Tim Roxborogh's travel bugs: Old postcards for sale at Auckland Airport

Auckland Airport bookshops selling dated postcards. File photo / Greg Bowker

A weekly ode to the joys of moaning about your holiday, by Tim Roxborogh.

I was in a bookshop at Auckland's domestic terminal the other day and noticed the postcard stand was full of images of the Auckland skyline from the mid-90s. Truth be told, I'd first spotted this a couple of years ago at a different airport bookshop and tweeted about it in the hope the airport would update its postcards. Despite four likes and somebody who thought about a retweet, it didn't create much of a groundswell. But it should have! So I'm trying again.

Wouldn't it be weird if you were at Heathrow looking at postcards of London from 1996?

Or stopped off in Changi and you were checking out the Singapore skyline of 1997? The Auckland skyline may not be as captivating as those (and we certainly don't have fun nicknames for our buildings such as the Cheese Grater and the Walkie-Talkie), but that doesn't mean it hasn't changed in the past 20 years.

In fact it's anything but, with seven out of the 10 tallest buildings in Auckland having been built in the 20-odd years since the images on the offending postcards were taken.

This is mayhem! And I'm not talking about one small stack of postcards with the same image. This latest airport bookshop had three different images of the 90s cityscape they evidently have a never-ending stockpile of. Figuring out what year the photos in the postcards are from is most easily done by looking for the distinctive Metropolis building. If there's no presence of this 155m, 1999-completed homage to early-20th Century New York skyscrapers, but there is a finished-looking Sky Tower, you know you're talking circa 1996-1997. That also means no Vero Centre (172m, completed 2000), no PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower (142m, 2002) and an ANZ tower (143m, 1991) that still thinks it's Coopers and Lybrand. Coopers and Lybrand!

Granted, there are bigger problems in the world, but what is the point of skyline photography on postcards if not to make the cities in question look as dynamic and exciting as possible, in the process encouraging more tourists. At the very least, a postcard should be representative of the name of the place in picture. Certainly not a historical document for 90s enthusiasts — though that decade is making a comeback, I hear.

Never going to tourist attractions in your own backyard

There's a cliche about checking out your own backyard before heading overseas. I'm a bit yes and no on this because, if you held off going abroad until you'd seen everything at home, you'd probably never leave the country. Especially in a country as beautiful as New Zealand. So the answer should really be both. If exploring and adventure is part of your DNA, do everything in your power to see as much of the world as you can — including where you live.

With that in mind, there's still that weird mindset so many of us can fall victim to. It's the one where you live years in a place without ever seeing some of its most striking tourist attractions. This isn't just South Islanders who've barely done Auckland, or Aucklanders who rarely venture south of the Bombays. It's Aucklanders who've never set foot on Rangitoto, let alone walked to the summit and seen those incredible views. Staggering, but more common than many would think.

I've found myself thinking a bit like this from time to time, in part out of a desire to save money. Some years ago I was in Paihia with friends from overseas. They were off to see the famed Hole In The Rock and go dolphin-spotting. I decided I wouldn't join them because it was a bit expensive and besides, I'm from New Zealand so I can see the Hole In The Rock anytime.

Luckily, the idiocy of what I was saying hit me. I may live only three hours from Paihia, but when else am I going to see the Hole In The Rock? When will be a better, more convenient time than now?

Tim Roxborogh hosts Newstalk ZB's The Two, Coast Soul on iHeartRadio and writes the RoxboroghReport.com.

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