the loss of many heavy manufacturing enterprises. In their place, new sunrise industries have appeared including 'Wellywood' - New Zealand's film capital where Peter Jackson has state-of-the-art film production facilities.

The site of the New Zealand Parliament buildings  exemplifies  the eclectic mix of styles sitting side by side.  They consist of Parliament House, the Executive Wing (known colloquially as "The Beehive" opened by the Queen in 1977), the Parliamentary Library and Bowen House.

Local transport consists of the "Cable Car" and a system of  "trolley buses"  similar to those which I travelled on as a child in Glasgow.

All around the centre of the city residential homes are built into the very steep cliffs........... some individual houses even having their own personal "cable car".  I wonder how this might work in Altea Mike?

The fascinating part for me was learning of its geographical history. I will preface all of this by saying recent events really bring to the fore all of the dangers and all residents of the city, children and adults alike, grow up learning about such forces. In my mind it begs the question, why do people continue to live in such potentially hazardous areas?  Dave, the same as folks living along the San Andreas fault in California?

 
The Wellington fault is one of the longest active  onshore faults in New Zealand. It starts in the Cook Strait and runs through the Bay of Plenty. Everyone driving on the motorway crosses it. 

The movement of the Wairarapa fault in 1855  tilted the coastline 1.5 metres and the state highway and the railway line now sits along that terrace. 

The Prime Minister’s house is alongside it and the Cook Strait Ferries berth on top of it. 

If this fault moves  it won’t just be up or down, they move sideways as well. Also in 1855 the southern end of the Rimutaka Range was uplifted by the height of a two-storey building. 

The Pacific Plate is being buckled as  the Australian Plate  is dragged below it  and the shape of New Zealand is changing and could look like this an estimated 4 million years from now. Please note not very soon! 

Blame it on the Cook Strait, The prevailing north-west winds accelerate through the strait giving on average 173 days of winds over 60kph(32 knots). Southern winds also intensify through this narrow gap giving Wellington the strongest winds on record in New Zealand.  You could see that this young woman was actively battling her way along the street into a  strong headwind.

During the Wahine storm in 1968 gusts reached 270kph (145 knots)…that’s double hurricane force! Wind measuring equipment at the airport was destroyed as wellington experienced the most intense storm ever recorded, one which caused the grounding of the inter-island ferry on Barret Reef with the loss of 51 lives. 

Please note the short size of the runway for my lift off back to Sydney! I had also clocked from my forrays outside the bus that the winds were indeed very strong! An interesting flight ahead? mmmmmmm!

Lunch in Otorohanga

We watched Megan reverse the bus into the tiniest of spaces in a busy little street and burst into spontaneous applause. Parallel parking at its very best!

Can't say I am altogether thrilled with NZ cuisine but try to manage to access "real" soup if I can at lunchtime, sandwiches really don't do it for me.

Folks do look at me a little quizzically sometimes when I ask for soup as it is pretty hot here still.

Must say though for someone who has never drunk coffee or tea in her lifetime I am developing a taste for NZ and Aussie coffee. It doesn't matter how little the place there is always a coffee shop and I don't mean Starbucks or a Costas.


Whilst Otorohanga  reminded me of some places in Nevada it is uniquely NZ, maybe it was something to do with the large statues of a couple of kiwis? Janet adding to the scenery.

All carved from one tree.

Warkworth and its Museum!

Warkworth although only an hour's  drive from Auckland is a world away in terms of character and pace.

It still resembles  in many ways the township established in 1853 by John Anderson Brown. Although farming has always been important and kauri timber responsible for putting it on the map the town was also home to major industry when the lime and cement works were started in 1865.

While Pakeha (European) occupation of the area goes back some 170 years, Maori have occupied what they called Puhinui for a millennium.


Te Kawerau is the earliest remembered tangata whenua (people of the land) of the Mahurangi river. These people descended from the Ngati Awa and trace their roots back to the ancient peoples of the early canoe Moekakara said to have landed on Goat Island. Their struggle to survive the pressures of competing tribes, the Ngati Whatua from inland, the Nga Puhi from the north and the Ngati Paoa, from the islands of the Gulf, are well documented.

Today Maori culture is evidenced by the impressive carved pou whenua (sacred carved poles) which stand guard over modern holiday homes bordering the beautiful Omaha Bay and at the Te Kiri Marae (gathering place), above Leigh Harbour, named for the chief who ruled the district at the time of European settlement in the 1830s.

There are some wonderfully preserved early 1900s architecture, walkways and parks and the local museum. The heart of the town is the Mahurangi River  and it is the gateway to the Matahangi Wine country.

I love these names but still have great difficulty in remembering them as I find them very similar.



 

A little smaller than the Crook Post Office but still close by the public telephone as well as the "Dunny" and the "Jail.

Megan and Christchurch, 22 February 2011

I am sitting watching the Memorial Service  on television as it takes  place in a beautiful park on a beautiful sunny day in Christchurch and thinking of all those folks whose lives have dramatically and unexpectedly changed forever.

I am also thinking of a very special lady who is at this very moment driving a group of people through the South Island. I know that there will be countless of unsung heroes who put other people first before their own natural instincts and safety and they will not receive any public recognition for their bravery.

Megan is one such lady, a very special person. On meeting her she is one of those people who instantly connects, she has particularly twinkling eyes and a sharp sense of humour.

Megan was the bus driver who took me through the North Island. A highly skilled and intelligent lady she showed us her skills and expertise as she guided us through new and interesting experiences around a new country.

One evening in a quieter moment we were talking about the hardships currently being experienced in Christchurch and the surrounding areas, the continuing strong aftershocks and the implications of that on daily life.   I was leaving the bus in Wellington and knew that folks were continuing southwards and that a few of the group were feeling a little tense about continuing their journey at this particular time.  I knew Megan had been in Christchurch on the day of the earthquake and was unsure how she was feeling. She quietly and without embellishment factually shared what actually happened to her and her group, folks  for whom she felt responsible.

She had been in Lyttleton that morning, the epicentre of the quake and had picked up a group of american tourists who had come off a cruise ship.  As she was driving she felt the ground shake. She described the two types of waves as they happened, the "P" (primary or push) wave pushing and pulling the ground and the "S" (shake or secondary) wave twisting and shaking  the earth. She said it was like driving Fred Flintstone's car with square wheels. Realising what was happening she could see the road breaking up in front of her  and decided that the only place to go to was an open space, a park she knew in Christchurch. Her group had no bags etc as presumably they were still on the ship. She literally stayed with her group for several hours in the middle of the park in Christchurch.  She described driving through the liquefaction as the earth gave way.  I have no doubts her quick thinking and her professionalism helped save her passengers from possible hurt and injury.

Whilst Megan justs gets on with her job now she is still living with the memory of such a terrifying experience. Other than the passengers on the bus and perhaps only the closest of her family and friends know what happened that day and only she knows how she is dealing with such memories.

I have just heard the lady minister speaking at the service  just now and saying, "Have we not just witnessed humanity at its very best"?

Megan I think you in particular  represent humanity at its best. I take my hat off to you and wish you every success as you move on in life and I know there must be a number of people who were so glad that it was you looking after them that day!

Back to Auckland

My postings have got a little out of sinc and this should before the Waitomi Glow Worm Caves. My first visit here was just  an airport arrival and one night before setting off Northwards. An afternoon exploring the city and one further night gave me enough time to learn more as well as take a trip up the Sky Tower to add to my collection of Tower visits in different parts of the world!

Auckland sits on 43 volcanic cones! The Auckland volcanic field is comprised of monogenetic volcanoes. This means it is unlikely that Mt Eden or any of the existing volcanoes will erupt again BUT there is always a constant reminder that this area could potentially become active again? 

Any new next eruptions will probably occur in a new location. Mount Eden is a complicated scoria cone structure with 3 main craters in a row, giving an oval shape. Basaltic lava flowed in all directions to cover an area of 5.6 square kms.

Mount Eden

In 1840 the cone was one of 3 boundary points marking the original land purchased for Auckland. It was named Mt Eden after George Eden (Lord Auckland). Some of Auckland's older buildings and most of the basalt kerb stones that line the city streets were constructed using dressed stone quarried from lava flows at Mt Eden. These quarries were operated for many years, but had closed down by 1928. 

The summit is used as a key lookout point. Mt Eden is a popular park and key stop on Auckland tourist routes hence the pic.  The cone complex is protected as both an archaeological and a geological feature in the Auckland City Isthmus District Plan.

My hotel is the large block with the green top(4 above the one with the red top) overlooking the sea. Rangitoto, the cone almost on the horizon, is the largest, most recent and least modified volcano of the Auckland Volcanic Field. It forms a near symmetrical cone at the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour. 

With little warning, Rangitoto was formed through violent eruptions about 600 years ago. At the time Maori were living nearby on Motutapu Island. The early stages of the eruption would have been excessively violent, due to steam explosions where the molten rock came into contact with the shallow seawater. Large amounts of rock and ash soon smothered Motutapu. Rangitoto finally emerged from the sea as a broad eruption crater with liquid rock building up a number of cones.

Experts differ on the exact pattern of the Rangitoto eruption, some estimating it to have continued violently like this for a decade. Others believe it was built by a series of intermittent eruptions, starting 600 years ago and continuing for perhaps 200 years. 

Either way, Rangitoto produced a volume of lava equalling that of all the previous Auckland eruptions combined.

When the eruptions finally ceased, lava in the base of the cone cooled and shrank. As a result, the entire top of the mountain subsided by 10 to 20 metres leaving a moat-like ring around the summit. These are the small mounds either side of the central cone that gives Rangitoto its nearly symmetrical profile.

With the explosive growth of plant life since it erupted from the sea 600-700 years ago there are now more than 200 species of native plants, including 40 species of fern. Many of the plants are unusual hybrids, like the tree-perching epiphytes which grow on the ground and sub-alpine moss cushions thriving at sea level. The island's predominantly pohutukawa forest is the largest in the country.

This site has been specially designed for school pupils studying Auckland Volcanoes.
http://www.arc.govt.nz/environment/volcanoes-of-auckland/volcanoes-of-auckland_home.cfm

There are several Maori myths associated with Rangitoto. 

One tells of the Tupua, children of the Fire Gods, who inhabited the Auckland area. One night a husband and wife quarrelled and cursed the goddess of fire, Mahuika. Mahuika complained to Mataoho, the god of earthquakes and eruptions, who sent an eruption to destroy the Tupua's mountain home. 

It was swallowed by the earth and became Lake Pupuke on Auckland's North Shore, and Rangitoto rose out of the sea. When mist surrounds Rangitoto, it is the tears of the Tupua couple as they weep over their lost home.

The views from the Skytower are quite superb and I still take far too many photos as each vista looks better than the previous. However, no matter how many times I go to the top of each high building, my knees buckle and I wonder why do do you this?  

Wandering around the landing point some 52 floors high and then up another 8 floors to the 60th I deliberately  look down through the glass window in the floor to the earth far below. Whilst I know / believe? that such windows are equally as strong as the floor itself, I masochistically and terrifying place my feet on such windows as I gingerly hang on to the railings to walk over. Why not just avoid totally? Something cussed in me makes me do this !

Whilst in the lift going down, at the 59th floor, a 5 year old little boy turned to his dad and said, "Daddy that lady is standing on a window. Will she fall through it"? You can imagine....one immediate step to the right!!! 

Feet do not make pretty pictures but just to prove.........!

The city architecture whist dominated downtown with modern skyscraper buildings has a varied style of buildings reflecting its history and development. Some buildings such as the Auckland Museum are particularly grand. 

I have just spent the last hour writing this post and somehow managed to delete it all! Have had to rewrite. We have the ****** technology!