SYDNEY -AUCKLAND - SPRING

WHEN AUTUMN comes to San Francisco, spring comes to New Zealand and Australia. When we boarded the 13-hour flight to Auckland, we knew we were heading for a change of season.

We reached there on a lovely Friday morning Our rooms would not be ready until the afternoon. So we decided to stroll past sailing boats in the harbour, some of which had been victorious in the America's cup.
We checked out the numerous shops and markets and later took the ferry to Davenport.

Once there, we checked the varied architecture of the island and sampled local fare at one of the restaurants. On the return ferry we got a great view of Auckland's skyline.

On Saturday, we visited the Auckland Domain. It is home to a large park and to war remembrance museum which sits atop a hill.  Not one or two but three cricket matches were being played there. 

The War Museum had an entire floor dedicated to the Great War [World War 1] and another floor devoted to World War II.

The displays and the sacrifices made me wonder why nations so small and located so far away was pulled into the Great War whose action was confined to the continent of Europe.

Of course, it had been demanded by the British Empire. A hundred years later, the Union Jack remained embedded in the flag of New Zealand as did the Queen's face on the currency.

Artifacts from the country's rich Maori history were on display on the ground floor [many of the large traffic signs on the freeways were in Maori as well as in English].

Also on the ground floor of the museum was a space set aside for Diwali celebrations. We had missed the dances but we did see women lining up to get their hand decorated with with henna.

After a lot of walking, we went for a Thai message, a reminder that Thai's knew how to market their masseuse skills [and their culinary skills] so much better than most countries.

I glanced at the magazines on the rack, and noticed that Imran Khan had made it to the corner of the cover of an Australian woman's magazine.

The caption read : ''Imran Khan's rapid rise.''

We walked over to the 328-meter high Sky Tower, took the elevator to the top, and saw an aerial view of the city.

Visible were the harbor bridge, the ocean-going freighters, the ferries that ply from the city to the islands, and a variety of different urban architectural styles.

On our last day we noticed that every restaurant along the harbour had a long line of of patrons to be seated. They were dressed in fancy party attire. Full-sized model horses were standing next to the two of the restaurants.

All of this was in commemoration of the Melbourne Cup. While the two countries are often at odds, they also had a lot in common.

Then we flew over to Sydney.

The honor and serving of this Travelogue continues. The World students Society thanks author Ahmad Faruqi.