shaunism: North Island

Wellington

First up on the North Island was Wellington, New Zealand's capital, and my favourite Kiwi city. Welly is physically reminiscent of San Francisco, with its bay, hills and Victorians, and also very much its pre-tech-money vibe. It's eminently walkable and hip (but not too hip), focussing on the good things in life: bars (including our first real gay one - hoorah!), wine, craft beer, restaurants, artisanal peanut butter and habanero mustard - it's my kind of town.

Though we were in town from Christmas to New Year's Eve day, which meant many of the spots on our radar were closed, we had four agreeable days exploring Wellington's charming, compact neighbourhoods, enjoying being back in a comfortable urban space. We had one day where we had a taste of "Windy Welly's" notorious gusts, but mostly we had sunshine and light breezes. It's a pleasant and easy city, and would make a great home - if it were situated about where Bristol is.

Wellington hugs the Western end of Wellington Harbour, with its neighbourhoods stretching up into and around the surrounding peaks and bays.

Wellington hasn't had a major earthquake since an 8.2 in 1855, so it is replete with period buildings.

However, many buildings have signs at their entrances warning you that they have not yet been strengthened against tremors, so if Wellington is on your list, you might want to visit sooner rather than later.

Cuba Street, pedestrianised heart of Te Aro, Wellington's centre-most, and busiest, neighbourhood.

Hipster Te Aro.

Modern block of flats.

Greetings from India via the Wellington Botanic Garden.

Looking over downtown Wellington from Bolton Street Cemetary.

New Zealand's parliament building, "The Beehive".

Downtown Welly.

Newtown - possibly the heartbeat of hipster Wellington, but it was difficult to gauge in the Christmas dearth.

Newtown

The grand ladies of Mt. Victoria, one of Wellington's poshest neighbourhoods.

Too-cute-for-words Aro Valley, where I could see the Shaun of another dimension making a happy home.

Napier

Our North Island itinerary was more about the destinations than the journeys, so from Wellington we went right on to Napier via brunch in Greytown, a disappointing place to stop for an hour - that is, unless you are comparing it to anywhere else between Wellington and Napier, so mark it with an x in your atlases now.

In a recurring theme, the jewel of Hawke's Bay was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. A happy silver lining to that tragedy was a blank urban canvas, which was filled with Art Deco. It's a small city, with maybe a dozen core streets, but pretty faithfully kept to the target style. Only a few of them - the ones taken over by the frequent cruise ship hordes - are the shiny ones of postcards, but I actually liked this about the town. I thought it was nice that not just the tourist bits were Art Deco, but the prosaic, workaday parts of town were as well. We had a serendipitous rendez-vous with friends from Shaker Heights, Ohio who happened to be in town at the same time (as one does), but as much as I like Art Deco, two nights were sufficient in Napier.

Art Deco Napier

No relation

Meet me at the corner of Clive & Mitopia.

Rotorua

We spent New Year's Eve in Rotorua, whose nickname is Roto Vegas, which is apt; as we got to town I said to Sushil “It looks like Vegas.” I was talking about the big roads and strip malls, whereas the nickname comes from the endless tourist masses and myriad diversions to part one from their money. Even if I lived in New Zealand, I doubt I’d visit twice.

Central Rotorua.

Back to my roots...

Tutanekai Street, or simple "Eat Street", the epicentre of tourist Rotorua. Giving it its fair due, we did have a lovely dinner at Atticus Finch.

Happy new year!

Auckland

Last up (excluding lunch in Hamilton, which bears no further mention) was Auckland, New Zealand's New York - it's the financial, artistic and culinary capital of the nation, and by some measure its largest city. I'd been to Auckland once before, in 2010, and my overriding memory of it was "meh". But the intervening years had seen a great boom in New Zealand, with increased immigration, money and attention, so I approached the city with some excitement.

Excitement that was quickly dashed. Though it's clear that Auckland has boomed, it's a very corporate kind of boom. Lots of highways, towers and glass boxes by the harbour. The city sprawls, and the central neighbourhoods rather seem to blend one blandly into the next. For a place with such a concentration of capital and talent, there was no energy, no vibe, no soul. Turns out, rather than New York, Auckland is actually New Zealand's Oakland.