Eating Kiwi Style

Auckland, New Zealand

With a population of about 1.3 million, the city of Auckland is the major city of New Zealand. It’s considered so truly massive that recent legislation has consolidated all the suburbs under one city government which is referred to as the “super-city.”

To give you some perspective on this Auckland is the largest city, by far, that we have encountered in the South Pacific. It makes the major French Polynesian city of Papeete look tiny (to be fair, that would be because it is by our standards). Even for Kiwis, Auckland is huge. As many people live in the city as live on the entire bottom, larger, island of the nation. The Auckland area contains a full quarter of the national population of New Zealand, a nation that by islander standards completely dwarfs everyone else out here. Heck, the number of people in this city alone dwarfs many of the countries we’ve visited. Remember how Niue has a national population of 1300? There are more Niueans in Auckland than in their entire home country! So by islander standards, this place is huge.

On the other hand, in the US Auckland would come in as the 9th largest city in terms of population, somewhere between San Diego and Dallas.

… and we’re fairly certain that if we picked up the city of Auckland and just placed it into the San Francisco Bay area no would notice anything unusual. One because the city is not all that big compared to the rest of the Bay and two the city and its people would just fit in that well.(that is, by the way, a very high compliment to you Jafas out there)

For the non-Kiwis: “JAFA” is a slang term used by all other Kiwis to identify Aucklanders being as they are such a significant portion of the population. It means Just Another **edited** Aucklander. Not always an overly kind term so don’t use it to endear yourself to city residents.

Much like the SF Bay Area, this town is very culturally diverse. Originally settled by islanders wandering the Pacific Ocean in glorified canoes (never underestimate how insanely, suicidally, amazing it is that the Polynesian people actually pulled this off), New Zealand was also settled as an English colony before becoming an independent country that retains membership in the British commonwealth (like Canada). Because of this, New Zealand has strong Polynesian connections though its native population and this is reinforced though very open immigration legislation for islanders. Nuieans, Cook Islanders, Tongans and Samoans often come to Auckland to get their higher educations and find jobs in the “big city” when work on their home islands is scarce. Also, due to proximity there is a large and active Asian immigrant community as well. Eating Kiwi-style is not always what you would expect:

The coffee over here is an art form and not just the way you would expect. Sure it’s good. I mean, it’s New Zealand, it’s gonna be good! The coffee of choice over here is the flat white and the Kiwi baristas are very serious about their foam. Observe:

The fern leaf is another national symbol of New Zealand.

 

This foamy art was standard fare at every café we went to.

This level of art in what is considered more “common” food might be seen as excessive until you realize what they pull off when they actually put effort into it:

For our first few weeks in Auckland we lived with our old friends from Rarotonga and fellow crew people Justin and Margaret. Speaking of food, here’s a bit of traveler’s wisdom for you:

 

For some of our culinary adventures in French Polynesia, click on “So where do you get a pizza“

 

 About the authors

Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures. If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!