In the town where I was born...
Jul. 26th, 2009 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trixtah(Meme ganked from reynardo )
...there are not one but two large harbours (the Waitematā and Manukau), with anchorages and inlets to spare, and a low tidal range (3.5m at spring tide). The narrowest point between the two harbours is less than a kilometre, and Maori used to carry their canoes from one to the other. Not surprisingly, the road that was built on that track is called Portage Rd (alas, the tide was out in the Manukau Harbour and the mangroves obscure the Tamaki River that drains to the Waitemata in that satellite image). And Captain Cook sailed right past both of these large harbours.
...on a slightly related note, the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta has been running since 1840, when the city was founded. It is likely the largest one-day sailing regatta in the world. I've not been big into sailing - not being rich growing up - but I do know how to sail a P-class dinghy, and it was always fun to get somewhere close to the harbour and see it totally covered with boats. It's about the only city-wide event I have always enjoyed.
...there is the largest Polynesian settlement in the world, with over 175,000 Polynesians from various islands contributing 14% of Auckland's population. Samoans, Tongans, Fijiians, Cook Islanders, Niueans, Tokelauans, and so on. I can greet people in five of those languages, by virtue of attending a school that was 70% Maori/Polynesian. Maori aren't included in that population figure, although they they of course came from the eastern Polynesian islands at some point around 1200. The Pasifika Festival one of the largest of its kind, and is where I can stock up on pineapple pies, since a lot of corner shops in Auckland are now owned by Asian people, with not so many Samoans as when I was growing up.
...during WWII, the scandal of the day featured two women dancers at the Civic Theatre, Freda Stark and Thelma Trott. Freda Stark "was known as 'The Fever of the Fleet' after dancing in nothing but a feather headdress, a g-string and a coat of gold paint". Thelma's husband (a composer, nearly 20 years older than she) poisoned Thelma with barbiturates after he learned about their affair. He was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the Labour Govt was elected. Miss Stark spent a number of years in England before returning to Auckland in her later years. I regularly saw her - she was a tiny woman - walking about in Ponsonby wearing a black trouser outfit and carrying a silver-tipped black cane. I totally want to be like her when I grow up. After she died, her ashes were interred in Thelma's grave, 60 years after Thelma's death. There is a bar in the Civic Theatre building named Stark's in her honour, but I haven't had a drink there yet.
...Germaine Greer was arrested for uttering the words "fuck" and "bullshit" in 1972 during a speech against anti-abortionists at the Auckland Town Hall. Her arrest sparked off an avalanche of student protests, and was also apparently one of the reasons she decided to live in England, away from the censorship in Australasia.
...there are 50-odd dormant (not extinct) volcanoes - the central isthmus is really just one big volcanic field. The last eruption was Rangitoto Island (in the middle of the Waitemata Harbour) about 600 years ago. The eruptions have been getting comparatively stronger the more recent they've been. They've got maps of likely lava flows and so on for each of the volcanoes, in case of one blowing, but geologists obviously have no clue which one will blow or when. You can see a seismograph in the Auckland Museum - I used to think that the line was supposed to be constantly wiggling a tiny bit. Apparently not. They might be small, but I really wouldn't like to be there if one goes off.
reynardo )...there are not one but two large harbours (the Waitematā and Manukau), with anchorages and inlets to spare, and a low tidal range (3.5m at spring tide). The narrowest point between the two harbours is less than a kilometre, and Maori used to carry their canoes from one to the other. Not surprisingly, the road that was built on that track is called Portage Rd (alas, the tide was out in the Manukau Harbour and the mangroves obscure the Tamaki River that drains to the Waitemata in that satellite image). And Captain Cook sailed right past both of these large harbours.
...on a slightly related note, the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta has been running since 1840, when the city was founded. It is likely the largest one-day sailing regatta in the world. I've not been big into sailing - not being rich growing up - but I do know how to sail a P-class dinghy, and it was always fun to get somewhere close to the harbour and see it totally covered with boats. It's about the only city-wide event I have always enjoyed.
...there is the largest Polynesian settlement in the world, with over 175,000 Polynesians from various islands contributing 14% of Auckland's population. Samoans, Tongans, Fijiians, Cook Islanders, Niueans, Tokelauans, and so on. I can greet people in five of those languages, by virtue of attending a school that was 70% Maori/Polynesian. Maori aren't included in that population figure, although they they of course came from the eastern Polynesian islands at some point around 1200. The Pasifika Festival one of the largest of its kind, and is where I can stock up on pineapple pies, since a lot of corner shops in Auckland are now owned by Asian people, with not so many Samoans as when I was growing up.
...during WWII, the scandal of the day featured two women dancers at the Civic Theatre, Freda Stark and Thelma Trott. Freda Stark "was known as 'The Fever of the Fleet' after dancing in nothing but a feather headdress, a g-string and a coat of gold paint". Thelma's husband (a composer, nearly 20 years older than she) poisoned Thelma with barbiturates after he learned about their affair. He was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the Labour Govt was elected. Miss Stark spent a number of years in England before returning to Auckland in her later years. I regularly saw her - she was a tiny woman - walking about in Ponsonby wearing a black trouser outfit and carrying a silver-tipped black cane. I totally want to be like her when I grow up. After she died, her ashes were interred in Thelma's grave, 60 years after Thelma's death. There is a bar in the Civic Theatre building named Stark's in her honour, but I haven't had a drink there yet.
...Germaine Greer was arrested for uttering the words "fuck" and "bullshit" in 1972 during a speech against anti-abortionists at the Auckland Town Hall. Her arrest sparked off an avalanche of student protests, and was also apparently one of the reasons she decided to live in England, away from the censorship in Australasia.
...there are 50-odd dormant (not extinct) volcanoes - the central isthmus is really just one big volcanic field. The last eruption was Rangitoto Island (in the middle of the Waitemata Harbour) about 600 years ago. The eruptions have been getting comparatively stronger the more recent they've been. They've got maps of likely lava flows and so on for each of the volcanoes, in case of one blowing, but geologists obviously have no clue which one will blow or when. You can see a seismograph in the Auckland Museum - I used to think that the line was supposed to be constantly wiggling a tiny bit. Apparently not. They might be small, but I really wouldn't like to be there if one goes off.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 12:40 am (UTC)