Around Auckland

I spent 4 nights in Auckland.

On Day 10 of my trip I travelled on the ferry to Waiheke Island passing Rangitoto Island, one of the extinct? volcanoes.

I took a walk around the coast of the island. Unfortunately I did not take my stick and walking boots and the track was very muddy and slippery so I only completed about two thirds.

On Day 11 I attended Eucharist at the Auckland cathedral.

Then I drove north to Piha Beach on the west coast. It is regularly featured on TV surf rescue programs.

I then drove to Muriwai also featured on TV but not so pretty.

On Day 12 I visited the Auckland Botanical Gardens.

On two evenings I attended concerts in the Town Hall. The first was an organ recital by Dr Indra Hughes of Bach's the Art of Fugue. I like organ music but Dr Hughes gave a very involved lecture beforehand of which I understood little and the piece played was very long.
Much better was the 2nd night when the Australian conductor Richard Gill led the New Zealand Youth Orchestra playing
LOGAN Zhu Rong Fury!
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.3
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5

It was a marvellous night.

I had also been fortunate when I stayed in Napier.
I purposely left Dunedin the morning after attending a concert by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. They toured the South Island with a Mozart performance
MOZART The Abduction from the Seraglio: Overture
MOZART Sinfonia Concertante
MOZART Symphony No.40 in G minor

At the same time they were touring the North Island with a Beethoven  performance
BEETHOVEN The Ruins of Athens Overture
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5
and it was in Napier at the art deco theatre opposite my hotel on the night I was staying there.

Therefore I attended 3 marvellous concerts within 2 weeks.

Coromandel

Day 6 and I drove to Whakatane with a view of Mt White offshore which is New Zealand's most active volcano.

Then I bypassed Tauranga and drove onto the Coromandel Peninsula. A short stop in the town of Whitianga.

I drove across the peninsula to the town of Coromandel.

I stayed 2 nights and spent Day 7 driving to beaches north up the coast

Then inland to a stand of Kauri trees which covered this area until logged by white settlers.

There was  a view of Castle Rock.

Then I backtracked over the hills to the beach at Whangapoua and I could look back at the other side of Castle Rock.

(Note for non-Kiwis - in Maori Wh is pronounced F)

Travelling Further North (and to the East)

In the afternoon of Day 4 I headed into new territory towards East Cape.

I passed through Wairoa and spent the night in Gisborne.

Day 5 I drove 360 km right around East Cape through Tolaga Bay with the longest wharf in New Zealand.

Then to Tokamaru Bay with a reminder that Spring was upon us.

I visted the delightful Maori Anglican church at Tiki Tiki. This area is largely settled by Maori and was one of the first areas reached by the early Maori when they sailed to New Zealand.

Te  Araroa is the most easterly point of New Zealand I am likely to visit. From here a 20 km gravel road leads along the ocean edge to East Cape Lighthouse. The oldest and largest Pohutakawa tree is in the school grounds. I must return in November/December when the Pohutakawa are in full flower.

The scenery was great all the way to my overnight stop in Opotiki.

Travelling North

I recently spent nearly 3 weeks in the North Island.
I feel I should post some pictures as I do with my overseas travels.
Day 1 I drove North to a little town called Cheviot then on Day 2 I continued up the east Coast through Kaikoura.

 

 to Picton and onto the Strait ferry to Wellington.

Day 3 I drove over the Rimutaka Range

and took a break in Greytown which was once the capital of this area known as the Wairarapa so has many old buildings.

The night was spent in Napier which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in the Art deco style of those times.

In the evening I went to a concert by the NZ Symphony orchestra in the art deco theatre.

Day 4 I attended Eucharist in the Cathedral built after the earthquake.

Then I went to the NZ National Aquarium which had some kiwis as well as sea creatures.

Shame on Australia, the unfair country

I have copied this from the Sydney Morning Herald
The bold is mine

Australians and New Zealanders have fought alongside one another in world wars, can move without restriction under our trans-Tasman travel arrangement and share a mutually beneficial free-trade agreement. Yet when it comes to our expatriates, Australia has been accused of treating Kiwis like second-class citizens.
And while incoming prime minister, Tony Abbott, was only elected a week ago, New Zealanders hope the fact his wife, Margie, is a Kiwi will help influence change.
Under travel arrangements reached in the 1970s, expats can live and work in either country indefinitely. But legislative changes introduced by the Howard government 12 years ago - as well as amendments to several other laws thereafter - mean that although Kiwis can permanently reside and seek employment in Australia on special category visas, they are not entitled to permanent residency. Nor do they get automatic rights to citizenship.
In contrast, Australians are granted residency on arrival in New Zealand, can vote after living there for a year and become eligible for citizenship after five years. They are also entitled to welfare benefits after two years.

''Basically, any [New Zealander] who arrived here after February 26, 2001, or who had been living here and, for whatever reason, was living overseas the year the law was changed, is affected,'' said Tim Gassin, the spokesman for Oz Kiwi, a group campaigning for equality for the estimated 300,000 unprotected Kiwis affected.
Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe is among them. Despite moving here in 1968, Crowe was working overseas filming Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind when the Family and Community Services Legislation Amendment (New Zealand citizens) Act 2001 was brought in.
He planned to get naturalised in 2006 only discover he was ineligible - despite living here for 37 of his 49 years.
Crowe has described the immigration loophole as ''arbitrary and ridiculous'', noting that, while he could not become a citizen, he had featured on an Australian Legends stamp and was awarded a Centenary of Federation medallion.
''There's a whole bunch of New Zealanders who have committed to a life here, who have had children here, who bought their first houses here, who have been productive, taxpaying members of society … Until recently, I had an Australian wife. I have two Australian children. But I still fall between the cracks,'' Crowe said.
Mr Gassin's Kiwi fiancee Grace Edwards has even taught Australian history at Melbourne University where they met in 2007 and are both doing their PhDs.
''Essentially, the way the system now operates in Australia, despite all the history between our two countries, New Zealanders are treated the same as anyone sitting in the desert in Namibia who wants to come here and get citizenship,'' he said.
''They have to go through the same skills tests, security checks and health checks for things like contagious diseases, which is a bit stupid when they've already been living and working here - some of them - for 10 years.''
He said Kiwis had the highest workforce participation rate in Australia and it was ironic that many residency and citizenship applications had been rejected by the Australian government on the basis their skills were not in demand.
''But a lot of occupations are not in demand here because there are so many Kiwis filling the gaps,'' he said.
Without citizenship, Kiwis cannot vote or access any form of social or disability welfare - even though they contribute an estimated $5 billion in income tax annually. Furthermore, children born here to New Zealand citizens are no longer considered Australian. Such children only qualify for citizenship after they have lived here for 10 years, meaning those born with disabilities are not eligible for any government assistance.
The productivity commissions of Australia and New Zealand completed a joint report last year on the trans-Tasman relationship and found Australia's treatment of Kiwis was unreasonable, unjustified and required change.

Actually I think there are some inaccuracies. I received the NZ aged pension backdated to the day I arrived.  My Australian Aged pension is paid to the NZ Government but as it is means tested it is less than what I receive from NZ.

I was able to vote in the first elections after I arrived, the local elections were held about 9 months after my arrival and I received voting papers.

Unlike an American citizen, as an expatriate, I have lost the right to vote in Australia, so my views are of no interest to politicians. 

 

In fact, if I did not have relatives and friends in Australia, I would have no interest in ever returning to that country again.

A Cartoon

Taken from the blog Liturgy by Rev Bosco Peters whom I thank for his efforts on behalf of homosexuals.

New Zealand continues to show the way

Great news today as New Zealand elects the third woman Diocesan bishop.

The Rev Dr Helen-Ann Hartley has been elected the next Anglican Bishop of Waikato.
Helen-Ann, who is 40, succeeds Archbishop David Moxon, who is now the Anglican Communion’s ambassador to Rome.
Bishop-elect Helen-Ann is at present Dean of Tikanga Pakeha students at St John's College in Auckland.
She was born in Edinburgh and grew up in north-east England. She is the fourth generation of her family to be ordained, and was priested in 2005 in the Diocese of Oxford.

So apparently she is the first woman ordained in the Church of England to become a bishop.

In New Zealand she follows Penny Jamieson, who was the Bishop of Dunedin from 1990 till 2004, and Victoria Matthews, who was elected the Bishop of Edmonton, in Canada, in 1997, and who was chosen as the Bishop of Christchurch in 2008.

Of course England is yet to vote to allow women to be bishops and while Australia now has 4 assistant bishops they are still not allowed to be in charge of a diocese.