Home » Australia New Zealand » Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Detailed travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Larry
2006-05-27 03:23:16

Displayed times (last time: )

city. After walking around a bit myself, I took the
ferry back to Auckland.
United Airlines runs what they call the "Auckland Explorer Bus", a tour
bus that stops by some of the major tourists areas of the city each hour,
where you can get on and off at each stop. It's a good idea, but since it
runs only hourly, it's not that convenient, especially if you just miss it.
However, not knowing what else to do, I bought myself a ticket (NZ$15) and
climbed aboard the English-style double-decker bus. While on the way to the
Auckland Museum, I got a good look around the city from the front seat of
the upper deck.

The Lonely Planet gives the Auckland Museum a thumbs up, and while it was
nothing extraordinary, it was still quite enjoyable. Probably the best
thing about the museum is the Maori exhibit, and the twice-daily show on
Maori culture. The museum itself is free, though there's a charge for the
Maori show.
While the native Aboriginals of Australia are black, the native people of
New Zealand (Maori) are Polynesian, and are similar to ethnic Hawaiians.
It's interesting to note that the Polynesians settled on many different
islands throughout the Pacific region, stretching from Hawaii to New
Zealand, but for some reason, skipped Australia entirely (passing it by for
New Zealand).
While in the museum, I caught the afternoon Maori Cultural show. It
began by taking the audience around some of the Maori items in the museum
and explaining what each one was for. Some of the more impressive items
were a large, hand-carved canoe, and a typical ancient Maori house in which
to greet guests. Once that part of the tour ended, the show began, with
Maori music and dancing. There was a call for a volunteer from the
audience, but not one person raised their hand. So, I decided to raise
mine, and became ...

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 [56] 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120