Auckland, the city of Volcanoes

Recently I went to Auckland for business trip and I stayed over the weekend to visit Hope Auckland and to roam the city. The caregroup that I visited made up of people from Nigeria, Ghana, Germany, China, Thailand, Taiwanese, Malaysia..etc. People with great faith in the Lord. I went to the Sunday service which was held in Auckland University and there after went for shopping to catch some stuff before I fly back to Singapore the next day.

Left: A landmark in Auckland University

New Zealand has about 4 million people, about the same number of people in Singapore. You see people everywhere in Singapore but not so in Auckland which has about 1 million people. I like the crisp air in Auckland.

Over the weekend, I was pondering whether to go to Devonport or the Auckland Museum. I chose the 'cooler' option, Auckland Museum which has air-con. It is Summer in Auckland and the weather is warm and the thought of walking at Devonport under the scorching sun was a no-no for me. I met an elderly couple on my way to Auckland Museum. Both of them are English and the primary reason why they were in Auckland was to attend their son's wedding in Auckland. We talked about the countries we live and briefly about Auckland. It was great to meet people on the road especially when I travelled alone in a foreign land.

Auckland museum was great. I enjoyed the many interesting exhibits like Maori, Polynesian, nature, world history, volcanic etc there. I learnt that Auckland is not just a city built on volcanoes, it is also a city built of volcanoes. I went into a room where it simulated how it would be like if the volcano erupted in Auckland. The room shoke, sofa that I sat on moved and the lights went off.

On my transit flight to Sydney, I met a German girl who was on her way back to Germany has travelled in New Zealand for 4 months. She was very young and she did it mainly on her own. I wondered whether I would travel alone for extended period of time. I felt occasional pang of loneliness when I travelled alone over the weekend.

I had a good chat with an Australian man on my returning flight to Singapore. We chatted about the on-demand movies on the Qantas airline, life, work etc. He was on his way to Paris for conference. When the plane landed in Singapore, I remembered his words as we bid each other farewell, "Live well". Indeed, life is a short journey. Live well.