Aotearoa, the Land of the long white clouds, is the Maori name for New Zealand.
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of living for extended periods in England, Canada, and the US, as well as a few countries where English is not the lingua franca - so to speak. Once upon a time, an Italian exchange student -- now a Professor in Australia -- told me that there is an Italian proverb “Many countries means no country.” I have come over time to learn that this is true. One slowly becomes unfit to belong anywhere.
With whatever perspective a life of being an outsider provides, this blog attempts to add some light-hearted observations from a 4th English-speaking country, courtesy of the hospitality of the Institute of Information and Mathematical Science at Massey University in Auckland.
David Erbach
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Thanksgiving Day in New Zealand
Thanksgiving is not a holiday in New Zealand, as it is in the US and in Canada. Of course, a harvest festival would have to happen around March, not late September. But New Zealand has no such festival at any time.
It wasn’t a holiday. Worse, the Institute’s undergraduate papers preliminary grade
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Coromandel Coast
The Coromandel Peninsula lies east of Auckland on the far side of the Hauraki (“North wind”) Gulf. It was along the Coromandel (named after a boat that brought settlers in gold rush days) that several of the Maori tribes first landed and settled in Aotearoa. And it was in what is now Mercury Bay
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Driving Creek Railway
One of the things I’ve admired about New Zealand – and commented on previously – is that the country seems to have a lot of people who have committed a lot of time and energy to personal projects they thought were interesting. Today we met another, the Driving Creek Railway. The Driving Creek is a
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Garden Design at Ellerslie
The Ellerslie Flower Show advertises itself as the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. I can’t vouch for the truth of that. But Jan could scarcely skip anything with such a claim. And it does attract 60,000 visitors over several days, despite an admission fee of NZ$38. It must have something going
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Auckland Aircraft Museum
With just over two weeks to go here, we are busily trying to visit places we’ve intended to go, but haven’t quite made yet. Today was too rainy for an outdoor project. So we decided to visit the aircraft section of MOTAT, the Museum of Transport and Technology.
