What’s with all the Sky Tower/Space Needles in towns along the Pacific Ocean? There’s one in Seattle, Tokyo, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jakarta, Singapore, Sydney, and the one in Auckland dominates the downtown skyline. They are all essentially the same, and we apparently can’t get enough of them because they are a major draw in every metropolis. Staring down on a city from up on high is definitely big business and fun for the whole family.
The Sky Tower in Auckland is attached to a posh hotel/casino called Space City. The two attractions are the most popular touron attractions in town by far. Being certified tourons, Inna and I joined the throng and took a ride to the top of the world. It costs $27 per person to ride the elevator to the 53rd floor, 1,076 feet above the city, making it the second-tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere, surpassed only by the Autograph Tower in Jakarta, Indonesia. The views were stunning, and they have vertigo-inducing, clear plexiglass panels you can stand on and look down at the street far below, where the people look like ants and the cars resemble shiny beetles. I had to first close my eyes before stepping out onto the green lens, and when I opened my eyes, I started to lose my balance. It was totally disorienting and unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
After walking in slow circles at the tippy top, we hung out for a while in the Sky Bar on the 52nd floor and took in the spectacular panorama, marveling at the walk we had done from Mount Eden across the entire city when the tour bus left us high and dry the previous day.
Two hours at the Sky Tower was plenty, and since we aren’t casino gamblers, we headed over to the Auckland Art Gallery (AAG). It was a pleasant stroll through a part of the Central Business District we had yet to see. There was a long line in front of the All Blacks Experience, the museum where they showcase the perennial rugby world champions and let you experience what it’s like to don the coveted black jersey and kick some ass—legally, ofcourse. I don’t much fancy rugby because it seems violently crazy, like cage fighting, but I have always been captivated by the haka dance the All Blacks perform before every match. The haka is a traditional dance performed by the Māori people of New Zealand, meant to express strength, unity, and pride. It’s essentially a war dance, but also serves other purposes like celebrating, entertaining, welcoming, and challenging visiting tribes. The haka involves rhythmic chanting, waving your arms vigorously, foot stomping, wagging your tongue, and bulging out your eyes. It’s pretty wild, and undoubtedly intimidating if you are going to battle such demons on the rugby pitch. We didn’t feel like paying $65 for a 45-minute tour, so we kept walking.
We weren’t expecting much from a small city art gallery at the bottom of the world, but the Auckland Art Gallery was surprisingly first-rate and housed in a spacy wood and glass building with an attractive minimalist Japanese look. And it was free!
The exhibits primarily featured Kiwi artists who were nothing special, but they did have some eye-catching paintings by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, Dali, and Yves Tanguy. They also had a rather unsettling section in a dark corridor featuring goth/horror art. And there were some interesting paintings of Maori explorers landing in New Zealand. I had not realized how big some of those Polynesian rafts were. They were like floating villages, complete with grass shelters and domesticated animals. We ended up spending over an hour at the AAG and were glad we did.
Albert Park, one of the city’s oldest and loveliest green spaces, sits next to the Auckland Art Gallery, and as we strolled along the park trails, we were enchanted by some of the ginormous old trees and art installations.
On the north side of Albert Park sits the University of Auckland. Founded in 1883, it is the largest college in the country with an enrollment of 43,000 students. It seemed like a pretty cool place to do some learning. It is ranked within the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings, making it New Zealand’s highest-ranked university. The University’s student population includes 7,000 international students representing over 120 countries, and with the U.S. dropkicking foreign students left and right, the U of A is getting more and more popular, especially with the Chinese.
The Administrative offices are housed in the Gothic Clock Tower, a Category 1 Heritage-listed site, resembling a white stone flame. On a campus comprised of rather nondescript modern buildings, it really stands out.
As we walked around Auckland, we were struck by how clever the Kiwis can be. Here are just four examples that come to mind.
New Zealand makes it very easy to use their buses. You don’t need to download a special app, or buy passes and tokens which always makes buses a pain in the ass. All you do is tap your credit card on a card reader when you enter and exit the bus, and it gets charged like any other purchase.
In New Zealand, you pay a cashier after your meal, not the waiter. They know what you ordered by your table number. Rather than ask the waiter to bring the check, wait for the check to come, check the check, wait for the waiter to come back and get your credit card, then wait while he takes it to the cashier to process the payment, and finally bring back your credit card and receipt, you save all that time and you and the cashier work it out as you leave. There’s no waiting.
It’s always nice to visit places like New Zealand that have bike trails and lanes all over their cities, which accommodate bikes on bridges and busy streets, and which close many of their busiest areas to motor vehicles and let their pedestrians roam free.
Meat pies are a gift from the gods. New Zealanders regard the meat pie as an integral part of New Zealand cuisine, and it is literally a big part of the New Zealand national identity. The shell crust is warm and flaky. And, sure, every British country loves their meat pies. But the Kiwis excel at interesting ingredients, like the one I had on the way back to our hotel, containing chicken, Brie cheese, and cranberries. I don’t know how you’d even come up with such a combo, but I’d knock anyone out of the way who was standing between me and a New Zealand meat pie.
