Day Two...

Hello, again.

So it’s Tuesday here in Auckland and i’ve had quite a busy day. Last night I went to bed pretty early – I was so tired and thanks to my new earplugs I fell asleep pretty quickly! For anyone that hasn’t been to a Hostel, you should know this, the walls are paper thin. You can hear EVERYTHING the annoying American girls in the next room are saying. Everything. However, the earplugs helped me drift off to sleep while Mindy, Bindy, Cindy and Lindy chatted away until the early hours – I don’t actually know my neighbours names, but I’m making a gross generalisation, to fill a few lines.
Back to my busy day – After a brilliant night’s sleep I was woken by “Housekeeping”, they came in to change the bed sheets – not knowing that I was still in bed. Being woken by a middle aged woman, trying to pull the sheets of your bed is super fun. After I told her that I was staying for another night and I didn’t need my sheets changes, another equally lovely woman barged into my room. “Are you Gina McCune” ( “Why yes I am”) ... “You need to go check in at reception, you’re really late, we will have to charge you for another nights stay if you don’t leave now”. Spaz. I was staying for another night, so why, for the one hundredth time did I have to tell them that. Also, you have until 11.30am to tell them that you plan on staying another night and this all happened at 11.10am. I wasn’t late. Jerk.

After check in I came back upstairs, tried to make my bed (it was quite the struggle, especially as I am on the top bunk) and got ready to go out. Before I went anywhere I did the important task of checking Facebook, keeping up on all the goss is important, regardless of where you are! Had a quick chat to the parentals and then I was on my way! After checking my Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand I decided to go to the Auckland Museum (such a difficult word to spell).

After finding out that I had to take a Link Bus I walked around for a bit, trying to find the right bus stop... That did take a while, but no complaints here, gave me plenty of time to eat my Dunkin Donuts breakfast! I feel that I should just mention that I have NEVER taken any public transport on my own, ever. I have never taken a bus or a train on my own, I have always had someone with me, and they have always know where to get on and off. If you think I’m lying, talk to Hannah McConnell, she was always in charge of buying the train tickets and choosing the right stops! So I’m pretty proud of myself for actually getting on the right bus. It really will be one to tell the Grandchildren! Anyway, I finally got on the bus I overheard an old couple say that they were going to the Museum too, so I hoped off with them. The bus doesn’t drop you off at the Museum, it drops you off on some random road, you then have to take a short walk down a few streets (it really was short, thankfully) and then you’re there! The Museum is advertised as free, but basically, you have to pay. So I paid my $5 (guilt) donation and selected a locker for my rucksack – Was a bit mad because I had to pay $2 for the locker instead of $1, but I was fine after 30 seconds.

The Museum itself was really good. I will refer to my Auckland Visitor Guide to tell you a bit more about the Museum. The Ground Level is called “People of the Pacific”, it houses “some of the most significant Maori taonga (treasures) in the world”, “Pacific Masterpieces” displaying Pacific craftsmanship and “Pacific Lifeways” shows the “diversity of Pacific Island communities”. There is also a thing called “Wild Child” which “tells the story of growing up in New Zealand” – there was a giant stuffed Elephant, like a real one, which was really cool to look at, but I haven’t got a clue how it represents growing up in New Zealand.

Level One of the Museum covers, “Natural History; Other Worlds”. This was a really good floor and now that I’m reading the brochure, I have just found out that I missed seeing where the “Museum’s favourite mummy is housed”. Ahh well, I’m sure I’ll live. Anyway they had an “Origins” room – which basically covered the Origins of earth, which I found really interesting, I’m a real geek for that. Fact – If you were to condense the Earths’ history into a 24 hour period, Humans would appear in the last 3 minutes, with us only appearing in the last second. Something to think about. Anyway, after “Origins” I went to the “Weird and Wonderful” room – a great room for Kids (and myself) as it has a whole bunch of interesting games to play – there are puzzles, stuffed animals (the dead kind, not teddy bears) and tanks with living animals, like frogs, lizards and fish! I then went to the “Land” room and the “Costal” room – there are pretty self explanatory – rooms that show animals and plant life that can be found on the land and in coastal regions. I now have the desire to see a Penguin in New Zealand – They had a stuffed Penguin and I can’t remember the name, they might even be endangered/super rare, but it was seriously tiny – maybe it was a baby, I’m not sure, but it was like a Pocket Size Penguin and it was grey, not black. I want one. There was also an “Oceans” room, which was cool, I can’t remember if they stuffed Albatross collection was in this room of the costal room, either way, I know an interesting fact about them (courtesy of Q.I) an Albatross can glide through the air for 6 days without flapping it’s wings! How cool is that? Then I went to the “Volcanoes” room, it made me think of Geography days with Mrs McKillme and Mother Barr and also Matt Broderick, as he is a Geography man. There was another “Maori Natural History” room, a “Arts of Asia” room and an “Ancient Worlds” room, all good. My favourite rooms on Level One were the “Origins” room (there was a 3 metre high bird that used to live in NZ, I can’t remember it’s name, but it was one of 11 types of that particular species – It was freaking huge!) and the “Weird and Wonderful” room.

Level Two was called “Scars on the Heart” and it covered warfare. They had two war planes on display, a Zero and a Spitfire, if that means anything to you. They also had a WW1 room, a Boer War room and a room covering the NZ Wars. There was also a room showing what it was like to live in Auckland in 1866 and an Armoury room, full of guns (my favourite things... nat!). I really liked the WW2 room - I’m still a History geek at heart, WW2 and Hitler were my all time favourite (things to learn about). They had a Holocaust room, with lots of little personal stories, quite intense. The Hall of Memories was really nice but it was really sad – seeing the names of all the New Zealanders who have died in War, usually fighting for us Brits. But it was nice to see our flag all over the place, they mustn’t hate us too much (unlike the rest of the world).

I then went for a little walk around the Museum, it’s a really beautiful building, it’s up really high and there are some really good views, it was nice to see my first glimpse of “real” New Zealand – yes I could still see the city, but the view of the sea, the blue skies and the greenery, was just amazing! Hopefully I’ll put up some pictures soon so you can all see what I’m talking about! Then I got the bus back to Queens Street, came back to the Hostel and here I am, waiting for my phone to charge up before I get a shower and venture out for dinner! I start the Kiwi Experience tomorrow... Ahh! I’ll be glad to get away from this Hostel – the Hostel itself is lovely, pity about the psychotic staff! Hopefully I’ll be able to get up early so I don’t miss my bus!

I’m going to finish by telling you some of my favourite quotes from the Museum,
“This is the war to protect our Greater East Asia. Justice is with us and the victory is ours.” Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan 1941-44.

“We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” Franklin Roosevelt, President of the United States 1933-45.

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.” Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940-45.

“There is only one right in the world and that right is one’s own strength.” Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of Germany 1933-45.

“I need several thousand dead to be able to take my place at the peace table.” Benito Mussolini, Duce and Head of Italian Government 1922-43.

“History shows there are no invincible armies” Josef Stalin, Leader of Soviet Union 1924-53.

“...I went home to a father, mother and four sisters and no one ever asked me what it was like. For seventy years no one ever asked me what it was like.” Cecil Burgess, Wellington Infantry.

““Remember” he said. “When you go ashore you are not heroes. The heroes lie in France.”” Willaim Taylor recalling the final words of Colonel Evans before New Zealand disembarked at Wellington.


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