Week 5: After the Halfway Mark

Hello everyone!

To start off the week, I made a brief visit to Auckland's art gallery and Albert Park, which are right next to each other. Unlike my longer trips to the war museum and the zoo in previous weeks, wandering around the gallery only took an hour. The exhibits I went through included a variety of contemporary pieces focused on romance (which I breezed through), contemporary Māori works, gothic pieces, and modern art. The modern art exhibit was probably my favorite to go through, as the works displayed in this exhibit were quite unique. After the museum, I took a few minutes to stroll through Albert Park, but the sun was particularly harsh that afternoon, so I did not stay for long.

Later in the week, I wandered up North Head, a mountain in Devonport that was once the site of a New Zealand military base. It was primarily used for observation in World War II, to counter potential Japanese invasions. Fortunately, no invasion of New Zealand ever came. I found it neat to read more about the history behind the remaining structures and cannons, most of which were built in the 1940s, but the oldest structure remaining on the moutain, a partially underground observation post, was built in 1889. I found it interesting that the base actually found use after WWII, utilizing the ceremonial batteries on the island for when Queen Elizabeth II made her first visit as queen to New Zealand in 1953.

The ceremonial batteries used upon Queen Elizabeth II's arrival to Auckland.

One nice thing about living nearly a day ahead of the U.S. is the chance to attend movie premieres before those living in the U.S. have the opportunity to see new movies. This past Thursday, I decided to go see the new Hunger Games movie with a couple others in my cohort. Our tickets didn't show us which theater we would be in, so we accidentally walked into the Five Nights at Freddy's movie part-way through, thinking it was a really long trailer. We did find the right theatre well-ahead of the movie's start time. The seats reclined and were fairly large, which was really nice. They also had bed options towards the front, which seemed a bit odd to me.

On Friday after school, I took a quick trip to the mall since I had preordered a new game through Auckland's main video game chain, EB Games. When I arrived, they said since I had spent nearly NZD$ 100 (about $55 USD), I could either purchase a Pokemon glass or a beach towel of my choice for $20 NZD. I went for the towel, since they had a Star Wars one available. Also, I grabbed a quick snack at KFC, since I had yet to experience what New Zealand KFC is like. I got an aoli slider (basically a chicken tender taco with aoli sauce and coleslaw), some fries, and a Fanta. The fries were not like KFC's fries in the U.S., which can be distinguished as having a slight fried chicken flavor to them. The NZ KFC fries were pretty generic, like I could find these fries at most restaurants.

The big highlight of this week would have to be my visit to Hobbiton. This is where they filmed the Shire scenes in both the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. While the original set from LotR does not survive, the Hobbit set does and was a reconstruction of the LotR shire set. I found it really neat to walk around the different Hobbit holes, which varied in size depending on which actors needed to film by them. The smaller holes were meant for people playing human characters, while the larger holes were meant for people playing Hobbits, to force perspective onto the viewer. Since part of it was being restored and was inaccessible to us, all guests received a hand-crafted mug specially designed for Hobbiton. We booked a van through Cheeky Kiwi tours, and our driver was quite excellent. He was of Māori descent, and said that because of his culture, our safety was of greater importance to him than his job as a driver, and that for the duration of the tour we would be his Whanau, the Māori word for family. He also played music and explained several landmarks along the way to Hobbiton.

I've finished five weeks in Auckland, and gotten the chance to explore many places and experience many new things! My departure from the country feels much closer than it actually is in reality now that I'm past the halfway point. I'm hoping to keep exploring the city and find new sights in my last few weeks, so I will keep you all updated on that!

Kia ora