Monday, January 03, 2011

Top 10 Things About Our New Zealand Trip: #9

Today we'll add #9 to our list of the top ten things about our New Zealand Trip. (You all probably thought we had forgotten about this series, huh?) If you missed the post about #10, be sure to check it out here.

#9- Albert Park

One of the things we often did in Auckland, after Eric got off of work, was to walk around the city exploring and window shopping. One of the cool things about Auckland is all of the parks dotted around the city. One day we happened upon Albert Part. Many of the parks are extinct volcano cones and even though Albert park is not one of them, it sure felt that way. It was a pretty steep climb up to the top & we were thankful for the sealed footpaths to follow.

Albert Park was originally a Maori Pa (or fortified village) before becoming Albert barracks, an early European military base. In the center of the part are various memorials, a fountain and a rotunda. The most striking thing for us were the Pohutakawa trees, also known as New Zealand Christmas trees because of the red flowers that bloom around December. They looked strange and wild, or at least they did to our eyes.

Here is a picture from the web of the Pohutakawa trees blooming in December:


Another thing we noticed was that it seemed to be a popular hangout for the students of a local university - especially since the day we went there the weather was so nice. We wondered if they knew what a privilege it is to live in such a beautiful place!

Here are some pictures from our time in the park:






- Eric and Heather

3 comments:

Jeanelle said...

David would LOVE the trees! Did I mention David fell out of one last week. He had a huge knott and bruise the size of a softball on his thigh. Consistently smearing it with arnica gel helped it to heal quickly. I am thankful he did not break any bones or injure himself more severly.

Tully Family said...

Oh, David! BE CAREFUL!

We kept commenting, while in Albert Park, that the children would have loved playing there. Many of the trees were hollow in the middle & you could tell that people had played inside of them.

Jeanelle said...

I agree, the children would have loved playing there!