St Thomas More

This evening, I was invited along to the St Thomas More Society Annual Dinner, a dinner held by a catholic lawyer's organisation, to commemorate the work and principles of St Thomas More. No-one seemed to mind that I was an Anglican.

The dinner was held at the Northern Club, on the site of Auckland's first hotel. It is a big, square, ivy-covered building which feels like a little corner of London in the southern hemisphere. I felt as though I would look out of the window to see Green Park rather than Albert Park.

The menu had been designed with me in mind! (Pegasus Scholars do seem to be spoilt rotten...) We started with blackened cajun red snapper and the main course was seared salmon. Delicious! I am most keen to emulate the dessert at home - a raspberry creme brulee with white chocolate buttons at the bottom. Mmm. All accompanied by the finest New Zealand wines, of course.

After dinner, the speaker, Sir Maurice Casey, gave us an outline of his life as a lawyer. He modestly described his greatest contribution to the law as his son, who is now practising in Auckland.

Sir Maurice Casey's career began as a Law Clerk at the Public Trust Office, soon after leaving school in 1939. He went to night school and did his articles whilst working. After some years, he moved into private practice doing a great deal of personal injury work. When the ACC came along, introducing a government-run compensation scheme for those injured at work or on the roads, his practice all-but disappeared as personal litigation was prohibited.

He developed his career in other directions and continued to gain respect as a lawyer before being appointed to the Court of Appeal and, subsequently, to the Privy Council. He was involved in the litigation surrounding the South African RFC tour in the 1980's when there was great pressure to boycott the proposed games and took a leading role in the constitutional case which arose out of one of the Fiji coups.

It was a fascinating glimpse at a long and varied career over a period of time which has seen many legal and social developments.

The Office

Having spent a couple of weeks observing trials, I have now been entrusted with some research.

I have also been rewarded with a desk, a telephone and a computer. True luxury! It's a very civilised way to work with morning coffee breaks rigorously enforced and secretaries to do the photocopying - I felt ever so guilty! Someone even brought me a chocolate biscuit on Friday...

New Zealand has a fused profession although some lawyers tend to act as barristers, concentrating on court work, whilst the practices of others are more similar to a solicitor's. Only barristers in indepedent practice can call themselves barristers and apply for silk. Employed barristers such as those at Meredith Connell are known as solicitors and are not eligible for silk. This system is to maintain the impression of an independent Bar but in practice seems to undermine the status of prosecutors.

Meredith Connell is charged with prosecuting all the criminal cases in the Auckland area. Files are prepared in house and trial counsel are provided. It seems to run more like a solicitor's firm than a barristers' chambers with hours recorded, targets and a hierarchy of partners, associates and solicitors. It's a great chance to see how the other half work!

Tiritiri Matangi

I guaranteed good weather for today by scouring Auckland for overtrousers. I bought some and was relieved to wake up this morning to bright blue skies.

The Fullers ferry left early for Tiritiri Matangi and having dropped in on Gulf Harbour on the way, we arrived on the island at 10am. We were met by a Department of Conservation Ranger who was the last lighthouse-keeper on the island. After outlining the island rules, he handed us over to guides from the Tiritiri Matangi Supporters Group who would take us on a guided walk around the island.

Tiritiri is one of New Zealand's three open sanctuaries and lies in the Hauraki Gulf about 1 hour's cruise from downtown Auckland. It was intensively farmed by Maori for hundreds of years before it was claimed as grazing land by the British government. The government arranged annual clearing of the bush by burning the land so that much of the native bush was destroyed. It was reclaimed for conservation purposes in 1984 and an 8 year planting programme saw 280,000 trees introduced.

The island is now back to its natural state, save for some areas of grassland which have been allowed to remain as an illustration of what would have happened but for the rescue programme and as a habitat for grazing birds. It is a haven for birds, having been cleared of all mammals including stoats, possums and Pacific rats - which were killed by bait dropped from a helicopter! These introduced species were not feared so much for their predatory nature as for their destruction of trees and their devouring of the food supplies upon which many birds depended. The birds are now able to flourish and are relatively fearless when confronted by human visitors.

Strolling along towards Hobbs Beach, our first treat came in the form of penguin boxes - stone built tunnels which blue penguins use as burrows. Perspex panels under wooden lids allow a face-to-face encounter with the little birds, their chicks and their eggs. When I looked, the adult was asleep but the chicks were as interested in me as I was in them.

We walked on into the bush and I was introduced to cabbage trees, puriri, kowhai and the pohutukawa tree - the kiwi Christmas tree. We soon found many rare and endangered birds - whiteheads, bellbirds (the first birdsong heard by Captain Cook), saddlebacks, stitchbirds, tuis, robins (which have little in common with our robin redbreasts) and kereru (NZ pigeons). We were also fortunate enough to see 3 of the island's 18 kokakos or blue-wattled crows, with their church organ-like call. It was even better than the aviary at the zoo with a fantail fluttering around my feet and the robin posing for photographs. The birdsong was symphonic.

The walk took us up to the ridge and the grasslands where we found pukeko - huge moorhens - strutting around, and koreke, brown quail. Further up, we encountered takahe - which have been one of Tiritiri's great success stories. They were thought to be extinct until rediscovered in 1948 and Tiritiri now has a population of 18 birds from a breeding pair introduced in 1992.

The takahe are large crazy flightless birds with a penchant for stealing sandwiches. Their feathers are iridiscent blue and their beaks are scarlet! They are the largest living member of the rail family and as such are related to coots. Maybe we could have some success in rearing them in Surrey Quays...

Seeing them strutting around gave me an idea as to what New Zealand might have been like before human intervention with three metre tall moas wandering around the bush, kiwis running around at ground level and huias flitting around in the canopy.

The only permanent buildings on Tiritiri centre around the lighthouse - which was built in Pimlico in 1864 and which continues to guard the ships in the Hauraki Gulf. It was automated in 1990 and now runs on solar power but, over the years, it has been fuelled by rapeseed oil, paraffin and xenon gas amongst other things. Next to the lighthouse stand two homes, built in 1918 for the lighthouse keepers and their families - they are now occupied by the DOC ranger, who was the last lighthouse keeper. As I stood and admired them, the granddaughter of a past lighthouse keeper introduced herself to me. Her aunt had been born on the island in the 1930's.

On my return to the wharf, I found a red-crowned parakeet, nibbling away at some branches, completely oblivious to me. Sugar water trays attracted many of the smaller birds including the bellbirds and saddlebacks. Close to the quay, a pond was home to a handful of brown teal, some of a population of only 1300 birds nationwide. On the wharf itself, a solitary female paradise duck had appeared to bid us a fond farewell - it followed us all the way down the jetty and might have liked to join us on the ferry.

The nocturnal kiwis and moreporks, however, remain elusive.

Nautical Auckland

Given a rainy afternoon, I decided to visit the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Viaduct Harbour. Its Maori name is Te Huiteananui-A-Tangaroa or The Legendary House Belonging to Tangaroa, Maori God of the Sea.

I learnt three interesting things there (besides the fact that kiwis are excessively proud of their boats!):

1. The navigational techniques of the ancient Polynesians. They relied on the stars at night and the sun and the swells during the day. They never developed instruments but made charts for training other sailors, from twigs which they lashed together to represent the different ocean currents and to which they attached cowrie shells to show the island groups. Voyagers would look out for signs of land such as low-lying clouds, birds which would return to land to roost and changing swells. Using these skills, they left their homelands in South-East Asia to fan out across the Pacific Ocean and colonise islands spread out over a massive area.
2. Pacific sailing boats - outrigger canoes, in particular - tack in a different way to European boats. Instead of the boom swinging across the boat when it goes about, the sail moves from the bow to the stern of the boat. This is possible because the boats are laterally symmetrical - in fact, the bow becomes the stern and vice versa.
3. There was a George Skene who arrived in Auckland from Melbourne on the Star of India on 12th September 1863, during the gold rush. I have no idea if he's related but there seems a good chance of it...

Spring Equinox

Today is officially the first day of spring. Hurray!

Bro'Town

The eagerly awaited first episode of Bro'Town was screened tonight. It has been billed as the Pacific Islanders' answer to the Simpsons but seems to me to be closer to Badmash in its irreverent, acerbic and topical sense of humour.

It is New Zealand's first adult cartoon and as such has received support from unusual quarters with Prime Minister Helen Clark appearing in a cameo role.

The storyline centres on a group of schoolboys, all from a Maori or Polynesian background. They go to a struggling inner city school and battle against alcoholic fathers with a penchant for the casino and zealously religious mothers.

The self-deprecatory approach seems to allow the writers to ridicule various other members of the community including the Asian dairy (cornershop) owner, the freemasons and the Pakeha at large. Even Bush and Blair are the subject of the odd jibe.

Keep your fingers crossed that BBC2 snap it up!

Manukau - the Milton Keynes of Auckland

Manukau District Court was my destination this week. It didn't last long though. The trial was abandoned before the judge's summing up following the extreme incompetence of defence counsel who tried to put forward provocation as a defence to wilful damage. It is only a defence to murder. The court registrar put the defendant up to sacking his lawyer, the trial was aborted and the case will be re-heard once fresh, competent counsel has been instructed!

Manukau is one of the four cities that make up Auckland - together with Auckland City, North Shore City and Waitakere City. It is in the south of the region and historically has been seen as a deprived area - it's Once Were Warriors territory. As far as I could see, there was little of interest apart from a slick shopping mall but the area has been the centre of a housing boom in recent years and it is anticipated that the area will continue to develop.

Seasonal Maladjustment

The New Zealand Herald has announced that spring has arrived. I am, however, completely baffled by the seasons here. There are peace lilies in bloom alongside snowdrops and ornamental poppies besides crocii. There are bare trees still but enough daisies to make a summer. I've seen new lambs and tiny ducklings but the swallows have already arrived. It feels like Easter but there are Christmas decorations in the shops. Madness!

Coast to Coast

Fooled by the BBC website into thinking that it was going to be a nice day, I set off on the Coast to Coast Walk. The Auckland version of this walk is not quite on the same scale as the real Coast to Coast - I'm not quite ready for that! - but is a 16 km walk from Viaduct Harbour on the Pacific Ocean to Onehunga on the Tasman Sea across the isthmus, the narrow strip of land on which Auckland is to be found.

Having walked back from a bar in Viaduct Harbour the night before, I decided to start the walk from home - no cloth badge! - 1.5 km into the walk. I strolled along Princes Street, a main thoroughfare in colonial times where many of the wealthy built large houses. It is now home to the University and Albert Park, with its tropical trees and Victorian statuary, can be found across the road.

Crossing the motorway, I headed for the Domain, which was to be the first of three volcanoes on my route. I stopped off at the Winter Gardens where I explored the temperate house and the fernery. The tropical house was closed to visitors following the discovery of an infestation! New Zealand seems to be very keen on finding and eradicating pests of all kinds with a view to protecting native habitats and ecosystems. On continuing through the Domain, in torrential rain towards Grafton, I was surprised to find a very distinct crater behind the museum - these are very clearly volcanoes!

Following the path of the one-time lava flow from Mount Eden, I began the climb of the next summit. From the top, I could see the start of my walk on the Pacific coast and my destination on the Tasman Sea. I could also see One Tree Hill looming ominously in the distance and counted seven other volcanoes. I was able to walk around the crater but the hollow itself was off-limits - tapu, or sacred, to Maori and a site of archaelogical and geological interest.

Descending Mount Eden, I quickly lost track of the walk signposts and had to improvise - no cloth badge! I took a path through three parks: Windmill Park, Nicholson Park and Melville Park. On route I passed archery, tennis, netball, croquet and bowling. No wonder kiwis are such good sportsmen and women!

I soon left the suburbs for the expanse of Cornwall Park, gifted to the nation by Sir John Logan Campbell, one of the founding fathers of Auckland, when he was in his 90's. After passing the rugby club and cricket pitch, I began the ascent of One Tree Hill. There were many historic trees to admire, the result of planting over the last eighty years or so, before arriving at Acacia Cottage, Sir John Logan Campbell's first home in New Zealand and, at over 150 years old, Auckland's oldest building. It was uprooted from the city in 1920 and transferred to its idyllic position in the park overlooking an area landscaped by the step-grandson of Robert Louis Stevenson. The interior was fitted out with pioneer furniture and must have been very cosy when it was occupied by the Campbell family.

As the sun came out, I climbed to the peak of One Tree Hill, or Maungakiekie as it was named by the Maoris who settled the area. The one tree to which the name refers was originally a totara, a tree sacred to Maori. It was cut down by a group of workers in 1852, in protest at their lack of rations. It was replaced by a pine which was in turn sacrificed by a militant Maori in the late 1990's. Now the centrepiece of the summit is an obelisk, remembering those who lost their lives in wartime. From the top, I had a 360 degree view of the isthmus.

I found my first New Zealand lambs on the slopes below, still young enough to be frisky and curious whilst their mothers looked on disdainfully. They had the run of an old Maori pa, with fortifications still visible together with a kumara pit, once used to store sweet potatoes. The crater below was decorated with stones arranged to form various words and phrases, some spiritual, others less so - a more acceptable form of graffiti.

The path took me out of the south gate of the Park, past the observatory and on to the not-so-scenic Manakau Road. I soon reached Jellicoe Park, the last stage of the walk, where I was able to observe more examples of colonial cottages and the Blockhouse, which was built in 1860 and designed for the defence of Auckland during the Land Wars.

The final kilometre took me through quiet residential streets lined with traditional wooden houses so when I reached the end of the walk at Onehunga Reserve Bay, I felt more than a little cheated. The Bay was inland! Cut off from the Tasman Sea by a four lane motorway! Not quite the view I'd hoped for at the end of 16 km! I was far from satisfied with this conclusion so I set off up the road to cross the footbridge over the motorway to reach the Tasman. I was rewarded with a white-faced heron and the waves lapping at my feet as I looked out across Manukau Harbour, famed for having the second largest shoreline of any Southern Hemisphere harbour.

After lunch, I caught the bus home and headed straight for the hot tub to stave off any aches and pains.

A Night on the Town

I met up with Danielle and Anne-Marie this evening as they passed through on their whirlwind tour of Auckland.

We started the evening in Occidental, a Belgian bar close to work, where I had spent part of the afternoon awaiting a jury. Dinner consisted of moules frite - with huge succulent New Zealand green-lipped mussels to give it a local flavour. We experienced kiwi hospitality too as a diner from the next table joined us and recommended various night-spots.

We rejected his advice and headed down to Viaduct Harbour to try out Minus Five - a bar made entirely of ice! They kitted us out in parkas, thermal gloves, mittens and cosy Ugg boots before letting us through the door. Inside we found a bar made of a solid block of ice, benches made of solid blocks of ice and then more artistic creations including an ice throne (we took turns at being Ice Queens), a penguin, a bear and an eagle. Appropriately, I had my photograph taken with the winged horse. We sipped a tropical (!) cocktail from glasses moulded from ice and all too soon our allotted time was up.

Auckland District Court

This week I was posted to the Auckland District Court to watch a grisly child sex case and various other hearings as they appeared in the list.

The District Courts hear summary matters - lists and trials - as well as all but the most serious jury trials. They are manned by professional judges and justices of the peace sit only for "depositions hearings" - old-style committals, a left-over from the grand jury system.

I was surprised to see how little security there was in the court building. Although security staff were present and visible, the metal detector was only put out a short time before the summary courts were listed to start - anyone can come into the building without inspection before 09h30! It would be nice to think that this state of affairs was due to their being less risk of violence in New Zealand but the lax procedures are a cause for concern for professional court users.

Otherwise, the building is much the same as a 1960's Magistrates' Court - such as Horseferry Road - and the cases not particularly exotic. When the trial which I was observing was due to start late, I took the opportunity to watch a list of first appearances. One court sat with a registrar (clerk) to deal with all the new cases and channel them in the appropriate direction.

First offences deemed suitable for "diversion" are adjourned for two months to allow the defendant, who must admit guilt, to undertake community work with the Salvation Army and to take part in a restorative justice programme. On their return to court, a compliant criminal will be discharged with no conviction on their record, giving them a chance to learn from their mistakes.

Guilty pleas to more serious offences and traffic matters are transferred to a second courtroom for sentencing. There are over a dozen duty solicitors present at any one time and few defendants seem to have a lawyer instructed before attending court. Mitigation is often short and sweet and sentencing is equally routine - the benefit of a professional tribunal!

I observed the most significant procedural differences in the sentencing of more serious crimes. I saw two sentencing hearings of this nature - one concerning the sexual violation of a girl under 16 years in the defendant's care (a less serious version of rape but more serious than under-age sex) and the other following a trial on forgery and deception charges.

The sex case had been the subject of a sentencing indication by the judge. The defendant had demonstrated an inclination to plead guilty but wanted an idea as to what sentence he might receive before taking the plunge. More and more judges are now willing to accede to such requests which were rare five years ago. Once the indication was given, the guilty plea was entered and a Pre-Sentence Report ordered. On the defendant's return to court, the sentence handed down was exactly as indicated.

The other sentencing hearing followed a trial and so was a somewhat lengthier procedure. The judge called upon defence counsel to mitigate in the usual (English) way but then asked the prosecutor for submissions. Routinely the Crown produce sentencing bundles consisting of submissions drafted for the specific case and copies of the relevant authorities. The submissions cover the appropriate sentencing considerations as outlined by the recent Sentencing Act 2002, the aggravating and mitigating factors, again with reference to the 2002 Act, and the Crown's view as to an appropriate starting point for a sentence. The Crown can also address the judge on whether or not the prisoner ought to be granted leave to apply for home detention which allows a custodial sentence to be served within the confines of the prisoner's home, monitored by an electronic tag.

The trial due to a close on Friday, after a heart-wrenching week. Counsels' closing speeches were not notably different from those which one might hear in an English court but the judge's summing up covered different ground. The standard directions were given but there was no recapping of the evidence - only a reminder for the jury of counsel's submissions.

The jury retired at lunchtime. They would not be released until they reached either a verdict or a deadlock. If no progress had been made by 22h30, they would be sent to a hotel before returning on Saturday morning to continue their deliberations!

New Zealand law does not permit majority verdicts and so it came as little surprise to me when a note came back at 17h30 to say that the twelve were struggling to reach a unanimous decision. The judge was understandably reluctant to release them so early and they were sent away for dinner. It was hoped that the meal would help the members of the jury to reconcile their differences and make some progress. It worked. At hour and a half later, they returned to acquit the defendant.

This insistence on unanimous verdicts has been under fire for some time now and reforms have been proposed. Given the courts' practice of confining jurors until they complete their deliberations, it is little wonder that on a Friday night, compromises are reached and hurried verdicts returned. A change is long overdue it seems.

It's All Happening At the Zoo...

After my exertions on Rangitoto Island, I decided to have a lazy Sunday and so visited Auckland Zoo, home to the stars of TV2's The Zoo.

I oohed and aahed over the mischievous red pandas, the playful otters and the show-off elephants, who were off on a wander around the zoo. I went all soppy over the zoo babies - the lion cubs, Zulu and Zalika, exploring their new home beyond the den where they've been growing up, Ndale, the adolescent giraffe, who'll have to move on to other zoos soon before their crates are too tall to pass under road bridges, and Iwani, the siamang gibbon, recently reunited with his family after his mother rejected him at birth. And I was a willing audience for the sealions and their underwater acrobatics.

The aviary gave me a chance to see some of the rarer New Zealand birds but the kiwis were on holiday whilst a new house is built for them. I was particularly disappointed about that as the avian symbol of New Zealand is a nocturnal bird and rather rare in the countryside. I'll have to try Wellington Zoo instead...

I made do with the fearless kaka and New Zealand's only native pigeon, the kukupa. Fortunately, the vicious kea, with their taste for walking boots and windscreen wipers, were behind bars. It's the only mountain parrot in the world and I'll be keeping a very close eye out for it when I get above the snow line.

The Australian enclosure gave me a taste of what I might see in the New Year with an emu, wallabies and very photogenic rosella parrots and lorikeets. I was surprised by the size of the kookaburra's beak and was suspicious as to how quiet he was.

I had a narrow escape with the galapagos tortoise which resented my taking photographs of him and became rather snappy as I moved closer... They have no teeth but their beaks are fearsome.

But my favourite of all of the animals at the zoo was the ring-tailed lemur. I'm sure its keepers were relieved to see that my pockets weren't quite big enough for me to adopt one...

Rambling on Rangitoto

I dragged myself out of bed this morning to board the Fullers Ferry to Rangitoto Island. It was painful but very worthwhile.

The island emerged from the Pacific Ocean about 600 years ago following a volcanic eruption. The Maori tribes living on the now-adjacent island to Motutapu were somewhat surprised but pleased to find their lands covered in highly fertile volcanic ash!

I climbed to the summit of the island, stopping off at some lava caves along the way. I braved the dark, the spiders and the backpackers to explore inside, tripping over rocks and banging my head on tree roots along the way. Up at the summit, Auckland began to make sense with a stunning view across Waitemata Harbour to the city and the marina, the North Shore jutting out into the foreground. Dotted around the crater are a number of eerie deserted military buildings, left over from the defences built during the early part of the last century to protect New Zealand from an invasion which never came.

I did a lap around the well-defined lip of the crater and descended through the bush to the kidney fern glen and the kowhai grove. I headed on around the coast, past historic "baches" (1930's holiday homes without electricity or water supplies and so featuring rainwater tanks and meat safes), to Flax Point, close to a colony of black-backed gulls. The bird life on the island is limited because of the primitive nature of the vegetation which grows there but I saw a number of native birds including a fantail, kingfisher, silvereye and kereru.

The volcano is now dormant but vegetation has developed at a very slow pace over the centuries - paintings by the Victorians (who used the island for Sunday promenades) show the crater as an area of bare rock. It is now home to many native trees with pohutukawa dominating the land. The bare lava fields at lower levels show how vegetation gradually colonises the area - lichen and moss appear first, laying down some humus which in turn accommodates ferns and later small shrubs before eventually the trees take hold.

The last ferry left at 16h45 and I was sure to be on it as there are no shops, no hotels and no backpackers' hostels on the island. The Department of Conservation have been very concerned to ensure that there has been no development since the 1930's proliferation of cabins and so it is a very remote and isolated place, even though it is only 15 minutes by ferry from the mainland.

High Jinks at the High Court

I reported for duty early on Monday morning at Meredith Connell. After meeting a number of members of the firm, a number of whom were also Pegasus scholars, I was escorted over to the High Court to watch a methamphetamine production trial.

The High Court is a gothic style building with a newer wing which houses some of the larger courtrooms. The Crown Solicitors have a suite of rooms in the older building which bear comparison with the Treasury Counsel rooms at the Old Bailey but with a fridge stacked full of wine and gin and beer ready for Friday nights!

The trial was adjourned after a week of legal wrangling and will be heard in the New Year. As such, it remains sub judice - not to be discussed on the internet!

I did, however, learn a lot about methamphetamine, its production, clinical effects and social impact, by attending a dinner held by the Auckland Medico-Legal Society. It seems to hold a similar place in NZ society as crack cocaine holds in London. The production of methamphetamine is, however, a much more profitable undertaking and attracts organised crime gangs who set up clandestine laboratories ("clan labs") in rented accommodation, factory units and even exclusive apartment blocks in the CBD. The number of such clan labs has increased one hundred fold in the last decade. The precursors, possession of which is criminalised, include such common over-the-counter pharmaceutical products as sudafed and clarityn. The sale of such medicines is now closely scrutinised and whilst some young people, particularly foreign students, still earn pocket money by buying limited amounts at a high number of pharmacies, more and more batches of precursors and street-ready methamphetamine are being intercepted by customs.

When the trial didn't start, I occupied myself by watching the tail-ends of two murder trials - the brutal "bashing" of a man in a bus shelter and a lovers' tiff which ended up with the girl being burnt alive, both of which ended with convictions. The cases were handled sensitively by the Crown Prosecutors but I was interested to note a significantly less formal approach to closing submissions that I would expect in London. Another difference was the judge's summing up. He gave directions which sounded almost identical to the English Bench Book but reviewed counsels' speeches and the evidence referred to therein rather than reviewing the whole evidence.

The week ended with the Drug Squad Pub Quiz at a rugby club in Cornwall Park. I helped our team reach second place by answering all the sports questions! Needless to say, they were about English sports and were particularly easy. I rounded off the evening with a few drinks with lawyers from Meredith Connell at an '80's night on Kingsland Road and prepared to face the weekend with something of a hangover...

Weekend in Auckland - Sunday

I woke early and walked up to the Cathedral this morning. It is a modern building, stood in front of the old wooden Cathedral, on Parnell Road. The wooden church was moved from its original position across the road, piece by piece, in the 1980's.

The present cathedral seems hunched and drab from the outside. But the interior reminded me of the more modern parts of Blackburn Cathedral. It is light and airy with a piece of sculpture suspended over the altar. Minimalist chandeliers light the aisles and there are stained glass panels along the walls. Only a New Zealand church could have a boat on a trailer filled with life jackets positioned in the corner of the nave though...

Today was Sunday School Sports Day and I suffered a most irreverent fit of the giggles as they processed out of the cathedral with an altar candle masquerading as the Olympic Flame with the organist playing the theme from Chariots of Fire.

The service was very similar to the one I would expect at home but I was unable to get my tongue around the Lord's Prayer in Maori at the end...

I strolled down Parnell Road after the service, exploring the cobbled lanes housing arty boutiques and restaurants. After lunch, I made my way to the Auckland Museum, high up on the hill above the CBD, perched on an extinct volcano in the middle of the Domain.

My first port of call was the Pacific Gallery - a good start, reflecting the origins of the Maori population of New Zealand. There were fiercesome clubs, shields and spears as well as masks used to contact the ancestral spirits. The carvings of ancestors and members of the tribe reminded me the work of early twentieth-century artists such as Picasso. An outrigger canoe was the centrepiece of the collection and other displays illustrated everyday life with cooking instruments, basketware and the like.

I wandered on through to the Maori Gallery to admire the huge war canoe, highly ornamental store houses and the complete meeting house. The carvings on the lintels and pillars of the village buildings were such as to rival the finest stonework on Reims Cathedral. I found the inspiration for the Angel of the North in a piece of statuary.

The Auckland 1866 exhibition and the City Gallery gave me some idea of how Auckland had come about as a settlement and later a thriving metropolis. It outlined the history of the colonial founders and the background of the city's ethnic mix. One cabinet contained pieces of luggage belonging to the first settlers - the kit list far exceeded my belongings!

When the museum closed, I wandered through Parnell, which is a mix of historic houses, many worthy of a blue plaque, and modern, low-rise apartment blocks - a bit like Highgate. I walked down the hill to Dove-Myer Robinson Park to watch the sunset over Judge's Bay and ended up soaked in a sudden rainstorm, admiring a double rainbow instead.

Weekend in Auckland - Saturday

Saturday morning saw an early start as I boarded NZ55 bound for Auckland. It was a good short flight with a stunning sunrise. Looking out of the right hand side of the plane, the sky was pitch black and the moon shining. To the left, the sun was rising, lighting up the low-lying clouds so that they were the colour of sandstone. As we banked over the city, coming into land, the sunshine glinted off the skyscrapers in the CBD. I was on NZ soil in no time. As I came out of arrivals, I was confronted with WHSmiths and McDonalds and wondered if I'd been diverted to Stansted instead!

It was cold enough for me to be able to see my own breath and I shivered in my fleece as I took a taxi to the Parnell Inn. I was far too early to book in so I set off to walk the city. I wandered down the hill and into the building site that is the east side of the CBD, inadvertently passing by the High Court, on the former site of the New Zealand government, and my future flat. I found Meredith Connell on Shortland Street, ready for Monday morning, and turned towards the waterfront. Past the container port and the ferry building, I found the harbour and various America's Cup yachts. The Auckland Harbour Bridge was visible in the distance.

I gazed up at the Sky Tower and walked up Queen Street towards Karangahape Road (K Road for short), a Camden-like area of town full of sex shops, student hang-outs and bizarre shops. I skirted around Western Park and turned into Ponsonby Road which was lined with quirky boutiques and organic grocers.

My appointment with the estate agent was at 2pm. So after a quick lunch of tempura in one of Auckland's many Oriental restaurants, I headed to their office. I was shown a series of miserable serviced apartments whose only views were of the next building, six feet away. I was beginning to despair when I was shown a light and airy studio flat on the tenth floor of a brand new apartment block. I snapped it up when I saw the pool and hot tub downstairs! The balcony view of the Domain and the harbour was quite persuasive too... Perhaps best of all, it overlooked the High Court - lots of lie-ins!

I walked back to the hotel through the Domain which struck me as a combination of Greenwich Park, Kew and the British Museum. On my return to Parnell Inn, I devoured a pumpkin burger and soon dozed off.

Meandering in Nadi

Having endured the mosquitos all night, I was happy to get up early this morning and head to the Gardens of the Sleeping Giant. The gardens were home to many different types of orchid and other tropical plants and trees. I spotted a mongoose and crested bulbuls.

On my return to Nadi, I visited the Sri Siva Subramaniya Temple, the largest in the southern hemisphere. I circled the temple three times, as instructed, my bare feet burning on the scorching concrete. I was reassured that God would not allow my feet to be damaged.

Walking down the main street, I was hauled into a souvenir shop for a farewell kava ceremony conducted by an Indo-Fijian and his friends from a village high up in the interior. I was well and truly scammed on the prices of two kava cups but found it very difficult to refuse. I took refuge shortly afterwards in Jack's Handicraft Shop, an air-conditioned oasis, feeling that I had done my fair share for the locals!

I walked back to the hotel in the midday heat and was relieved to relax by the pool with a book. As I lay under the flight path, I pondered my imminent departure for chilly Auckland...

Hula Loop: Day 4 - Nananu-i-Ra Island to Nadi

Our last day of the Hula Loop began with some free time. After breakfast next to the turtle pool, I walked up the hill towards the back beach. It was deserted and I strolled past wild horses and their foal whilst admiring a view of the mainland and surrounding islands.

The beach was a thin strip of white sand, bordered by an iridiscent sea on one side and thick forest on the other. The sand was full of tiny shells and strewn with driftwood and fallen coconuts. The sunshine had brought out a typically tropical Fiji.

I had a few difficulties relocating the path for my return trip but soon found myself on the front beach, relaxing in a hammock, being gently rocked by the wind.

All too soon it was time to board the speedboat again to return to Ellington Wharf and the mainland. The bus took us through sugar cane fields to Ba, an Indo-Fijian town which was the home to Prime Minister Mahendra Choudhury, who was deposed in the 2000 coup. Appropriately, we had a curry for lunch in a rooftop restaurant. With the hills on the horizon and mynah birds flocking around us, we could have been in Pakistan.

After lunch, we passed through Lautoka, home to many of Viti Levu's sugar mills, and then moved onto hot springs and mud pools in the shadow of the Mountains of the Sleeping Giants. The Virinale Hot Springs were deserted and having dipped a finger in the first steaming hot pool (scalding!), we moved on to the mud pool. There was initial reluctance on everyone's part to actually take a dip in the pool but it was fun in the end! The water was lukewarm and full of twigs and leaves - rather like taking a dip in the Shropshire Union, I imagine - but the bottom of the pool consisted of deep, hot mud!

We were soon in up to our knees, wallowing like hippopotami. Monica, our guide, went right under the water and pasted the mud in her hair and all over her face. I contented myself with slapping it over my neck and arms and shoulders, in the hope of silky smooth skin. A toad on the bank watched us with a curious look in its eye. The docile cows looked on bemused.

To clean off, we swapped to the hot pool where we found pumice floating on the surface. It was as hot as our bath as we washed off the mud. I was very reluctant to get out and return to the bus. After a week of being cold and wet, it was lovely to be warm and wet at last!

A relaxed evening followed, drinking cocktails in the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel bar.

Hula Loop: Day 3 - Suva to Nananu-i-Ra Island

We swapped buses this morning for a more sturdy bus which would cope with unmetalled roads on the way to the village which was our morning's destination. We left Suva at an early hour and stopped first in Nausori for the bank having crossed the Rewa River. The Rewa River is the widest and longest in Fiji and the bridge which crosses it at Nausori has collapsed more than fifty times! A new bridge is now under construction thanks to an EU grant totalling $30 million!

In the interests of funding village life, we moved on to a smaller settlement, Korovou, to buy lunch.

An hour or so later, we reached a village on the banks of the Wainibuka River. We walked up to the village to ask permission to use the river during a traditional kava ceremony. Monica had given us a lecture on etiquette the previous day when we learnt that ignorance of cultural mores could carry a very high price.

The Reverend Tom Baker, a missionary, had his comb taken by a chief, 150 years ago. When he came to depart, he saw the chief with the comb in his hair. He was furious and so snatched it back, breaching the unspoken rule against touching a Fijian's head - the most highly respected part of his body. He was promptly killed and eaten, only the soles of his shoes remaining.

Because heads and faces are so highly regarded by the Fijians, they should be left uncovered - no hats, scarves or sunglasses. We were also warned against touching the heads of village children.

The missionaries brought a sense of decency to the Pacific Islands. Before their arrival, the usual mode of dress for women was simply a grass skirt whilst the men wore a loin cloth. The Europeans introduced Christianity and modest attire - shoulders and knees should be covered and a sulu is expected to be worn by men and women alike. And so we dressed accordingly for our village visit - it seemed particularly important to respect their standards seeing as we had introduced them originally!

During the kava ceremony, men were to sit cross-legged whilst the girls were to sit with their legs folded to one side. All shoes were to be removed before entering the hall.

The kava was prepared from the ground root of a pepper plant. The powder was placed in a muslin bag and dragged through a large cauldron of water, producing a milky liquid.

After a few words of welcome in the local dialect, the village chief granted us permission to use the river. The chief took the first draught of kava, from a cup carved from a coconut shell, clapping once upon receiving the cup, saluting the assembly with the word "bula" and then draining the bowl before clapping three more times. Our "chief" - the oldest male on the tour - was offered the kava next and went through the same procedure.

The kava bowls were then passed around our group and the assembled villagers. We all followed the ritual and found ourselves drinking a bitter liquid which was to make our lips and tongues numb! It was a weak draught but repulsive all the same. It would have been a faux-pas to refuse the first cup but we were free to object to further offerings, using the word "vinaka" (no thank you). Once everyone had been served, it was time to smoke with shells brought out as ash trays. After the cigarette break, the kava was passed around again until the bowl was exhausted.

We had the opportunity to see a little of the village and found the women at the back of the chief's house weaving baskets and floor coverings. I was also intrigued to find rag rugs hanging in the sun to dry - they were just like the ones found on narrowboats at home. During our visit, a new house was being put up and we were told that our visit and that of other Feejee Experience tour groups had helped to fund it. Our contributions had also provided the village with a generator which was being used each evening between 6pm and 11pm.

The next stop was the river and we walked barefoot along a muddy track between taro crops. On the banks of the river, bilibili rafts were waiting for us. These rafts are still used by locals to cross the river to reach their sugar plantations on the far bank. They are made from six or so lengths of bamboo, strapped together in our case with electrical wire! Perhaps not the original materials... Our raft was severely overloaded and so we seemed to float ten inches below the waterline. One of the villagers punted us downstream, splashing us mischievously from time to time. The river flowed into a larger river and I was more than a little worried about the prospect of capsizing or sinking in deep and cold water and having to swim to the bus. Luckily we made it to the other side without disaster.

On reaching the bus, we set off down rough roads towards Ellington Wharf from where we would take the boat to Nananu-i-Ra Island. Part of the road had been washed away though in recent floods and we had to wait for the diggers to shift part of the landslide before we could pass. We made it to the wharf just before sunset and hurried onto the speedboat to make the short but choppy crossing to the island. We jumped out into the water on the edge of the beach as night fell and hurried up to the corrugated steel hut which was our dorm for the night.