It’s been a beautiful, sunny day in Auckland. It’s a Sunday, people are out and about enjoying the sunshine. About 1/3 of New Zealanders live in Auckland, yet it has clear air and doesn’t feel congested. The pandemic hit this city hard. New Zealand had a very low mortality rate from Covid, because they have a small population and they were able to close their borders. Low mortality should always be taken as a positive in my book, yet of course business suffered, tourism was shut off, and work from home caused a decline in office and retail space that is just now beginning to come back.
We have joined our second Road Scholar tour, so today was orientation and getting to know one another, along with a short city tour on foot. Here are some photo from the walking tour:
Once our group tour ended, I headed out for a long walk along Quay St. The street has a bike and pedestrian path that seems to go on forever. The customs and shipping area is separated from the path and the road by a long, fancy, red fence. All was quiet on the wharf side, as this was a Sunday. It will be interesting to see if there is more hustle and bustle later in the week.
That the port hub is so present in the city makes it different from other cities, where the commerce of a harbor is so industrial that it can feel unwelcome or even dangerous to visitors. Here in Auckland, the sense of a major port feels more immediate. On a sunny day, the clear, bright light off the water makes the whole city seem to sparkle, even without being near the water.
