The City of Sails...and Islands

From Auckland '06

I spent most of my five days in Auckland wondering why I just wasn’t ‘feeling it’. Auckland is a nice enough city with a lively waterfront area, numerous well-manicured parks and a collection of easily walkable eclectic neighborhoods. It even boasts the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower, which dominates the city skyline and provides excellent 360 views of the city (and sunsets if you’re lucky. as I was). But, two weeks of exploring the natural environs of the South Island seemed to have temporarily rendered the attractions of a city lacking for their usual appeal. So it wasn’t until my final day there that I finally found a part of Auckland that ’clicked’, but for that I had to take a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown to Waiheke Island off Auckland’s eastern shore.

Waiheke Island is Auckland’s version of Martha’s Vineyard with a historically artistic community that’s seen an influx of upwardly mobile residents in recent years. It maintains an easy going lifestyle where visitors are welcomed and everyone relishes the idea of being a haven for anyone and everyone to escape the outside world without traveling too far. There are plenty of excellent beaches and walking trails to keep you busy and even a few vineyards sprinkled along the island‘s interior.

As usual, my favorite places on Waiheke were the beaches. I spent nearly the entire day exploring a couple of the picture perfect beaches using the walking trails that connect them. While it’s a bit of an exercise in futility to pick a favorite, Palm Beach topped my list. The beach is surrounded on three sides by picturesque sandstone cliffs and grassy hills, not too mention sprinkled with palm trees (hence the name perhaps). Add to that azure blue waters in a bay that’s surrounded by the same cliffs and it seems like a location that you’d find a few thousand miles north on a tropical South Pacific island. Although a quick dip in those turquoise waters reminded me that I was still a bit south of the tropics.

Palm Beach also provided some unexpected entertainment for my visit to Waiheke Island. The beach is separated into two halves, north and south, by a rocky outcrop. On the trail above the beach, I chose to approach on the northern end with the intention of walking to the south end along the beach. Once I arrived on the beach, I found it in the ideal state I described. But, I also found a little more to the view than I’d expected. As I looked around, I discovered that I was currently the only one remotely clothed on this end of the long beach. To boot, I was also the only one south of 70 by about 40 years. For some reason, I can never manage to stumble onto the supermodel nude beach, I have to find the septuagenarian nude beach. Hoping to avoid no lasting images of sun burnt naked retirees, I made my way down the beach and across the rocks to the clothed section of the beach where I spent the rest of the day soaking up the sunshine, scenery and solitude.

Despite not being fully entranced by Auckland, due more to my adventures leading up to my arrival than to any lacking of the city itself, a relaxing day exploring nearby Waiheke Island seemed to be the just the right thing to reinforce the strong affinity I’d found for New Zealand during this, my first visit to the country. While I’d like to spend a little more time someday exploring the North Island beyond the borders of Auckland, a return visit to New Zealand just won’t be complete without some quality time on the South Island.

AUCKLAND PHOTOS: http://picasaweb.google.com/gscottie/Auckland06