Then I went online to the Britomart website (Britomart is the public transportation system. A new, clean and spacious central Britomart Transport Center for Auckland and is less than a block from where TSS docked). I was able to do an address search that pinpointed the buses and routes to the church’s addresses.
Fortunately, the church nearest TSS's dock was directly up Queen Street, which is at right angles to Quay Street, where the dock is. I went to the Britomart station on Queen Street and asked which bus to take, what time it left, how much it cost and how long it would take to get to the stop nearest the corner of Queen Street and Scotia Place, the little side street off Queen where the church is located. The service started at 9:00 and I was told that the 8:30 run of Bus 042 would take me to within a block of that spot and on time, for fifty cents.
Reconnisance
It sounded good but I wanted to be sure the church was actually there - hadn't moved to a new location recently or whatever - so on Saturday morning I headed out on foot to find it for myself. It’s a good thing I did because I found out that three blocks from Scotia place, Queen Street was blocked off for road construction, so the bus would not actually take me to within a block of Scotia Place. I would have to get off about three blocks away and walk directly uphill at about a 45-degree angle to get to the desired location.
As I toiled up the hill on Saturday, I passed by a Borders bookstore and made a mental note to stop there on the way back to see if they had CDs of Maori music and current mystery fiction by female New Zealand writers. I also passed by Meyers Park and saw that a street fair with booths of handicrafts and flea market items was going on. I decided I would stop there, too, on the way downhill.
Finally I reached Scotia Place and saw that, indeed, the church was there, right on the corner with Queen Street. I walked up to the door and read the posted meeting times. They did indeed start at 9:00 as stated on the Church’s website. Content that it was there, I turned around and headed back toward Meyers Park.
The Street Fair and Borders Bookstore
Meyers Park was lower than street level so I had to walk down some very lovely stairs that were rounded and winding with only a few steps on each level, so they were easy to traverse. The route I took led me directly to two flea market-type booths.
I happen to love sorting through miscellaneous odd items and was delighted to find two paperback novels for NZ$1 each; an old small wooden die (half of a pair of dice) for Crowns andAnchors, a game long popular in NZ, also $1, and a lovely silver filigree bracelet for $5.
Pleased with my purchases, I continued on, viewing the specialty clothing, jewelry and artwork in the other booths until I came to another flea market booth. There I bought a special item that will be a gift so I will say no more about it.
[Note added seven months after the fact: the gift was a beautiful handpainted azuela tile (blue and white - see my Lisbon, Portugal, postings to learn more about azuelas) that had originally been used in a building somewhere in Auckland. It was a gift for my son and daughter-in-law, who collect lovely tiles.]
After viewing all the booths, I went back to the street, turned left and walked to Borders, where I bought two books by New Zealand writers and, after listening to selecftions from five different CDs, a recording of Maori music.
The Internet Cafe!
I continued wending my way downhill. About a block and a half from the dock, I saw a signboard with a sign for an Internet Café for $2 an hour (the best price I’d seen prior to that was $3). The arrow on the sign pointed down an alley.
I hesitated going down there but when I saw that it was fully paved and other businesses were there, I decided to at least see what it was like. When I got to the open doorway with stairs (!) leading up, I again hesitated, but the stairway and walls were very clean and well-lit so I proceeded up the steps.
At the top, on the left was an absolutely spotless, spacious beauty parlor with wonderful wide and high windows. Directly ahead of me on the wall was a sign with arrows. The left arrow pointed to the beauty shop and the right arrow pointed to the Internet Cafe.
I turned right then entered the room where the Internet Café was. It, too had the same kind of windows but all faced buildings so the light was not as bright as in the beauty parlor. However, it was clean and respectable looking.
A young Chinese man was sitting at the counter and the room was filled with neatly placed computers. I asked if he had a computer with a USB port and he assigned me to Computer #10.
I didn’t need a password, didn’t need to pay in advance, just go to the computer and start working. He walked to the computer station with me and pointed out the USB port, which was on a cable lying near the mouse.
The computer desks and chairs were all of the same type – large, well designed black desks having nice smooth working surfaces with a nice distance on each side from the person at the next desk. The chairs were incredible! Upholstered, high backed chairs with arm rests. The Internet was fast and smooth.
I plugged in my flash disk, brought up Blogger, entered this Buveh At Sea blog and set to work to see if it would allow me to upload photos. It did!!! I was so amazed I couldn’t believe it.
I had so many photos to upload that I only made a dent in the time I had at my disposal, about three hours. Then I had to get to Britomart, the information center and back to the ship in time for dinner.
A Visit to the Auckland Skydome Observatory
I walked all the way down Queen Street to Quay Street, turned left and went to the city's Information Centre to inquire about that evening’s show at the Skydome Observatory.
One of the two things I wanted to see in New Zealand was the Southern Cross, the constellation in the night sky that enables one to determine South (the direction).
I knew I had no chance of distinguishing it without expert help, so had decided that going to the show at the observatory was the most likely way to find out what I wanted to know.
Nikki and Nancy were interested in going, too, so I inquired about the time and cost of the show and what bus to take to get there. The helpful person in the center called the observatory and found out the details: show at 8:00, cost $14 for adults. She made reservations for our party of three and we were set.
Then I went to Britomart to ask what bus to catch to get to the observatory on time. Once again, they seemed unaware of the changed locations of bus stops because that evening when we walked to the bus stop, there was a big sign saying that the bus stop location had changed to number X (don’t remember the number, but it meant nothing to us anyway).
Getting to the Observatory
Back at the ship, I ate dinner then met up with Nikki and Nancy and we headed out to catch the bus. Fortunately we were there well ahead of the departure time because we spent about twenty minutes traversing a distance of two blocks (all around a city block) until we happened to be crossing a street and saw our bus pulling up to a stop across the street. We ran for it and made it!
The ride was interesting as it passed through the business area and a residential area of Auckland. We got off near the observatory, which is located on the grounds of One Tree Hill, so named because from the time NZ was first settled, there had been a single tree on the top of the hill until recently, when a Maori protester cut it down. The grounds were lovely and we admired them as we walked through them on the way to the Skydome.
At the Skydome entrance, Nikki took pictures of us, which I’ll try to get a copy of to place here. Then we went inside to buy our tickets. Nancy, the bargain hunter, flourished her TSS card and asked if we could get an educator’s discount on the price; they said yes, $2 off. Then we pulled out the $2 off coupons out of a local free tourist book we had brought with us and asked if we could use those, too, and they said yes, so we paid $10 each for tickets that usually cost NZ$14.
The Skydome Observatory
The show wouldn’t start for about twenty minutes so we looked at the displays in the small exhibition area, perused the gift shop and used the “porcelain facility,” as one of my library school professors used to call it.
Then the resident astronomer came into the exhibition area and announced that it was time to go into the observatory. Several other people were there, too, and we all filed into the auditorium and took the seats of our choice. The seats were large and comfortable and leaned back so we could gaze at the dome overhead.
The astronomer was quite entertaining, with an easy, bantering presentation style. He talked about the spring night sky (November is spring in NZ) , with Jupiter as the brightest spot in the heavens, then darkened the room, turned on the projector and pointed out Jupiter and certain constellations – such as Scorpio, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the northern hemisphere.
Then he got to what, for me, was the crux of the matter – the Southern Cross. However, that is not its real name, which is Crux. He claimed that if we wanted to look up the Southern Cross in the encyclopedia, we wouldn’t find it under that name, only under Crux.
Using the Southern cross to determine South is a much more complicated process to determining North using the Northern Star, however. I’m not sure I have the process right, but will try to view it from the ship once we’re underway and see if I can spot it.
Finding the Southern Cross (Crux)
First you have to locate the two brightest stars in the western sky; they are one above the other. Then you look to your left until you come to a group of four stars that form Crux.
Using the long arm of the cross as a pointer, follow a direct line to a bright star a distance away. Then find the midpoint between the end of Crux and the bright star and follow it directly down and – Voila! – you’ve identified South.
He then tested us by saying that now he would show us all the stars visible in the night sky, not just the most prominent ones. He added the other stars to the prominent ones displayed on the dome above us while he talked about some other things.
Then he asked us to find Crux again and determine where south was. Most of the audience - including the three of us - couldn't do it. He finally had to show us because I, at least, was hopelessly lost. Nikki and Nancy later confessed that they hadn't been able to find it, either.
After that show finished, he led us out through the exhibition area and into a smaller room with a projection screen. We sat on chairs facing the screen and he stood behind a presentation counter.
Lots of other people also filed into the room; they were going to be attending the next show in the observatory but would see this presentation with us. It was a slide show about Mars and the Mars Rover and included the most recent shots the Rover had sent to Earth!
Seeing the Southern Cross (Crux)!
Finally, he herded all of us outside into the dark courtyard on the hillside at the back of the observatory where some telescopes were set up for us to view Jupiter.
I was only interested in seeing the Southern Cross with my own eyes, not looking through a telescope, so I gazed at the sky and realized that Crux was not visible from where we were because the observatory building was in the way. So I went inside the building with the goal of going out front to see if I could find the Southern Cross.
There in the exhibition area was the astronomer, who had left assistants to help folks look through the telescopes outside. I asked him about locating Crux and he offered to go outside with me and show me where it was.
We had to walk to the far end of the parking area to get a good view because a huge tree blocked Crux from sight when we stood at the observatory entrance.
He pointed out the two bright stars and three stars of Crux (the fourth one was blocked by the tree and all were very low on the horizon anyway), the spot where the other bright star would be if we could see it through the tree, the halfway point and then straight down, which was where South was.
I thanked him and then went back inside the observatory to get Nikki and Nancy and show them.
We spent some time in the gift shop first and I bought a postcard of the Southern Cross. Then we went outside and I tried to show them the Southern Cross, I think I had it right, but they felt unsure and weren't confident they had it.
Aftermath
After that, we headed across the grounds out to the street, which we crossed, and walked to the bus stop. We had about a 20 minute wait and it was a bit chilly with a cold breeze but we had fun talking about the stars and how we would go out on deck when we got back to the ship and try to find the Southern Cross.
Finally the bus came and it dropped us off where we had originally caught the first one and we walked back to TSS from there.
We were telling others aboard about our great experience at the observatory and how we wanted to see the star from the deck. One of the faculty women rushed out of the room to find the Staff Captain, Captain Socrates (a Greek, could you guess?) to ask him if he would help us find it.
He told her that unfortunately, Crux was blocked from view by city buildings so we couldn’t see it from the deck while we were docked but he would be happy to show it to us once we were at sea.
(As I write this, it is our first night back at sea but there are heavy swells and we are not allowed to go onto the open decks, so the best we can hope for is better weather tomorrow night. We’ll only be in transit four days to Australia, so if we don’t see it while at sea hopefully we can see it while docked in Australia.
At any rate, I want to go to the Sydney Observatory and see if I can definitely learn to identify the Southern Cross!
Day 5: Sunday 11 November 2007
Having made sure of the location of the church and which bus would take me as near as possible to it, I set out at about 8:25 to catch the 8:35 bus at Britomart, half a block from the dock. Bus 045 arrived on time and I asked the driver to let me out at the last stop on Queen Street, which he did.
I then walked, slowly and panting, up the steep slope to Scotia Place. Just before I crossed Queen Street to the church, I paused to take pictures of it - and to catch my breath. Then I crossed the street and walked to the church door.
View of church from southwest corner; the slender silver steeple is hard to see. 8854
Closer view of church with the steeple more visible. 8855
Friendly New Zealand Welcome
People were already arriving and everyone greeted me, shook my hand and welcomed me. I’d entered the side door on the lower level (the church is on a hill; the other side where the parking lot is located is uphill), so once inside, I was directed upstairs to the chapel.
Just outside the chapel, a friendly lady greeted me, chatted and then invited me inside. I took a seat next to the wall. As the chapel began to fill up, a Samoan family sat on the row directly in front of me, spilling over onto my row so that a teenage girl and a boy about 8 years old were sitting next to me. We shared a hymnbook during the meeting.
Later, after the meetings, I talked with a woman who was a teacher trainer at a local high school. She was looking for a new job and was very interested in TSS. I encouraged her to look at the TSS website and consider applying for a job; she told me of a NZ website (www.pinz.co.nz) that listed education-related jobs.
As I left the chapel, went downstairs and out the door, many people said good-bye, shook my hand, and wished me well.
The Ride Back and the Rest of the DayBack outside, I walked to the corner, turned left and headed for the bus stop a block and a half downhill on Queen Street. I arrived just two minutes before the free bus came.
The free bus makes a circuit of key city locations on a regular schedule. I hadn't ridden it before because it hadn't been going where and when I needed it until now.
On the way, the bus passed Meyers Park, where the street market had been held the day before, and I saw deserted grounds and a large banner on the park’s main building advertising that the fair would be on Friday and Saturday. It was refreshing to realize that there are still places in the world where events like that are not held on Sunday.I got back to the ship in time for lunch, ate in the dining room and then went to my cabin and worked on updating my blog. I planned to spend a lot of Monday in the Internet Café I'd found, uploading photos to already posted text. I hadn't been able to do it with TSS's Internet service and I had hundreds of photos to upload!
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