So it has been almost three weeks since I promised to post about my trip to Australia (Sydney) and New Zealand (Auckland). I have finally attained the rest of the pictures from the trip, so I feel I can adequately present my trip to you here. I’ll just post through pictures, explaining some of the interesting things we did.
Our first day in Sydney started only 2 hours after a grueling 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney. As you can tell from the pictures, I am dressed for winter/fall, as this time of year is the southern hemisphere’s winter (which is really just like a fall day in San Francisco). We did quite a bit on the first day. We took a ferry to Manly (a famous little touristy town close to Sydney with a funny name) and walked around for a while. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I really enjoyed the scenery and all the geological rock formations in this area. On a different day, we walked around the Royal Botanical Gardens, which are located just next to the Sydney Opera House. This was another highlight of the trip. The gardens are lovely, and at some points you feel as though you’re walking through a forest all by yourself. I loved looking at all the varied types of Australian foliage and some interesting species of bird around the garden. The picture of me in front of the lit-up opera house displays the month-long event that was happening in Sydney while we were there. The city was trying to promote nightlife activities by hosting a number of events at night, including the nightly lit up opera house, which was lit by a constantly morphing artistic pattern.
In Auckland, I spent a great deal of time alone, as my dad was out on business every day. I took the opportunity to do some exploring by foot (a good idea, as my dad has a hard time walking long distances). The first day was sort of a weird experience of just feeling my way around the city and putting together a mental map of downtown. It was exhausting and the rain would come on and off (it was rather humorous watching all the business people running through the rain at lunchtime). My favorite day in Auckland was spent in a different district (the name escapes me) where the Auckland Commons ( a big public park) and the Auckland museum were located. It was a charming little area, with old English-looking houses and a spattering of cafes and boutique shops. I took public transportation to get there (I was very proud of myself, for the bus was difficult to locate at first) and wandered around until I finally understood where I could find the museum (I have a pretty dreadful sense of direction). The museum was quite large and located in a lovely old building overlooking the whole of the park. My favorite part of the museum was (of course) the geological history of New Zealand, including a kind of scary 12-minute simulation of a volcanic eruption (which I was in all by myself). I felt a little stupid during the simulation though, because there were all these 10 year-old school children who had just been in there and didn’t seem phased at all, and here I was, kind of gripping onto the side of the couch and closing my eyes every now and then. After the museum, I stumbled upon the most darling little vegan cafe and had a late lunch (with tea) and headed back to the hotel. My dad and I did a lot of little touristy things on his day off, but the days to myself were definitely the most interesting and memorable.
I felt a lot of conflicting emotions toward the whole large presence of colonialization in both of the countries. Both of the currencies had the face of Queen Elizabeth on them, and the bills had pictures of white people who were deemed important contributors to the culture of Australia/New Zealand. Of course, from my inquisitive anthropological side, I put a lot of thought into this interesting juxtaposition of the role of locals within such a pseudo-European setting. My general sense of cultural awareness was that the New Zealanders seemed to align themselves closely with local traditions, language, etc. more than the Australians. I noticed that even at the American chain of Hilton hotels, the buffet was supplemented by Maori translations of food items. Entering the Auckland airport, there were more Maori language remnants around than English ones. This makes sense, of course, for New Zealand is the smaller country with a greater population percentage of local people in proportion to Australian natives. I would like to study this topic in greater depth, but my general feeling was that New Zealanders were more accepting of the local culture (though I did notice a great number of Maori people working blue collar jobs, as to be expected in a colonial-esque setting). All in all, the whole presence of English culture continues to exist vastly in both countries, but both countries seem to be making an attempt to recognize and embrace the original cultures of the land.
