Victoria Park Tunnel

The Victoria Park Road Tunnel is now complete and it was open to the public on Saturday for a “walk through”. The tunnel is only about 400m long and it goes under a park. The park itself is reclaimed land from the 1890s, formerly beach/estuary/mudflats. So the actual digging of the tunnel was not hard work, but apparently there was a lot of rubbish among the landfill, and obviously it is a challenge to keep the water out.

Part of the tunnel construction project involved moving an old pub away and then back again. There is a video at the above link — it’s worth watching.

Anyway, my daughter’s school was involved in the walkthrough so I spent a few hours there collecting donations.

Labour day

Today (Monday) was the “Labour day” public holiday (celebrating workers rights — not sure why we don’t do this on May 1st like everyone else, but it is a nice spring holiday). It was a lovely day.

The extra special feature was that the All Blacks won the rugby world cup in a very tense match against France last night. So there was a huge victory parade this afternoon along the main street of Auckland. We went along but the crowds were so dense (pun intentional) that we couldn’t see much. Still waved and applauded the plucky All Blacks and managed to get a glimpse of the gold cup being held aloft.

Then walked to “The Domain” (a big park near the city) for a concert and family fun day. There was a great vibe — lots of people with All Blacks face paint and waving flags. Mainly spent the time queueing with Eve so she could go on bouncy castles.

It is a pity the world cup is over. There was such a great vibe for the last 6 weeks. Now all we have to look forward to is the elections. Boring!

School holidays

Now that Eve is at school we have to deal with school holidays (pre-school childcare was all year round). There is currently a 2 week school holiday, but the university term is still running and so I am busy much of the time. A bit of a challenge. We are going up north this weekend to let my parents look after Eve for a few days.

I was in the library the other day and “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan caught my eye. It is an amazing wordless graphic novel. Some of the finest drawings I have ever seen.

Reminds me that I have forgotten to mention the Auckland Art Gallery, whose fancy new building has just opened. The new building is really nice. On the sculpture terrace there is Jeppe Hein’s `Long Modified Bench’, which is a cross between a park bench and a roller-coaster. Cute.

The two big news stories in NZ at the moment are the rugby world cup and the container ship “Rena” that crashed onto a reef and is spilling fuel and containers onto our pristine beaches.

The cloud

I finally got down to Queen’s Wharf today. This is the main “fan zone” in Auckland for the rugby world cup. There is a huge bar with loads of big TV screens, so large numbers of people can drink beer and watch rugby. I was there at 11:00. The place reeked of stale beer. Uuurgh!

There is also a large inflatable rugby ball that, I’m told, contains an audiovisual presentation (there was a 90 minute wait to get in, so I didn’t go). There is a stage, where a band was sound-checking.

The only really striking thing is The Cloud, which is an elegant building formed with a curved steel frame and a stretched canvas exterior. I assume the name intended to invoke the Maori name for New Zealand: Aotearoa, which means “land of the long white cloud”. Anyway, the structure is elegant, but there isn’t much of interest inside.

There is a cool timelapse movie of the building being constructed.

Apart from that just admired the cruise ship that was in, and the luxury yacht Family Day.

Maori TV

The rugby world cup is well underway, and I have been watching a few games on TV. To see all the games live you need to have Sky, but you can watch some of the games (sometimes live, but mostly on a delayed broadcast) on the Maori TV channel. The commentary is mostly in English, but there are various bits when they start talking Maori, especially in the warm-up before the game. I am quite enjoying hearing a bit of Maori on the TV. I can’t understand a word, but it sounds nice.

I had trouble with my aerial. Turns out the digital signal is polarised, and I had the aerial at 90 degrees to the correct plane. Now fixed. Simple physics.

Of course, this reminds of the old Maori aerial joke. Back in the 1970s one would occasionally see a beat-up old car with a broken radio aerial replaced by a bent coat-hanger. This lead to the phrase “Maori aerial”, popularised by the great NZ Maori comedian Billy T James (his act was to play-along with racial stereotypes about Maori people, but was loved by all. No, really). Here’s a typical clip of his show.

Saturday was one of the “Ponsonby Rd Market Days”. Ponsonby Rd is the main street right by our house. It has lots of cafes, restaurants, fashion stores, etc. A few times a year they have a big festival with roadside stalls and lots of bands playing. It was a great atmosphere. Lots of latin-influenced jazz bands. Including one with about the best drummer I think I have ever seen. Nice to just stroll along the street and people-watch. Plus plenty of balloons and face-paint for kids.

Not sure how much more I’ll do with this blog. I think it might be time to wrap it up.

Fireworks

Yesterday was the opening ceremony for the Rugby World Cup. Eve’s school finished early (so that people could get home — the city council was worried that the roads would be too crowded) so we went down to the harbour front for the main party. But it was way too crowded so we came home again and watched everything on TV.

The climax was an excellent fireworks display. We could see most of it from the road outside our house.

There is a real festival spirit in town and lots of groups of fans from all over the world. Have seen French, English and Scottish groups, plus large groups of Tongans and Samoans (many of whom live in NZ, or have family who live here).

The Grand Tearoom

When I was a kid growing up in Auckland, the biggest and most famous department store was Farmers. It was a rare and exciting trip to go into the city and visit Farmers! On the top floor was The Grand Tearoom. Anyway, time took its toll and the place was closed down and then later renovated and re-opened as a grand hotel.

As part of the restoration, the Grand Tearoom of Farmer’s department store was transformed into a banquet and event space for the hotel. It so happened that last night my band was playing a “corporate gig” for an audience of ice-cream salespeople in The Grand Tearoom. Anyway, it was a great venue and we had a good time. And there were free icecreams.

The hotel is also where the All Blacks are staying at the moment. I think I saw a couple of them as we were loading the music gear into the hotel. The opening ceremony for the Rugby World Cup is on Friday night. There is going to be a huge event with a bunch of streets in the city closed and a huge fireworks display. We’ll probably check it out, though we won’t go into the busiest areas as we will have Eve with us.

At work we’re having a work sweepstake: I’ve drawn Scotland. I will be proud to cheer the team, but I suspect the big cash prize will not be mine . . .

TV

It is spring here. I’ve seen daffodils, blossom trees in flower, Rhododendrons, etc. It’s great to see.

I’ve finally got our TV plugged in. We’ve been living in NZ for well over 2 years with our UK TV plugged into a DVD player. It has been fine. But I figured that it was about time I got a TV aerial and a set-top box (there is still analogue TV in NZ, but it will be switched off in a couple of years, so I figured I might as well go the digital route).

It pains me to admit that the critical event that has finally made me act is the Rugby World Cup. Cup fever is running high here, and there is plenty of hype. So I figure I may as well watch some of the games. Course, I could just have gone to a pub, or a friend’s house . . .

K Road

I travel along K road quite often (its real name is Karangahape Road). It is kind-of seedy area. Stripper clubs and unnattractive bars. But also some funky shops. Anyway, it is one of the main roads into the city.

Recently I noticed a clever Banksy-style artwork on the wall of one of the strip clubs. It was about cops chasing a villain. I assumed it was some kind of satire — especially the way one of the cops was kind-of hiding around the corner. But it turns out that it is a genuine recruiting campaign for the police. That article also has some pictures from other locations.

I went along to MOTAT (Museum of transport and technology) yesterday. I haven’t been there since I was about 10 years old. It was interesting, but looking a little dated. I don’t mean dated in the sense of “full of old stuff”. I know it is meant to be full of old stuff — it is a museum. Especially they have lots of old trams, busses, fire engines etc. What I mean is that everything looks like it needs a coat of paint and a little modernisation.

They have maze of mirrors, which is quite cool. It reminded me of that great scene from the Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.

Last night did a great gig with the band. Plenty of people dancing and having a good time.