Architecture in Auckland, Frans the Bus Driver/Writer, Disappearing Cicada
It’s the stuff of fairy tales. Not the modern glass skyscrapers and signature Sky Tower that compose the prospering downtown Auckland skyline, but the single family houses that permeate the suburbs surrounding the city’s core.
Tree lined street in Auckland!
With its multi-colored painted metal roofs, many of the houses here in this part of New Zealand remind me of the ginger bread house in Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel, but even more magical and visually delightful.
Quaint and charming abode!
Many houses in New Zealand have a slim porch with tall windows in front with a curved roof over the porch and a larger gable or pyramid roof and wood siding that give the houses a finished Victorian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_architecture or Queen Anne Style look. I imagine family members sitting on these porches, relaxing, drinking tea, watching the world go by, and uttering a friendly word (“G’Day, Mate!”) or two to say to passing neighbors. Some of the doors to these houses you just won’t find back in Seattle. They stand out not just because of their vibrant reds or blues, but because doorknobs are located in the middle, suggesting they are from a different time. And the chimneys poke up above the roof-lines, some with smoke coming out of them on a chilly summer night in Auckland.
Lovely foliage and warmth line the pathway to this charmer! !
I’ve taken up running again and on a sunny day jogging through various neighborhoods of Auckland I marvel at the assortment of plants and houses I run past. Everything seems to sparkle in the sun’s light, which we’ve been warned to be careful of as there’s a much thinner ozone layer in New Zealand than further north in Los Angeles or Seattle. Even on an overcast and sometimes (not very often) rainy day, the houses radiate a unique Kiwi personality.
Pretty little porch - sized just right to get out of the rain!
In Auckland, very rarely have I run or walked past a house that was in disrepair or unkempt. Even apartment buildings, which feature more block-like, modern architecture, are neat and tidy, like their residents.
Studio apartments with light emitting windows to capture the sunshine!
A party patio to hang out with friends!
One resident Kiwi is our next door neighbor, Frans. We had him over for pizza recently. (It was our first time eating Hell Pizza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Pizza .) Unfortunately our spontaneous invitation resulted in him temporarily getting locked out of his apartment and with the help of another neighbor, Graham, he was able to get back into his flat (the word for apartment here in New Zealand). .
Frans and Alicia - pizza anyone?
Originally from Holland, this self-effacing Dutch Kiwi moved with his family to Christchurch (South Island) when he was five. He’s relocated to Auckland (North Island) and is currently driving a bus and tells us selected stories about some of the more interesting passengers he’s had on board his bus. Sadly, bus drivers don’t make a lot of money and work long hours in Auckland, so he’s looking to eventually get into journalism. Perhaps he’ll write a book about his experiences driving a bus in New Zealand or the time he managed a sometimes noisy, rough-and-tumble boarding house in Christchurch on South Island.
Frans, the soon to be journalist, drives different routes around Auckland and never a boring moment!
Speaking of noisy, those heat-seeking, chattering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada cicadas are winding down and now during the day I can hardly hear them. Thank goodness for that. As we approach fall here in New Zealand, I’m not sad to see the noisy buggers (the males “talk” with noisemakers known as timbals) come to the end of their life cycle, most of which is spent as nymphs under ground. You’d think the yard and sidewalks would be covered with their corpses (like the dead crickets at school in Mexico that were swept up by the dozens), but it’s as if they just went “poof” and disappeared into thin air. More likely they became dinner for other insects/animals further up the food chain!
Now it seems like the only cicada-free clatter we hear outside our studio apartment is the traffic up and down Howe Street, the toddlers playing in the nursery school across the street, or the sweet sounding birds that chirp in the trees in our garden. These are sounds that are more palatable to me.
Our own little hideaway!
Each day I wake up here in New Zealand I marvel at how different this place is compared to the United States and other countries we’ve been to. Whether it’s in the architecture or the laid-back Kiwis, there’s something very special about this island country in the Pacific that starts a day ahead of many other parts of the world. It makes you want to stay a while and sit in a chair on those ubiquitous fairy-tale porches and visit for a spell.
Written by Joseph A. Haviland
Edited by Alicia Frank Haviland
Copyright 2009
Adventures Abroad 