we went to visit alpha tom on in the mission bay area of auckland. ngati whatua of orakei tribal land. it's where he grew up. i was surprised because i didn't realize there were designated maori tribal land for living like that. show's you how completely ignorant i am of this country! i only know about the existance of reservations for native americans back home. the maori have it much nicer i must say. reservations are sad things that make you weep. alpha tom's street was almost entirely his relatives in one way or another. excellent views of downtown and the harbor.

standing on alpha tom's cousin's balcony

we chatted for a bit on the porch of his cousin's house then walked to mission bay for some lunch and a stroll by the beach. it was surprising to us americans how many damn kiwis drink alcohol on the beach because they just don't give a damn. i also got sunburt. didn't realize it until hours later. our lunch was authentic fish n' chips wrapped in newspaper, except we had veggie burgers and kumara chips. the veggie burgers were made out of potato and had fucking egg in it! there was nothing on the menu about egg and the hostess didn't say anything about egg when we inquired about what is inside the veggie burger. luckily it was a separate egg thing that i could remove easily.

our lunch was well educated as it reads the daily paper

it was so hot that people cooled off in the fountain

michael joseph savage memorial

adjacent to the maori land is a park and memorial thing. it is maori land, just given back to the city and under joint administration. something like that. there was also a marae on the land, naturally. twiddle thumbs was curious to see what it was like inside but there was a funeral going on so we didn't get to see. alpha tom said for funerals, maori grieve for 3 days in the marae. a wake sort of thing. made me think back, i have never been to a japanese funeral. the one time someone died while i was in okinawa, my mom didn't take my brother and i 'cos she thought we weren't interested. i was seriously disappointed that night because i wanted to see what a japanese funeral was like.