MOTAT and Fairy Weekend

On Saturday we took Zoe to MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) http://www.motat.org.nz/  We took Zoe there on 1st February 2009 and it has become a favourite place.


The mirror maze is a favourite as were the other mirrors.

Where is Zoe?

Long Tall Zoe

Engine Detail

Little had changed since our first visit. The main interactive area is to do with light, lasers and such like.

At lunch time we sat at an area near stilts and a large draughts board. Somehow we managed to play a game of chess with them.

Chess?

The sun became too hot and we concluded with a game of hide and sink which took us back through the mirror maze and eventually on to the tram back to the car.


The journey back was slow and the beach at Mission looked like Southend beach on a good British holiday.


We had noticed a Coca Cola event on the green at St Heliers, but although we got free Colas we were a bit too tired to stay.

Pop Event at St Heliers

The evening meal was a tasty Thai take-away followed by raspberry sorbet. The main course was washed down by delicious Montieth's Single Source Lager Beer. http://singlesource.co.nz/ I collected it from the local liquor store. I was invited into the cold, beer store to find it.


On Sunday morning Zoe had her City Nippers activity on the beach.

Emily played fairy sand castles with Nanny.

Sand Throne

Zoe and Ian went off to a social event put on by his employer. The remaining three of us set off in search of fairy things. First we went to Wendy's (a burger place) for lunch because it was near the pool shop where Sally had to go to have their pool water analysed.


The Fairy Shop was in Ponsonby which is a city suburb. We purchased our fairy present for Zoe's birthday and then a kind fairy (shop assistant in fairy dress) offered me glass of water while I waited for Emily to try on a dress ready for her 5th birthday party in May.

Back home the pool water was clean again and Emily enjoyed a few minutes in the water alone while I sat and read my book. The pool temperature was only 25 degs which is too cold for me.

Cold and Wet

Well, I suppose. both of these words are relative. Damp would be a better description and cold means somewhat shivery in a pac-a-mac when caught in the wind.


We were not expecting the car until the afternoon, but Ian had a change of plans and thought that with the second public holiday weekend in a row starting in the afternoon, we should  go out early.


This was an opportunity to find Photo Warehouse on the Old North Road in Ponsonby. This is on the other side of the city centre and with SATNAV, luck and a few turns around Sky Tower we got there. It is a great shop with its own car park and we were soon away.

Under the Harbour Bridge

Centre Span

In the Marina

The plan was to go to a road that actually goes under the harbour bridge. (Later, when Zoe saw my photographs she found it difficult to believe that we had got to such a place. Walking under the bridge brings you out to the vast, Auckland Marina. If you have ever been to Auckland it is very visible, on the left as you come over the bridge from the north. I calculated that there must be millions, if not over a billion pounds worth of yachts.


Just before we got to the car we spied helmeted tourists around the office for the bridge walk and bungee jump. We sat for a moment, watching them until they disappeared into the girders below the bridge.

Going into the bridge

Adventurers Under the Bridge

The weather was still poor but we decided to go on to 'One Tree Hill' See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Tree_Hill,_New_Zealand for further details to see that political attacks on the tree here were as late as 2000. 


It is a fantastic spiral drive up the hill and there is plenty of car parking and excellent views, especially on a clear day. We first came up the hill with Zoe as a baby 2005.

One Tree Hill

I got into conversation with a man and his wife who had come up from Taupo and described their job as milking cows. It turned out the only place they had not visited was Milford Sound. After being encouraged to stay and visit other places we parted company and made our way back.

A View From One Tree Hill

Ian was talking with the nanny. Sally came home early and they were soon off for their overnight stay at the Sky Tower, leaving us with the children. Our evening went pretty well and from Sally's Facebook entry it looks like they enjoyed their special evening too.

Art and Lanterns

The builders arrived earlier than we had expected. Fortunately, we were already up and dressed because this was Zoe’s first day back to school. Both Sally and Ian had to go with her to deal with admin things and so we had the pleasure of taking Emily to Kindergarten. We arrived at the time when the class was just beginning. All the children and teachers stood to attention on the mat and sang the NZ national anthem; first in Maori and then in English. I think that this is a good reinforcement of national unity that we could all learn from; except that the UK is not bilingual. 

It is not only in the UK that it rains on the first morning of the first term. I remember this only too well. The shiny, clean school is suddenly changed by wet boots and bodies. And it is only the staff that  notice.

We had use of the car and had planned an excursion but the rain put paid to this. So, with socks, shoes, trousers and pac-a-macs  of we set for the bus to Auckland. We had a wait and so Irene popped around the corner to post postcards, mostly for our non-Facebook friends. Before this a bus had arrived as we had and I jumped on it and asked the driver for a ticket. He said that he was going to Point Chev. I have enough difficulty with their English language, but when I read the stop sign 'Point Chevalier made more sense.


Once on the bus this turned out to be the first time that our senior citizens card did not work. But the sympathetic driver let us have a two for one.


We alighted at Britomart. This has been an Auckland transport hub for time immemorial and from here tickets can be purchased for buses, trains and ferry boats. The building is very modern inside, but the elegant old exterior has been retained.

Btitomart Railway Station

Kiwi Coffee Art

Exterior

Coffee was well served; being well presented and speedily delivered. We then made our way up Queen Street which is the Auckland version of Oxford Street. After a short walk I saw a camera shop and having lost my lens cap in Rotorua, decided to purchase a new one; this time with a tie to anchor it to the lens.


Just to out do me Irene found a clothes shop. (She is looking for a top to go with the bottom she has.) Again she had no luck. We continued on up the street to Wellesley Street where we found the art gallery.

The gallery is a splendid building. You enter into a thoroughly modern area. Outside is a pool on which has been placed (artistically) an artificial, red blossomed tree. In the main entrance is a wonderful, hanging lamp. It takes the form of huge colourful flowers. The flowers open and close.

Auckland Art Gallery

Artificial Tree

The first galleries are of contemporary art and their are other galleries of NZ art. Their are galleries of European art including one of the few Lowery's that did not form part of a major exhibition in Nottingham University which had many Lowery's from most other parts of the world.

An Icon of New Zealand

Behind the gallery we spied that Albert gardens was once again home to a Chinese Lantern display. This was neither for the Chinese year of the Dragon, nor for Witangi Day, but was to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations between NZ and China. Ten per cent of Aucklanders are of Chinese descent.

Before visiting the Park we went off to find a MacDonalds. This meant another trip up and down Queen Street. On route I saw another camera shop. This was a branch of the one that I had seen on the web, so I thought that I would see if they had the filter that I needed. They did not, but the assistant reserved me one on their Ponsonby Store. Ponsonby is smart area of the city.


Once again Irene went into the same shop. I sat on a bench near a man who I had misjudged by appearances. He moved towards me start a conversation starting with saying it was better sitting outside than watching wives spend money. As part of his visit to his daughter in Australia he and his wife were on a cruise of NZ. They would then go back to Australia for another few days and the on to Hawaii before going home to Nova Scotia. He was proud of his stated of health and was happy to open his shirt and show me the long scar from his recent heart operation.


His wife came out and we were introduced. Irene came out; again with no purchase and me made our way back to Britomart and home. Not before seeing the oldest buskers in the world (a couple who must have been in their 40s and a young man with a double base.