Weekend in Auckland

The despair of losing the last sudden- death race with the US in the America's Cup is short lived on Auckland's docklands. The sailors behind me are already talking up how well NZ sailed, and indeed they did. The Kiwi spirit, is, as ever, indomitable, and the life in Auckland is very much reflective of that.

I arrived last night on the last flight from Wellington, only forty five minutes and I was in a different atmosphere. The airport bus, a cool sixteen dollar ride to my Friday might destination of the Grand Rendezvous Hotel, was an efficient start of my weekend of medical updating and catching up with friends. It is a radically different city to Wellington, but then it is eight  times larger at one point five million residents in greater Auckland. The HIV seminar, to be more precise, was set to elucidate what is happening, if anything, on the front against the spread of the Virus.

Organised by Auckland Body Positive, it had a good range of speakers, but mostly quite predictable and nothing much I didn't know before. it was interesting all the same to see the New Zealand response to the epidemic in action. It was mainly preaching to the converted in a Drug Company funded day of treatment information. As conferences go, it was very low budget, and after a day of solid speakers I felt quite exhausted. 

At the end of the day I took a pleasant walk in balmy weather with the storms just recently dispersed, down the main thoroughfare of Queen Street to the famous harbour. I had a quiet reverie before I took a train to stay with ex flatmate P at Onehunga.  Am looking forward to catching up with news of her new job and new city, and new boy friend! The comparison of Auckland and Sydney is certainly strong in the air, as I smell the salt water and hear the sonorous sounds of the ferries as they depart regularly for the north side of the Harbour. It is a mini Circular Quay.