The Tallest Building in the Southern Hemisphere

I visited the Sky Tower the other day. I live about ten minutes away from the Sky Tower so it would have been a little silly for me to not take a trip to see it while I'm here in New Zealand. The only thing that had been holding me back was the cost. Prior to visiting the Sky Tower, I considered the attraction to just be an $18 elevator ride (they don't let people use the stairs). But when I finally got to the top and was able to see the shape and size of Auckland city, I was glad I made the trip.You can really see all of Auckland from that thing. We were just so high up, it was like being in a hot air balloon or a plane or like standing in the southern hemisphere's tallest building. 

Being as tall as it is, you'd think jumping off the top of it would be exciting, but the way they have it set up, it doesn't look very exciting at all. The "jumpers" just sort of step off of a platform and gently slide down a cable until they touch down on a little target on the ground. I'm pretty sure they never get to terminal velocity and I think the winch that lets out the cable actually slows the fall down. To make things more exciting, I think they should have a little staged fight on the platform and then the jumper should get pushed off in the heat of the moment. Either that or a trap door.

The views were great though. I got to see all of the little volcanos that I had been hiking around. I also got a good view of Auckland University with its "Clocktower" building and the enormous brand new business school building. The number of boats in the marina was also pretty impressive. I guess it's not much of a surprise that a country consisting of two islands would have a lot of sailing enthusiasts.

The elevators that run inside of the tower have glass floors that enable you to see exactly how fast you are moving. I think glass bottomed elevators are a good idea. In fact, I think all elevators should have a little window in the bottom or top of the car. Just imagine how much more interesting elevator rides would be.

This last photo is a picture of the highest sink in the southern hemisphere inside of the highest bathroom in the southern hemisphere.

Where Have I Been?

I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping up with the blog. I've been a little busy finishing up school stuff here in Auckland. Classes are pretty much over with and I have a month before final exams start. The long gap between the end of classes and final exams is called the "study period." Because I am so smart, I don't need to study and plan use the "study period" to do some hiking and camping around the northern tip of the country.

Actually I'm a little relieved that I didn't force myself to update this blog over the past month or so. I wasn't really doing much worth writing about and I've never liked the idea of sharing boring personal stuff like the interesting patterns that show up in my leg hair or my views on leaf-blowers.

I do have a couple of little trips to share though. And since school is done, I'll have more time to travel, explore and share.

Wintergarden

Last week I visited a place called Wintergarden in the Auckland Domain that is right next to my flat. I'm still not sure if I should be referring to this place as, "The Wintergarden" or just, "Wintergarden." Has anyone else heard of the term Wintergarden? Are there other wintergardens out there? For now I think I will just say, "the Wintergarden."

The Wintergarden is a set of three greenhouses (actually, two greenhouses and a fernery) that are in the middle of the Auckland Domain. "Greenhouse," really doesn't do the Wintergarden justice. The large glass and brick structures are as impressive to look at as the plants inside of them. The three structures are connected by a little garden in the middle with fountains and statues. 

The first building was filled primarily with eggplant plants. At least ten different varieties of eggplant were mixed with the typical variety of flowers that you would find in a normal cool climate greenhouse. In addition to the unusual eggplant display, there were five or six varieties of pepper plant. Most of the peppers were really small and looked a little fake because of the bright purple, yellow and orange colors. The fact that vegetables were on display in a government owned public greenhouse was interesting to me, but far more interesting was that it was just a eggplant and pepper display (excluding the one lonely citroen plant). 

The second greenhouse wasn't quite as interesting. The orchids and water lilies were great, but they didn't have the same grade school teacher at a monster truck show exoticism that the eggplants had. 

The Fernery wasn't that interesting either. Filled with ferns, it lived up to it's name and made no effort to achieve anything else. Ferns, just ferns.

Pictures of "The Wintergarden": http://picasaweb.google.com/TrevorCBraun/Wintergarden