Have you spent a Christmas in Auckland?
I haven’t, but our friend Jen is currently over there on a holiday and sent us back some photos and stories to give us a taste of an Auckland city Christmas!
Christmas in Auckland city
Auckland’s 328m Sky Tower makes the Christmas tree look small despite being quite tall itself!
Not only is this Christmas ornament huge, it is also squishy!
The surrounding, smaller baubles are rigid.
I love thus nutcracker! His face seems hay and smiling, and his colouring is stylish.
Walk or sit under colourful, cheerful Christmas shapes!
Another colourful addition of Christmas icons in the main city area – stars and Christmas trees atop pillars!
What about Santa?
If you had been to Auckland prior to 2020, you may have noticed Santa in Queen St. He was pretty hard to miss as he was 18 metres tall and weighted 5 tonne!
The huge Santa, with a winking eye and curling finger, welcomed Kiwi shoppers to the city for about 60 Years (minus a few years in the Manukau Shopping Centre during the 1990s). However, he was retired at the end of Christmas 2019. The fibreglass Santa and two reindeer was purchased for Wanaka’s National Transport and Toy Museum – at the princely sum of $1! But the cost and effort to transport him 1500km to the south of the South Island must have been huge.
So far, only Santa’s face has been fully restored – you can see him outside the fire station at the museum. The rest of Santa will hopefully be on view again in the future.
Have you ever seen Auckland’s huge Santa? If so, did you think he was creepy?
