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4/12 - 5/12/99 Auckland Oh yeah. Walking along the road, out of our hotel into Auckland, we chanced by a venue. Mogwai are playing tonight! Too tired to think straight (no sleep in Cairns), I instead dream of festivals in Britain where Mogwai and Mercury Rev and Catatonia soundtrack my hazy, alcohol-fuelled laziness... and we walk straight on, leaving only a cryptic message in our stead, to the Sky Tower and cheap Chinese food. The Sky Tower is like a cheap, opportunistic copy of Seattle's Space Needle to my way of thinking - and it charges far too much for ascent - but please don't tell anyone there. I'm rather fond of Auckland. All the way round town, Charlotte ribs me for not remembering it from my previous visit five years ago (where myself and Stephen Sweet stayed at a hotel with 23 rooms and 7 bars)... until we discover they hadn't even started building it then. Auckland's changed. The seedy red light area that I remember so fondly, from our sojourns into it with King Loser, has almost disappeared. (Although I think I spotted the bar I was thrown out of a few times.) In its place is sheer, metallic glossiness, there to welcome corporate Yanks and Asians for the America's Cup 2000. Still, we had a beer at De Bretts hotel, for old times' sake, and tramped the streets a while, before returning to our up-market backpackers accommodation which had the cheek to call itself a hotel, in an area which looked to be Auckland's equivalent of Islington (London). It's near Mount Eden. Bought an import copy of The Age at my favourite corporate retail chain, Border's. It featured a Primal Scream cover story in EG, and I was dismayed to discover how sloppily, clumsily written it was. Yes, that's right. By me. The following day, we needed sleep. So yes, we did make it to Kelly Tarlton's rather astonishing Antarctic Adventure and Underwater World, situated in some former sewer pipes. That was around midday, however. So by the time we finished gasping at assorted moray eels, sea horses, piranhas, manta rays, puffa fish, sharks, etc, the day was almost over. I'd recommend that place, though, if only for the great view of Auckland and the harbour one sees from its café. A fine meal at Couch Potato, nr Mount Eden, rounded off the evening. |
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