Home » New Zealand » New Zealand

New Zealand is a small but incredibly beautiful country that sits like a semicolon at the end of the sentence that is Australia.

New Zealand

Hank Shiffman
2003-11-29 15:02:00

Displayed times (last time: )

proudly that it is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. That's a phrase you hear a lot in New Zealand: tallest/biggest/richest in the Southern Hemisphere. Really what they mean is: "better than anything the Ozzies have".

Back at ground level, I went in search of the Auckland Explorer, one of those tourist buses that stops at all the city's must-see spots. First on the agenda was Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World. Underwater and underground; at street level there's a fine view of the harbour and the city, a parking lot and an entry to what were built as storage tanks for rainwater. But now those tanks hold a replica of Scott's Antarctic base, a Snow Cat ride through a penguin habitat and a moving sidewalk where you are surrounded at left, right and above by sharks, stingrays and way too many different species of fish. If only the lighting had been a little better, I'd have a lot more pictures. For some reason, fish and birds don't take kindly to having bright lights flashed into their eyes.

My next stop on the tourist bus was the magnificent Greek revival building that houses Auckland Museum. Officially it's the Auckland War Memorial Museum, built in 1929 to commemorate the end of the First World War and expanded later to honor all the other Wars To End All Wars. In addition to the memorials to those New Zealanders lost in the wars, the museum has wonderful exhibits on local flora and fauna and artifacts from the country's Polynesian and European cultures. But the museum is worth seeing just for its architecture and its views over the Domain, Auckland's oldest and largest park. No grand estate envisaged by Jane Austen could be more happily situated than this.

Just up the road from the museum is the town of Parnell, reputed to have good places to eat, interesting shops and some historic buildings. The ...