Compared with Singapore, which turns 50 this year, Auckland’s an old gal at 175 but she sure looks good.
Perhaps I saw her in the best light. It was a perfect summer’s weekend for Auckland’s 175th anniversary celebrations (Jan 23-25) – cloudless blue sky meets shimmering blue sea – and the city’s residents were out in force for the celebrations.
They have good reason to celebrate. This is a changed city and it will probably change faster in the next five years than it did in the last 50, or 175.
Celebrating Auckland’s 175th.
There is a Chinese saying that goes, right time, right environment, right people, and I feel Auckland may be about to hit its moment in time.
A new wave of immigrants is changing the city. I am told that at least 15% of the city’s population are now Chinese, followed by Indians. And a newspaper survey showed that the majority of Aucklanders are welcoming of this new wave.
The new diversity in population is creating a city that’s, well, more diverse in its offerings. Last night, I had Kapiti ice cream at well past 10pm on Queen Street. Run by two Chinese staff, it’s one of the various places that now open late. Across from it, I saw a shop obviously catering for tourists, brightly lit and doing brisk business.
Of course, there is a negative – Aucklanders complain that real estate prices have shot sky high and blame it on the Chinese and new immigrants, and they say young Kiwis cannot afford to buy anything in the city anymore. That combined with the lowest OECD wages makes for a hard living for young Kiwis, I am told.
Party time in Auckland.
But this is the same story I hear from Singapore to Penang to Ho Chi Minh City – it’s the twin evils of globalisation and urbanisation, humanity on the move and inequality on the ground. Auckland’s not that different from any other city that’s growing.
I stayed at the Sofitel on the waterfront and a huge slice of the area has now been bought by GIS of Singapore, which is redeveloping it into a residential and commercial marina area.
Yes, a little slice of Singapore will be part of Auckland’s future, and I feel it’s a perfect blend of skills and values.
On the code share flight over on Air New Zealand, I was asked to fill in a survey of how I found the experience compared with SIA’s. And I said, “Not as polished as SIA but not as processed either.”
The ANZ Skycouch has quirky design features that make it a fun mini-discovery area while the SIA business class seat is big, solid and you-know-how-it-works-and-it-will-work.
In this partnership, efficiency meets quirkiness and formality meets friendliness – it’s a good blend.
The taxi driver, who took me to the airport, is an immigrant from Cyprus. He came here in 1973 as a lad of 19 and never left. He’s seen the various waves of immigrants in his time.
“I am an immigrant myself and I have watched with humour how people have reacted to the various immigrants. First the Japanese, then Koreans, then Hong Kong Chinese after 1997. They’ve found the mainland Chinese the hardest to adapt to.
‘But if everyone just wakes up and says, I will be the best person I can be, then it doesn’t matter where you are from. Unfortunately we are not all made that way.”
New Zealand’s future lies with the new generation, but the old charms remain.
As an earlier immigrant, Christo has built a good life for himself and his family. “I had no education, no qualification but I had a good work ethic.”
And this is what the new immigrants bring with them – good work ethics and the desire, like Christo, to build a good life for themselves and their families.
This is the new generation that will take New Zealand into the future. It’s a future that’s no longer as isolated, thanks to technology.
Auckland’s embraced technology. During the weekend celebrations, I downloaded an AR app developed for the event by Imersia, a new start-up we heard from at the WIT Conference in 2013. With it, you could discover what was going on, play games and visualise images around where you were standing.
It still has some ways to go for true engagement in the moment and it competes with short attention spans and distractions, but it’s a glimpse of a future that Auckland wants to embrace.
Tech start-ups are popping up and spaces are being created for these young companies to network and innovate. I checked out a membership club that’s located in The Seafarer’s Club – for an annual fee, start-ups get workspaces and a rooftop restaurant and bar where they can meet like-minded entrepreneurs.
Sure, the tyranny of distance and a small population base will always work against the country when it comes to building up its economic might but not everything ought to be measured by dollars and cents.
What New Zealand has is the right climate for incubation and creation. Its challenge remains that of exporting its ideas and finding a market but with the Internet being rendered invisible and technology that now moves with us, New Zealand could well find that invisible bridge to its future.
And the Land of the Long White Cloud could well take on a different meaning in the next 175 years.
Auckland Harbour
