Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition
In which we find ourselves in another part of the world
We wonder how native Australasian people feel about the changing seasons … for us, when the days get short and cold, the leaves fall, the snow flies, we think of Christmas. But Christmas here is when you can finally swim in the ocean without a wetsuit, when it’s light till almost 10, and so on. Does the thrill translate, or does the magic of Christmas rely somehow on the whole winter solstice idea?
Last night I went to the Matariki Starlight Jazz concert at the Cathedral. Still great to live five minutes walk from such a nice venue.
Take a deep breath before reading this next sentence… The event turned out to be tacked onto the Matariki festivities (Māori new year) only as a matter of convenience and was actually a fundraiser for an event called Whānau Walk for Wellness that will be happening in late 2019 based on the organiser’s efforts to interpret and share her experiences walking the Compostela pilgrimage in a way that is relevant to other Māori women – but not just women because We Are Inclusive – who are themselves on a mental illness journey or joining members of their whānau (family/community) on a mental illness journey as caregivers or otherwise. Ok, you can breathe again.
Altogether seven or eight different singers and their rotating band members performed. Some only got a couple of numbers, while the headliner Whirimako Black did about a 45-minute set.
So was it a good show? As pure entertainment I’ve definitely seen better. However, my ticket bought well over three hours of music and earnestness, and cupcakes at intermission, so at the very least it was good value for money.
Further, my clarinet habit makes me a bit of a jazz student these days, and I think that might have been the best way to appreciate this show. There were some really good musical moments, I heard some songs I didn’t know, experienced some arrangements I would never have thought of, and learned a little bit about the whakapapa (genealogy/pedigree) of the people who keep the NZ jazz fires (ahikāroa) burning.
And my earnestness quotient increased substantially: I’m one big blog post closer to being one of those insufferable pākehā who stuffs a Te Reo Māori word or aphorism into every other sentence…
On Friday the Falun Gong people were out silently protesting their fellows’ persecution back in China. I was instantly beset with a welter of conflicting thoughts…
We celebrated Anzac Day last week by getting up early to walk over the the War Memorial for the annual Dawn Parade. We didn’t know exactly what to expect, but when we walked out at ten after 5 in the morning, our street was full of people who had to park further away than our house.
We arrived to the sound of bagpipes, and the crowd was so large that we ended up watching the whole thing on the big screen. It was a very moving ceremony, about an hour long.
After the main event was over we went to the field of crosses marking all New Zealand’s WW 1 dead. On a per capita basis, the impact was enormous here… the total population was only about a million people at the time. Our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was laying some additional wreaths, and we were able to essentially walk right up to her.
This was the big one, televised, etc., but these happen all over the country, with quite a lot of participation from young and old.
Many people pull out their old uniforms or even make historically accurate costumes. These nurses, both military veterans AND served in humanitarian efforts overseas, were 100% legit. And both still practicing.
And then the entire country goes out to brunch. This over-the-top French toast was the best ever.
You couldn’t make this shit up… how wonderfully ridiculously variegated grows our world.
Beyond the plaque, there’s a bit more to the story here.
Google honors Waitangi Day, which is pretty cool in itself. A Tuesday holiday makes for another short week here in Kiwiville, which is also cool.And we’re celebrating the holiday with a trip to the beach on our new tandem bike, which is probably the coolest!
We had great seats for last weekend’s Anniversary Day concert by the Auckland Symphony Orchestra featuring the Lady Killers. They did a summer on the wharf pops repertoire, which the conductor did his best to sound happy about. But I think he might been more comfortable with Mahler’s ‘Planets’ than with Freddie Mercury.
But the orchestra totally rocked Bohemian Rhapsody anyway… the Lady Killers are all women of a certain age, but at least one of them still has all the high range she needs. Then, the lasers came on and were amazing and so were the fireworks.
Yay!
As part of the Anniversary Day celebrations, the Harbour Bridge was illuminated, joining lots of other bridges in the latest civic-attractiveness arms race (remember when everybody had to have a needle?). Auckland’s bridge lights are supposedly the green-est, solar-est such installation in the world.
We were out on the wharf to witness the show… the lights really are amazing, as is the computerized choreography. There was some mixup with the audio streaming so we didn’t hear the specially commissioned music, but still cool.
We are too old and boring to stay up until midnight most New Year’s Eve evenings, including this one, and definitely not up for being part of the giant crowd out on the square. The fireworks shot from the Sky Tower look wonderful on the video, and maybe even better than they would have looked in person… it seems like one of those things that would have looked great from a drone’s perspective.
But we’re still fond of the idea of ringing in the New Year, so we decided that we will celebrate with Vermont, which occurs at a very civilized 6 PM January 1 for us…. just about an hour from now.
So, to everybody in the 802 and elsewhere in Eastern Standard Time……… Happy New Year!!! We miss you a ton (but not your winter weather). May your 2018 be safe and healthy, and chock full of love, joy, and new adventures!
Pirates live in this cute gingerbread cottage down the road from us.
I showed up for the usual Sunday ride only to realize it was the annual Christmas ride/party. Luckily, there was a spot for me on Team Cowboys and Indians.
The goal was to ride to five different spots based on photo clues. As it turned out, they were all beaches… not a bad way to spend the morning.
Some teams were more prepared with costumes and so on. It wasn’t exactly a race, but yes it was. We weren’t last to finish, but it was still difficult to be beaten by cyclists wearing tutus and reindeer antlers.
Franklin Road in Ponsonby is THE place to see Christmas lights in Auckland. We walked the whole length of the street on Saturday night – with a few thousand other people – and it was great.
Air New Zealand got bonus points for personalised service on my quick work-related hop over to Melbourne this week. 
Another city, another hotel room view, ho-hum. But there were compensations…
I arrived on Ladies Day, part of the big Melbourne Cup horse racing week, and everyone from debutantes to the more matronly gets all dolled up with special hats and makes a day of it.
Walking along over the weekend, we came across this scene involving a big machine ripping the front off a building (already under some kind of re/construction), and a very large contingent of emergency personnel. The scene was apparently unfolding just then, so we stopped to gawk. We saw some wisps of smoke, but it could have just been construction dust.
One of the other gawkers was a big guy in a security guard uniform, and we got to chatting. He was from South Africa, been here about 8 years. He couldn’t say enough good about NZ, what a great place to raise his boys, how honest the police are, great people all over, and so on.
Nothing dramatic happened across the street, so we took our leave and went on, smiling.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 