Why stay home in the holidays? Catherine Smith checks out the Heritage Festival's highlights.
Despite what some heartless developers did to our central city in the 1980s and 90s, you don't need to dig too deep around Auckland to find vestiges of the old town.
The annual Heritage Festival has assembled a great selection of events to help us dig into our past. It's not just about fusty old-timers waffling on -- we've rounded up some of the quirky events around. Pick a corner of town you don't usually visit, pick a date from the next three weekends, discover something new.
Check out the days where community hubs open their doors to families.
Since the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre refurbished the beautiful Pah Homestead it has become a great centre for art lovers.
But they are equally welcoming to families with this day of activities, performances, flax weaving, rangoli, henna, face painting and more things that celebrate the creativity of the diverse people of Puketapapa. Great food, or picnic in Monte Cecilia Park.
If you think property speculation is a new problem for Auckland, join Sunday's discussion called "Tracing the Residue of Victorian Speculation", a chat about financier and landowner James Williamson, who built Pah Homestead. There are midweek turret climbs and more.
Family Day, Saturday, September 26, 10am-3pm. Free.
If you haven't visited the new Devonport Library, turn it into a digital trail with the children. Download a QR code scanner on your phone then follow clues through the library heritage trail.
Or don your dancing shoes for a high-tea dance at the Esplanade hotel, complete with vintage palm orchestra. There's a prize for the best dressed couple.
From September 26 to October 11, weekdays 9am-5.30pm, weekends 9.30am-4pm. 2 Victoria Rd, Windsor Reserve.
High-tea Dance, Saturday October 3, 2pm. Bookings essential.
Birth of beautiful Birkenhead
Devonport is the Shore's best-known Victorian 'burb, but Birkenhead, just west of the bridge, is almost as old. For the festival it's billing itself as New Zealand's only sugar town (that pink building is hard to miss). Check out the Chelsea Clydesdale horses. On the final weekend discover the 1920s with Dixieland jazz, vintage cars and the story of Highbury Village.
Clydesdales, September 26, 30 and October 3, 11am-3pm. Jazz day, Saturday October 3, 11am-2pm. Opposite the Birkenhead Library.
The Esplanade Hotel.
Waterborne
Much of Auckland's early history centres on water, so there are plenty of sea-based stories. The people restoring the old steamship Toroa offer a guided tour that includes some great yarns on how ferries helped shape Waitemata-edge towns. And many of our own family stories originated with seagoing ancestors.
Discover your inner pyjama party-kid, and research family history in the Maritime Museum's library, an overnight "white glove" exploration. Includes a nap in the rocking immigration ship's cabin.
Ports of Auckland are running trips on the historic steam tug William C Daldy, celebrating 80 years afloat this year. Proceeds go to the Preservation Society that keeps the Daldy in great shape. Pick up brochures at the Maritime Museum for a self-guided walk along the iconic Red Fence throughout the festival.
A Night at the NZ Maritime Museum's library, Friday October 2, 4.30pm-8am.
Bookings are essential, $130. marleene@maritimemuseum. co.nz
Tug tours, September 26-27, October 3-4 and 10-11, 10am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm. Hobson Wharf West, behind the Maritime Museum, Viaduct Harbour. Bookings essential, ph 0800 AK PORT (0800 25 7678). Adults $5, children under 16 $1.
Couldrey House.
City spooks
There aren't ghost walks, but ghouls (and art historians) might enjoy a workshop on tombstone-rubbing around the Karangahape Rd graveyard. You'll learn how to create art and discover the meanings and symbolism in grave art. Materials provided. If the dead centres of town are your thing, learn more about the cemeteries of Hillsborough and Waikaraka.
Sundays September 27, October 11, 12pm. Meet at the bronze fountain, corner of Symonds St and Karangahape Rd. Bookings essential. Free. Ph 09 377 5086 or heritage@kroad.com
Waikaraka, Monday Sept 28, 10am, Hillsborough, Sunday Oct 4, 2pm.
It was volcanoes that created the Auckland landscape. You can create some of your own with the Volcanoes in your Backyard, courtesy of the city's only volcano laboratory with volcanologists from the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. A few hands-on experiments will give you the bang for your bucks. You'll also learn about Devora (Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland). The future, too, not just the past.
Sunday October 4, 10am-2pm. Taku Tamaki exhibit, Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Jolly good time
Vivacious velocipede enthusiasts have created the inaugural Sunday Best Ride: The Golden Age of Cycling, a leisurely 15km loop from the Domain to the Rose Gardens, via Ponsonby and along the waterfront, with stops for refreshments and photos. Dress up, of course.
Sunday October 4, noon-4pm (leaves 1pm), Auckland Domain. Tickets $6.80.
Auckland 1866 Gallery.
Walks
Guided walks around a neighbourhood are a terrific way to look at your streets with different eyes. This year's collection of 70 walks includes some pretty cool angles on our city, including the lesbian history of Ponsonby, the "kings" of Kingsland, to pa, priests and prostitutes.
Engineering geeks will love the insider's look at how some of the city's biggest buildings were put together. Architecture buffs can see inside some of our gems such as Ponsonby's Allendale House and Courtville Apartments.
Also learn the stories of the older towns of Onehunga, Otahuhu, Panmure, Papatoetoe and Sandringham and the bungalows of Albert-Eden (a three-day festival). The shorelines of Castor Bay, Oratia and Browns Bay get a look-in, too.
Prize for the winning walk name is Remains of the Clay, a tour of New Lynn's ceramic stories.
Deeper histories include following the shoreline of Auckland as it would have been in Logan Campbell's day, explore the geology of our favourite volcanoes, wetlands of Waiatarua and some of our town's heritage trees (by bus).
Need to know
For details and prices of events, pick up the booklet at libraries or Auckland Council offices.
