Since there was no work for me to do with the Tommy Hilfiger Around Alone campaign, I decided to take a few days in one of the few places on the North Island that I hadn’t yet seen but really wanted to: Napier. Napier was built mostly during the 1930s, and as such is a seriously Art Deco city. I went down there by bus on Feb 5th. After checking in to the YHA, I was relaxing in the main lobby area of the hostel, when I notice that the music playing softly over the PA system wasn’t your standard rock-n-roll or pop music. Waitaminit, that’s “The Dubliners”! Who the hell plays obscure Irish folk bands? Well, it turns out that the owner, Bob, of the Napier YHA used to own and manage Auckland’s only folk music venue (it has since closed - the Kiwis don’t go in for folk music). We sang some songs back and forth for a while. It was a great bonding experience.

The next day was Feb 6th. This is a national holiday in New Zealand - Waitangi Day. The Treaty of Waitangi is the legal document which, controversially, transferred ultimate authority from the various Maori leaders to the UK. I walked around town and snapped some pictures of the architecture.

On the 7th it was time to get down to business and make some plans for March. On the assumption that the America’s Cup won’t runneth over into the reserve days, I purchased tickets on Qantas for a round trip from Auckland to Christchurch, giving me three weeks on the South Island. Made fried rice for dinner, after Barry’s recipe.

Got up early and did laundry on the 8th. I had picked up two pairs of zip-leg pants before leaving Tauranga, since Barry said so many nice things about them. I got these just in time, as my light blue denim shorts were now torn through in several places. I threw them out, along with the “Latitude 38” t-shirt I had won at a crew list party which had developed several holes as well. I took the bus back to Tauranga and checked into the Tauranga YHA.

Tauranga is a town with some limitations. For example, their citywide bus service doesn’t run on Sundays. I had to take a taxi across the bay to Mt Maunganui. It turned out that the spectator boats for the Around Alone restart had all sold out, so I was going to have to watch from land. The taxi dropped me off way out by the Mount and I had to hike around to the side which faces the sea. The restart was extremely uneventful, especially for someone who had gotten used to the rough-n-tumble of an America’s Cup start. All the boats just reached off away from the start line, and then turned around and paraded across the line in good order. That night turned out to be the worst ever for me in a hostel. There was no ventilation in the room, so it became stiflingly hot. Combine that with the loudest snorer I’d ever heard, and I wasn’t able to sleep. I ended up taking my bedding out to the TV lounge and arranging some cushions on the floor and sleeping there for a couple of hours.

It was time to head back to Auckland. I traveled on “declaration day” which is when Team New Zealand and Alinghi each have to pick one of their two boats to race in the America’s Cup. Nothing to see here, so I didn’t mind being in transit that day. The next day was “keel reveal” day, and boy did I want to see that. Alas, it was not to be. I had another horrible night, this time due to street noise. Another lousy night of almost no sleep, combined with an early reveal ceremony (8:00am for Alinghi and 8:30am for TNZ) and I decided it wasn’t worth it. I admitted defeat and slept in. I spent the day reading “Sharpe’s Prey” by Cornwell. Just the kind of light fiction I needed for a lazy day, and I was lucky to find it in the hostel’s book exchange shelves.

Now I had a few days to spend in Auckland before the America’s Cup was to start. I had made a list of activities a long time ago, and I resolved to cross off at least one per day. First up: The Auckland Art Gallery. Not a huge museum, but one of fairly high quality. The first section of New Zealand historic art was extremely good. The price was right (free, except for the Two Chinese Emperors exhibit which I skipped). After doing the museum, I found a private art gallery across the street. I strolled through and on the way out, found a pamphlet called “Take a Walk of Art” that listed all the nearby private galleries. Since I was in the mood for more art, I decided to see what the Auckland art scene had on tap. I was feeling a bit mischievous, so I invented a story about being on a mission to buy a birthday gift for a family member. I was amazed at how differently I was treated when people thought I was planning to buy, instead of idle browsing.

This brings us to the 13th of February. Another day, another adventure. This time I picked MOTAT - the Museum of Transportation and Technology. I figured I need some exercise, so I walked there. It was a good hour and a half. When I got there, I had sort of a sinking feeling, since from the outside it looks kinda cheesy. However, I went in, and I was pleasantly surprised, though it is a bit of a work-in-progress. The museum was created in the first place after the ancient pumphouse was decommissioned. They added all sorts of old trains, trams, busses, and planes. There was a huge exhibit for Jean Batten, an aviation pioneer. There were also the seeds of a damn fine science museum, with a pair of whisper parabolas, a built-your-own-arch demo, and lots more along those lines. I wandered around for a while and found their HO-scale model train, the same size of model trains I had as a kid. A guy in a blue jumpsuit carrying a bottle of Windex and a large pack of paper towels came in. I started talking with him, and it turns out that he’s responsible for maintenance of both the model trains AND the pumphouse itself. There weren’t any signs or anything explaining the pumphouse, and I asked him if he’d be willing to walk me through it. Well, half an hour later, I knew more about beam engines, condensers, and two-cylinder steam power than I had imagined I could. His name was Mike and he was a very interesting guy. His explanations and enthusiasm was able to transform an inelegant contraption into a beautiful machine for me, and I’m grateful. He totally made the MOTAT experience work for me and I’m really glad I met him. I also walked another half an hour out to the MOTAT extension, which housed most of their aircraft. That part wasn’t as interesting - I felt it was a tad too focused on the romance of the Kiwi military experience in WW1 and WW2. I walked back to the main MOTAT campus, and then took the bus back to the City YHA hostel.

For my last full day in Auckland, I wanted to see the RZNYS Sail Past. This was an event scheduled to support Team New Zealand, with hundreds of boats sailing past the RZNYS in Westhaven. I was underwhelmed, as in fact all the boats motored past. And none of them got at all close to where I was sitting, so I couldn’t get any good pictures. I guess for the partyers inside the yacht club it was a great event, but I didn’t get much out of it, other than the one hour walk to get there from the hostel, and another hour walk to get back.