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sept 17, 2000 Orewa and northland beaches (more)

sept 15, 2000 On stage at UNITEC.. (more)

sept 11, 2000 Rangitoto excursion... (more)

sept 10, 2000 Waitakere Range and Tiritiri Matangi.. (more)

sept 08, 2000 One week a Kiwi... (more)

sept 06, 2000 Workshops at UNITEC.. (more)

september 18, 2000
Following the weekend trip to Orewa I arrived Monday morning to a clear blue sky day in downtown Auckland. I had an afternoon meeting scheduled at Auckland University of Technology, so I had some morning time to "womble" around downtown.

After stashing my bag at a bus terminal locker, I just headed in whatever direction looked interesting, eventually climbing the hill to the top of Albert Park, a grassy and flower oasis adjacent to the University of Auckland. At a coffee break at a campus cafe, the people behind the counter quizzed me about Arizona music- "standing on the corner of Winslow Arizona" they knew, and they asked whatever came of the band, the Gin Blossoms.

today's photos

- all photos   o o o o

o o Auckland starting at #50

Wandering took me north and I landed at the Auckland Art Gallery where I spent a few hours looking at their "Master's Eye" exhibit of "Five Centuries of European Painting" as well as their collection of New Zealand paintings and sculpture.

Personally, I wished for more Impressionist paintings in the Masters show, but that is my bias- they did not know about Monet's Handspring I showed them, and then they tossed me out on the street for my heresy. Do not pay serious attention to this paragraph, especially if you truly are an art appreciator.

Actually, I was intrigued by one piece by surrealist Rene Magritte (a view looking into the window of a building where the interior looked like the exterior) that had me thumbing through a book in the store and appreciating the play on reality he achieved. See, I can be an art fan-- Monsieur Rivkin from high school can be proud of me, eh?

Lunch was a viscous yet delicious bowl of seafood chowder and a small steak at "Tony's Steak and Seafood". This giant meal set me back the equivalent of $6 in US funny money.

At 1:00 PM I met Paul from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) at Aotea Square. This square is more or less at the "cultural" area, with nearby Civic Center (theater) and the new modern Aotea Center for art events and conferences. Oh, there is also a giant multiplex move theater, an IMAX, and (ugh) a Planet Hollywood.

I had a chance meeting with Paul the week before, and he was kind enough to set up some visits at AUT. This university was very new with being a university- Auckland Institute of technology started as a vocational school in 1895 and had just been granted university status.

The campus is in the middle of a busy city, so it is rather densely packed. Our first stop was to the Communications Studies department on the upper floors of a 16 floor high rise-- originally an office building, the elevator access was likely not designed for shuttling students, deliveries, and Arizona visitors up and down its heights. We were to meet one of their multimedia instructors, but the meeting got lost in some emails, so it gave Paul and I time to grab coffee.

Afterward, we got to meet Chris who runs the Learning Technology Centre which develops web courses as well as many of the college web sites. It is a different model for development- 100% cost recovery-- everything is done by payment from different department budgets. So if the music department wants a web course, they have to pay Chris' department like a business client. For a small staff, this group is doing very interesting work.

Following this, I had an hour to meet with Paul's colleagues in the Centre for Professional Development, where I told them a bit about Maricopa and MCLI, and they described their efforts. Like other visits, it is interesting to see that many issues and ideas are common between our institutions in the US and here in New Zealand, yet there are significant differences as well. Here the institutions are not restricted in role, so what was a two year program tech college like ours can go through the motions to become a full fledged university. There is also seemingly more overhead here by the government and bureaucracy. Funding is a tender subject.

But at the core are people dedicated to learning. That is the same.

After some crappy Chinese carry out food, I headed for the bus back to my dorm at UNITEC.