February 9: Maoris and Moas

After an early morning worrying about stripped nuts and warped discs, John graciously carts us and bike to City Cycles in Manuku City outside Auckland and in 45 minutes the boys have not only fixed "every little thing", but also informed me that Green Bay had won the Super Bowl, which had put an end to "American football", for the time being.

Auckland this afternoon. After a short train commute in, we find ourselves walking Queen St. in downtown amidst throngs of tourists, gulls and bustle. Auckland, the self proclaimed "City of Sails", holds over one million inhabitants, is very ethnicly diverse and modern. Set on the narrow isthmus between Northland and the North Island proper and amidst a dozen eroded volcanic cones, it spreads in all directions from its dual harbors on the Pacific Ocean to the east and Tasman Sea to the west . And of course, there are boats bobbing (with sails as far as the eye can see.

We tramp the waterfront, downtown, thru Auckland University, and to the Domain, where the Auckland Museum perches atop Pukekaroa, an extinct lava dome. The Maori exhibit was fabulous. The Maoris were the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand, having arrived 1000 years ago in one of the last stops of the great south Pacific human migration. They were a polytheistic culture, with close connections to their habitat, but prone to intertribal fighting. The colonizing whites, mostly from Britian, found a rich, untamed land to exploit, and tho treaties of cooperation were signed in the 1800's, they eagerly set about dominating and exploiting the Maori. Today, the 565,000 Maori are well integrated within the 4 million of NZ, but do experience the inequalities of a displaced culture.

The Maori exhibit displayed intricately carved columns and lintels and building facia, war canoes and totems, all cut with stone tools. Also displays of weapons (a ghastly looking set of war clubs), fishing gear (hooks of stitched together sharp bones), cooking vessels, fly swatters (yes, really) and masks of the gods. And in the natural history wing...
OMG...A recreation of the Giant Moa, the recently extinct flightless bird. One cannot help but be awed as one gazes from the creatures 18" clawfoot up to its tiny ostrich-like head a full 9 feet above the ground. Being flightless and with enough meat to serve a village, there is little wonder how these creatures became extinct so quickly in the face of firearms.

And Ellen finally got to see a Kiwi, unfortuneately stuffed, but cute all the same.

On the bikes tomorrow!!