Wednesday, November 15, 2017

South to North Tour: Day 18 Archives Rat in Auckland




By the numbers
7.71kms
11,190steps
It seemed like a warmish night, but I was on the top bunk so heat rises and I didn’t mind being up there as my stuff was very secure in their locker. I got up early as I seem to do so and knew where I wanted to be. I had to catch the train and then the bus to the archives. I was going to catch a bus to Britomart, but decided that I could walk as it wasn’t that far at all. I actually stopped at a bakery cafe for a pie and a coffee. I was happy for the coffee as I had planned to stop at Maccas for a little something on the way. It seemed to be a popular place as there were builders buying coffee, so I think that could mean its pretty decent.

Once down at the train station, I soon wondered why the stop for Onehunga had not been displayed until it rolled over. I actually had time to get down there to wait with something like 10 mins or so. I was looking at my map as I could do so since I had wifi to get things and then suddenly a wrong touch of some sort made all my windows vanish and couldn’t get them again until I had internet access. I needed the map for map reasons including getting off the bus. Once I was on the bus, I followed my little dot and I got off when one lady did as I knew I was close to my stop. I looked to my left and right before heading down the street wondering how far I needed to go before realising I was actually across the road. There was no need to walk very far at all and I still had time to wait, which was good too. I checked to see if my data was working as I had tried earlier in the trip and it had not. Today it seemed to be able to without a problem. No idea why all of a sudden, but I knew I had better not make it a habit just in case. Once I was able to walk in, I had some records to have a look at. There seemed to be a few things that I was hunting for even if they were or were not useful, I wasn’t worried. After several hours, I decided it was time to go since I had looked at what I was wanting to look at within an hour of being there, but had looked at other family tree records.

I headed back to Onehunga as I wanted to have a look in the bookstore called Hard to Find bookstore. It was still there as there had been reports about it going to shut soon due to rent. I only left with one book that had my interest. I wanted to head back into Auckland before 5pm as I wanted to have a look in the university bookshop. It wasnt actually that big of a journey into Auckland as it never took too long at all. Wondering which direction, I would take, I decided to walk a way to the university that I hadn’t done before that would be the same street that I could follow. I followed ANZAC street I think it was, but I did follow the shoreline down at Fort Street and came across a hostel I had originally stayed at when I had first come to Auckland. It was still open, but did not look very busy at all.

I turned around and walked up the hill to the university. I came across a book publisher called Auckland University Press, which I am familiar with. Halfway up the hill I came across something unexpected as I had not realised it was even there. I had stumbled across the location of New Zealand’s First Parliament that had been built in the 1850s and would make way in 1865 when parliament moved to Wellington. The buildings were handed over to the university and they were pulled down during the early 1900s. Nearby I knew the Albert Barracks would have stood. I went to stop for a coffee, but the university coffee shop had actually closed since they were tidying up, which was fair enough. The bookshop was not actually very big at all. Last time I had been there they had occupied several floors. I found something and had been thinking I could drop my stuff off and head back down to the wharf area and wander. Looking at the time I thought better of it. I needed a shower and some food as I only had a muesli bar for lunch. The call for something to eat was getting louder and I could not ignore it. I think having one real easy day will be alright, but I do plan on visiting a few other places before I end up going home at the end of the holiday. I was contemplating going into the university library, but I might leave that for when I visit the actual library and visit both to see if the university allows me to do so.

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