Auckland - arrival and exploration!

Kia Ora! 

Well, I've finally made it to New Zealand! Only been 15 years I've been planning this (since my last visit with Mum, Dad and Catriona). I hope that was the last 5am wake-up for a while too, my body clock is so messed up right now; Singapore was 7 hours ahead of the UK and Auckland is 13 hours ahead right now. Waking up and trying. To plan when I actually needdd to be at the airport was very confusing, but it's ok I made it!  The Air NZ flight was 9 hours but after watching a coupl of movies and binge watching the newest season of Big Bang theory, and an hour of two kip, it was landing time! 

Flight map of my journey yesterday. 

 

A warm welcome to NZ! 

Passport control went smoothly, my luggage arrived, and I found the hostel in minutes! I also fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, so journey couldn't have gone better (especially since the plane food was also delicious!!!)

DAY 1 in Auckland! 

Early(ish) rise, did all the boring but essential things like get a bus travel pass, sort out my NZ phone (kind of) and then it was time to go explore! 

Auckland Art Gallery - Toi o Tāmaki

Highlights - 

'New Zealand Art' exhibition; Mark Adams photographs - recreating landscape views in old paintings, black and white large scale silver gelatine toned with gold. 

Marti Freidlander photographs 'Journeys' - Large scale documentary portraits from New Zealand', 'Israel' and 'The Pacific (Fiji, Tokelau, Tonga)' taken in 40s - 70s. 

The Māori Portraits by Charles F Goldie, 'Revealing the painter and his subject'. A stunning collection of oli painted portraits of  Māori in the mid 20th century. Delicate colouring captures a photo-realist impression of the sitters. A great ethnographic social documentary, showing their various moka face tattoos, their jade and bone jewellery/body treasures, fine detail taken to their native dress, often disengage expression, even the detail taken to the carvings in the wooden frames, pays tribute to the clan chiefs and sitters depicted. However the titles of some of his work were slightly controversial with titles such as 'the last f the cannibals' calling into question issues of cultural representation and more constructed ideas within this. 

The accompanying photographic images, from his own personal collection, offer a candit view of the artist; the artist at work, preening his subjects, mid way through paintings, at ease while out travelling, images of his studio, all giving a hugely interesting insight into his practice and his personality. 





Next I wandered through the Douglas park and headed towards Auckland Domain and towards the Museum. There the highlight exhibitions were:

The Māori art and architecture. There are more pics coming soon from my better camera. 

 

The Treaty or Waitangi.

A story of land battles, alliances and wars, the involvement of the British Crown, and the evolution of relationships and negotiations that continue today. I drew a lot of comparisons here with the community land movement in Scotland and parallel with it's history, and it was really interesting to see how these indigenous people responded and dealt with very difrrerent but nonetheless similar issues that we faced in our own communities. I loved the way everything was layed out in a timeline of events, with a voice-over soundtrack of video interviews from folk who have been involved in or affected by the various aspects that have come out of this treaty, giving sometimes very personal accounts of their family's history with the treaty. More into in the pic and I'll add a link to their website when I get to a computer. 

Although that was the standout exhibition, and that was constantly being linked back to throughout the whole museum, every exhibition was well presented and I loved the emphasis on Māori language in all the signage. 

I also loved the 'Wildlife photographer of the Year' photography exhibition! (Dad, it almost made me want to take up nature photography ;)) 

When I came out of the museum (3 hours later!) it was raining, a nice change from the hot sticky humidity in Singapore, and I walked back through the Domain towards downtown. 

  

 

Then it poured!! 

Auckland is also a walkable city and so I walked back to the hostel and quick shower to warm up and headed out to get a bite to eat and finally try some NZ Beer! 

All in all a good first day!