First thing this morning I headed off to find the railway station we need to be at by 7.15am tomorrow morning to catch our train to Wellington. It was obvious within a few steps that we could not walk here with our bags dragging behind us; the pathways were wonky and steep. Plus it was almost 2km away.

I did get a bit anxious when I arrived at the station (The Strand) around 7.00am as everything was locked off. Then I remembered that the train only runs every second day, so I’m hoping that tomorrow it will look very different.

I decided I would walk back to our apartment via a different route, but this ended up being a mistake as I went past a lot of industrial areas and did not get to experience some of the more beautiful spots of the city.

After breakfast, Mick and I headed off to visit the Auckland Art Gallery. Our walk took us along the edge of Albert Park where we stumbled across a huge sculpture (The Gateway). This photo does not do it justice as the top has further pieces joining the two columns of stones. But you can get a sense of the size of it here.

Entry to the art gallery was free and we enjoyed viewing some of the artworks of early visitors to New Zealand and of course, many pieces by Indigenous artists.

Modern art though for me poses some challenges. One installation was a movie taken from overhead of a Maori woman and her daughter in a canoe rowing over pristine blue waters and around a wreck of a ship believed to have been involved in early slave trading. The woman was chanting in her local language and I found the experience quite mesmerising.

Then there was this other one made by a younger artist who had videoed herself visiting the beaches of Waiheke Island (where we were yesterday). She tried to interpret her feelings and memories of the beach she had visited with her family when she was a child and before the beach was now mostly blocked off by private properties. I understood what she was trying to do, but watching her slowly fall to the sandy beach left me a little underwhelmed.

Our favourite exhibition was called “The Robertson Gift” – a collection of works (49 in total) built around a significant donation (15 works) to the gallery by Julian and Josie Robertson, who were very wealthy Americans who fell in love with New Zealand and Auckland.

Beginning with the suggestive nude bodies of the late 19th century and ending with a monumental colour-field painting from the 1960s, The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity takes visitors on a journey through the major art movements of the modern era, including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, and post-war abstraction. 

And it did exactly that.

Explaining and showing in each section of the exhibit the differences between many of the eras or movements in art over the years.

Mick is much more knowledgeable than I am with regards art and artists, and he was quick to recognise the artists by their works, while I had to read the information beside the works for many of them. But it was wonderful to see works of amazing artists such as Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dalí, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and of course, Pablo Picasso.

The red sphere is indeed the ‘focal point’ – the axis of the painting’s precise geometry, the vanishing point for its architectural elements. Mathematical precision is played off against elements of pure chance where the paint surface is rubbed down to reveal patterns in the layers of underpainting. (from The Guide, 2001)

Okay – enough with the art gallery.

We passed a few more hours wandering the area near our accommodation. Mick found a plaza or square dedicated to women and the suffragette movement. The square celebrated the centenary of women gaining the right to vote in New Zealand – and was commemorated in September 1993.

New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world where women were granted the right to vote. Kate Sheppard (featured in the poster above), originally from Scotland, was a leader in the woman suffrage movement. Her face appears on the New Zealand $10 note.

During our few days in the city we have appreciated the hugely multicultural nature of the city’s population as evidenced by the people we saw and by the many different types of shops and restaurants targeting Asian cultures or featuring Asian cuisines.

Many of the locals are of Chinese, Indian and Asian heritage. And I read that Auckland has the highest concentration of Chinese New Zealand people in the country.

Our accommodation is near Auckland University, and during our stay the university has been holding its graduation ceremonies. We have seen many young students with their families wandering the streets either heading to or from the ceremonies. And, again, the majority of the students we have seen are of Asian descent.

Before dinner we visited the nearby wine shop and purchased, on the owner’s recommendation, a bottle of Man O’War Bordeaux blend. And for $52NZ it was a fabulous wine. At 15.2%, it was not for the faint-hearted.

Our final activity in the city tonight was dinner at Le Chef Restaurant. I had read that this was a very good restaurant and as a bonus, it was close to our accommodation.

Tonight was very quiet, but the French owner was delightful and the food was wonderful.

Mick had the beef (perfectly cooked) and I had the duck leg, followed by Crème Brûlée. A bottle of Bordeaux was a perfect accompaniment.

An excellent end to our stay in Auckland.