Auckland City Centre

New Zealand excites more with its outdoor possibilties, scenic panaromas and adventure sport sites than its urban landscapes and activities. Having acknowledged that, I sought to find the best of Auckland city centre. Auckland, New Zealand's largest city by population and area, calls for comparisons with Sydney in Australia. Auckland has sloping, hilly roads, combined with a beautiful harbour of varied and many bays and inlets. It also has a Harbour Bridge and more - the isles in Auckland Harbour, like Rangitoto, are bigger than Sydney's and its suburban roads are wider and perhaps more well planned. Many of the Auckland suburbs sit on extinct volcanic sites, hence all the Mounts from Albert to Eden, as the place straddles the Auckland Volcanic Field. In the city centre itself, however, life is more simple than Sydney's sprawling version. Above image, preparations for Christmas and New Year' Eve as parts of giant baubles are laid on a courtyard.

Life does still revolve around cafes, fruit juice bars and pubs. Above, looking through the glass of a Italian styled coffee place on an early Monday morning. Queen Street is one long hilly thoroughfare around which Auckland downtown personifies. On my November 2011 visit, I noted the emergence of more students, Asian businesses and a lively scene during evenings. The Korean and Chinese presence in Auckland are more pronounced. There still are heritage buildings and long standing Kiwi establishments like Whitcoulls, the Town Hall and Civic Theatre. Joining them now are the Red Guard Noodle Bar, curry houses and the new fangled Burger Fuel joints.

Rupert Murdoch, the ASB Bank Buildng and an ANZ Bank mrketing campaign motto ("Float Like a Butterfly, Fix without a Fee") all stare at you as you walk down from the top end of Queen Street. (picture above) Below, a few practitioners of tai chi and flag waving exercise in front of the main Auckland cinema complex in the city.

Kiwi architecture and interior design can be inspring and refreshing, as exemplfied by the counter of the box office at the entertainment centre, next showing the live performance of the Jersey Boys from April 2012. (image above). This contrasts with the feel and look of shopfronts of Asian chains like Japanese Daiso below.

Aotea Square is a landmark site not to be missed (picures above and below). When I wandered there, the denizens of the protest movement Occupy Auckland had just awoken from their slumber outdoors, albeit with camping tents, in the best tradition of New Zealand adventure and life. Aotea is named after Motu Aotea, or the Great Barrier Island, whch lies off 90 km from Auckland Harbour and is the largest off shore island for New Zealand.

Auckland is named after George Eden, Earl of Auckland in the UK and is the largest Polynesian city in the world. It continues to have a third of the population of New Zealand, and is sited to be blessed with both the Tasman Sea and South Pacific. Trams used to run in Auckland after Pakeha settlement. Preceding that were many Maori traditional villages called pa which existed from around 1350.

Above, the Auckland Town Hall, done in the Edwardian style, of which I had the privilege of attending Yin's graduation a few years ago. Below, the map of the route for the Auckland City Triathlon on 20 November 2011.

My favourite part of downtown Auckland is around the High Street precinct. Here are the side walk restaurants and cafes, cobbled and bricked pathways and a sense of the old quarter of the city (picture above). There are businesses with narrow shop fronts, those that lead you upstairs or to basements and all with a sense of uniqueness and ambiance. Some family members and I had a pub lunch of pizza and pasta at a quaint joint called Cassette.

The harbour front continues to be the jewel in Auckland city centre's crown, with the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter the focus of night life and social events post game during the 2011 World Rugby Cup in New Zealand. Here fine dining, marina bays and the smell of the ocean remind any visitor of what Auckland City is mostly all about - the City of Sails.

Whenuapai - The Herbal Farm

Running and maintaining a farm is never easy, it requires patience, dedication and passion. Recently I had the unique opportunity to visit and explore a herbal farm, courtesy of David and Gillian Ng in Whenuapai, about half an hour's drive north of Auckland CBD. Called the Herb Patch and located at 18 Brigham Creek Road in Waitakere City, it also offers organic produce, culinary spices and vegetables for distribution to greengrocers, restaurants and wholesalers.

Herbs can be grown on the ground or above on raised table platforms. The key issues facing herb farmers are ensuring consistent quality, having timely irrigation watering and protecting the relatively delicate produce from predators like rabbits and the pukeko bird (native to New Zealand). The Herb Patch grows a diverse range of plant varieties - alfafa, angelica, basil, bay leaf, fenugreek, celery, chives, dill, elderflower, fennel, lavender, lemon myrtle, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme and more. A herbal farm is so much cleaner as it concentrates on flora.

David introduced me and my group to edible flowers (orange coloured ones above) and the importance of effective layout and design of pumps, pipes and automated watering. (images below). Winter offers a different set of challenges and opportunities compared to the warmer months.

Cut off tree stumps (above) remind me of windbreakers, essential on a flat, rather open topography. More delicate specimens require roof netting (below) and protective seedling ground covers. Efficient planning, good process mapping, gestation periods and timing requirements are critical to a successful farm operation anyway, especially in a country with rather more expensive labour costs. Above it all, both David and Gillian enjoy the surrounding atmosphere despite the daily hard work and attention the farm requires. I was surprised that their nearest shopping centre was only a fifteen minute drive away at the most. The couple has done a lot to restore and improve the state of the farm since they took over from the previous owners.

Christmas in the Antipodes

The Strand arcade (above and below images) in Sydney's Wynyard district, offers a retro and charming feel on any day, with its immaculately maintained tiled walls and floors. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the small and narrow arcade is transformed, especially after dark, and even if no access is provided, alluringly tempts passers-by to stop and stare. There are delights to discover in the various shops sited in this arcade, including currently, the only outlet of Haighs hand made chocolates in Sydney, as the parent business comes from Adelaide.

Auckland Christmas scenes differ in emphasis and mood. There are more natural displays (above) and along the main thoroughfare of Queen Street (below), touches of snow laden lands.

My Kitchen - Mount Eden, Auckland

My Kitchen, along Dominion Road just outside Auckland CBD, makes you feel as if you are in Taipei. They serve meals at both dinner and lunch times in Japanese-styled bento boxes, are quick in taking food orders and delivering them to the tables of customers and have a rather fast turnover of both takeaway and dine-in clients through the two occasions I was there one week in November. Mandarin language television is broadcast on their flat monitors attached to the wall. Auckland residents of Taiwan origin are seen as patrons of this restaurant located upstairs, but the business also has a takeaway counter on street level, next to a branch of Love A Duck. Bento above, with chicken, and below, with unagi eel.

The bentos have a formula - three side servings to accompany the main meal of your choice, miso soup, a small bowl of steamed rice and cuts of different fruits each day. My favourite main dishes from My Kitchen are the belly pork ( final picture in this write-up) marinated in a rather satisfying sauce, plus the lightly steamed fish (image below). I also was impressed with the bubble milk tea creations they made here - not too sweet, lovely New Zealand milk and rather generous with the size of the mugs they serve such drinks in.

The ambiance is pop twenty something, with anime like hairstyles and perhaps a student cohort, mixed with families and regulars. The first evening I went to My Kitchen I was delighted that they provided bananas, which are still relatively expensive across the Tasman, due to Queensland flooding earlier this year and restrictions on such fruit imports into Australia.

Auckland Suburbia

When I first visited Auckland, it seemed relatively quiet and yet serene; expansive and still easily accessible from one corner to another; and not many social things happened after sunset. In 2011, many of these impressions still emerge, though at night it is more lively now, especially in the city centre, with the launching of the Wynyard Quarter ( next to the harbour front Viaduct) for the World Rugby gathering in New Zealand; with Queen Street echoing and displaying the hustle and bustle of over twenty years of more open immigration policies; and with urban renewals in inner city precincts like Parnell, Newmarket and Posonby. What about the outer suburbs, which for Auckland just mean a drive of more than 15 minutes away? Above image, a purposefully drawn graffiti found on the brick wall side of an Italian styled cafe near the Eden Quarter.

As I strolled along Dominion Road, once and still a main thoroughfare out of Auckland city centre to the suburbs, I noticed the emergence of many restaurants, souvenir shops and small businesses with an Asian flavour. Even if New Zealand is at least five hours away from the timezones of Beijing and Bangkok in the southern hemisphere summer, I can feel the vibes of Korean eateries, Indian curries, Thai cuisine and more. Above, a traditional Irish pub now neighbours a China eatery. The presence of a more diverse demographic these days, apart from the Maoris and Pakehas, have injected more dynamism into neighbourhoods with good schools, people willing to dine out more often and go to supermarkets like Countdown (owned by Australian Woolworths) at any time of night after hours. Below, tasty roast duck cuts prepared in the Cantonese way from an outlet of Love a Duck.

New Zealand produce has held a consistent reputation in quality and taste, especially its wines, fruit products and seafood like Bluff oysters. So one naturally seeks restaurants that stand out in cooking innovation, experimentation and output. One of these is Two Fifteen, essentially a wine bar, but also offering dishes involving cured meats, home made breads, apple and pork sausages, smoked pork, venison, rabbit, confit duck leg, snapper, pork belly and hand made chocolates. Run by Jeremy Schmid, it is located at 215 Dominion Road in Mount Eden. Image below, the restaurant's current menu.

The quarter acre block is also on the way out of history in Auckland's suburbs. I noticed the evidence of many sub-divisions of what were once larger pieces of land. However, the architecture and design of Auckland residential houses never fail to fascinate me. They look pretty painted with solid white, always sitting elevated off the ground, come with the picket fence that are accompanied mostly by roses, succulents and neatly cut hedges. In addition, there is an impressive patio with fancy eaves and an outdoor seat. The roofs are another matter, often not doing justice to the rest of the house. Image below, a typical residence in a suburb of Auckland.

New Zealand can delightfully surprise. It commenced with a rather relaxed and down to earth safety video used by Air New Zealand. It culminated on my recent trip there in sighting this KFC fast food outlet completely and purposefully painted in black, near the Mount Eden Stadium, in the year the All Blacks rugby union team secured the world championship. (image below) In between, I still savour the cooling nights, ice cream with fejoia fruit flavours and passengers still making a point of saying thank you to their bus driver when disembarking. I have moved beyond my discovery of hokey pokey ice cream, but cannot wait to hear again the rather engaging accent, to feel the wind of the Tasman and to bite into a steamed piece of hapuka fish. And these are all readily available in the suburbs, even if going down into the city centre is not a chore.

Ponsonby, Auckland

Ponsonby - the name suggests pomp and ceremony. It most probably refers to a private secretary of Queen Victoria, Sir Henry Ponsonby. Located only two kilometres from central Auckland, this suburb has seen varying fortunes since Pakeha settlement in New Zealand. Initially favoured by the British settlers, it reverted to an enclave of working class and islander groups before the yuppies rediscovered the place, moved in, made its property prices rise and hence today it shines as an example of an upper class congregation. Some of its roads remain narrow and remind one of horse carriage planning, but its obvious elevation on a hill and its gleaming white painted houses shout of opulence, money and excellent location. Above , the Ponsonby Post Office with a tower at a main intersection on a late spring Friday afternoon.

Until Auckland's Sky Tower was built, Ponsonby competed with the height of most of Auckland City's tallest buildings. As it is sited on a ridge known to Maoris as Te Rihu Tahi (the lone Rimu Tree), it still provides a vantage point to survey the city centre, and is surrounded by bays, with names like Freeman, St Marys and Herne. Its possible cousin suburb Parnell hosts rich private residences, but perhaps Ponsonby has more character in demographics and variety of both day and nightlife, with restaurants, nightclubs, art galleries and cafes that do not just offer upmarket shops, chocolate and coffee. There are businesses with names like Murder Burger, Moo Chow Chow, the Bona Cafe, Otto Woo, the Pegasus Bay Winery Restaurant and Gusto.

Residences have chimneys, palm trees and immaculately kept verandahs (above). I had coffee at the Cafe Cezanne, located along the main strip of Ponsonby Road (below).

Most of the above vistas of residences were taken along sloping Renall Street in Posonby.

The road slopes, but is lined with well kept, mostly wooden houses that evoke character, history and loving care. Visitors may find Ponsonby relatively quite in the day time but the pace does pack up on Friday and Saturday nights. The potential for Ponsonby looks bright, as Auckland as a city expands in the future. Recent world ranking surveys in quality of life have already placed Auckland in the very top spots, and I am not surprised. Ponsonby stands as an illustrative example why.

Bento at Milford, North Auckland

Fresh, almost glass-translucent slices of salmon, tuna and white fish were carefully laid out in the bentos served inside the shopping centre at Milford, on the north shore of Auckland Harbour. Rob, Doris and I chose this place for a leisurely weekday lunch. Rob pointed out there were other nearby outlets serving Japanese fare as well. Milford is sited close to the water, and reminded me of Neutral Bay in Sydney.

The tempura was gently battered and deep fried (bottom left hand corner of image above). I liked the avocado sushi but found the ones with pickled radish too salty for my taste. Service was a bit rigid in approach, but the chef did smile when you looked at him, and brought bottled water to us in a friendly way. Salad was especially fresh to the bite. Kiwi kids were with their mothers as they whiled away the early afternoon.

Above image, on the upper left, are the ubiquitous red pickles and the green Japanese mustard, the former with a sour and sharp bite, and the latter with a hot after taste on the palate if taken over the top. Both add to the kick of eating the raw sushi and sashami.