Day 8 - City tour and last day in Auckland

Auckland hostels all offer free city tours. The tours consist of a trip to the harbor and around the wharf where the America’s cup race is held then off to various Maori historical sites.

The new Zealanders are very proud of their historical interactions with the Maori. When the English settlers came to New Zealand with advanced weaponry the Maori quickly realized that it would behoove them to work together with the English in order to maintain more of their independence and culture. Thus, there was little conflict amongst the Maori and the colonists. However, as England began to gain a larger foothold and increasingly develop New Zealand they wanted the Maori to become English citizens so that they might impose order and law. The Maori however are a fiercely independent tribal culture who were not interested in assimilating into English society. The English did not want to ruin the good historical relationship so they offered a treaty as a compromise. This created a problem among the Maori, who, as a consequence of their tribal culture, had no central leadership to make decisions and finding someone to represent the wide range of views was difficult. After a while they were able to establish a joint leadership council and treaty discussions with the English were started. Due to translation difficulties two versions of the treaty were drawn up. The two versions differed greatly on the key points of self governance and land rights. The English version said that the Maori would become loyal subjects of the crown and be subject to British law and land would become the property of the crown. The Maori version said that they would maintain their rights of self governance and jointly inhabit New Zealand with the English maintaining their land rights. Both versions were quickly signed but just as quickly were contested due to the differing language. In the long run the Maori realized that in order for the government of New Zealand to recognize their land claims they had to work within their system. The supreme court sided in favor of the Maori in 1987 meaning the crown or New Zealand government had to recognize all Maori land claims and pay reparations and buy the land. There has been constant debates about the legitimacy of the treaty of Waitangi since its signing in 1840. More info can be found at http://www.nzhistory.net.nz.

Our guide said that this is very different than Australian government who have yet to fully recognize the aboriginal peoples. Granted our guide was a Kiwi and a healthy rivalry extends to everything between Aussies and Kiwis. So I am not sure of the situation in Australia.

After the tour I headed to Victoria Park Market in central Auckland which is a historic landmark. Around the turn of the century refuse was dumped at random sites and open sewers ran the length of the main streets. The city was a dirty squalor that began to present a serious health risk as the city continued to grow. The city council decided that the solution was to build a rubbish incinerator at the edge of the city. In March 1906 construction was completed. It was designed to burn about 50 tons per day. They even modified it to produce electricity 1000 kilowatts per 30 tons. Additionally, during the 1918 flu epidemic and the following Bubonic plague scare in 1920’s it was also used as an open air morgue. It continued to operate until 1972 when it was deemed no longer an efficient means of disposing waste. In 1984 it reopened but as a craft and artisan market. Now shops line the refuse storage rooms with the remnants of rubbish chutes above their head.

After the market I headed to the university where they have a small climbing wall. I met a bunch of college students who had formed a local climbing club. It was the first week the university was back in session so they had an orientation to the club. The place was packed.

It was a bit difficult to determine the difficulty of the climbs because they use the European system of rating (a thirty point system vs the 5.x system in the US). I have a climbing gym membership at home and miss being able to climb regularly. It was nice to get a fix. They invited me to head outside with them the next day for a climbing trip, but I was leaving at 7:30am. Though they gave me plenty of info about inside climbing spots for when I come back in the future.

There is always the trade off when traveling of seeing more places or spending time in one area and exploring in depth. I have always gravitated towards seeing more places whether due to limited time or with the idea that as I find unique places to visit I will come back on a future trip. This trip to New Zealand was a bit short (only 8 actual travel days since arriving) so I guess I will have to come back to visit the south island where the scenery and activities are supposed to be even more spectacular.

Australia postings are coming soon, I will write them on the plane to Kenya.