Tuesday 15 January 2019

Pick-a-path story walk: Auckland edition

Travelling for work or business can be an adventure made all the more fun if you have time to explore a new neighbourhood. It might a restaurant I've seen online, coffee recommended by the Twitterverse or a scenic walk. Of course, meeting schedules don't always allow time for exploring, especially if I'm flying in and out on the same day.

I know Auckland's CBD reasonably well but mostly in the context of getting there, finding where I need to go, going to where I need to be and then making my way back to the airport bus with greatest possible efficiency. Often I'm travelling with a friend. We usually have coffee and brunch at Depot, check out luxury homeware that we can't afford and enjoy a treat at Milse on the way to a concert.

Today, I had a few spare hours to explore Auckland's CBD. What would I do? Twitter gave me an idea for an activity that took my navigating to a whole new level.


Imagine a real life choose your own adventure story-style right in the area you're working and staying! That's the Pick-a-path story walk: Skub or No Skub that begins by reading instructions on a lamp post at the corner of Commerce and Tyler Streets and ends wherever your adventure takes you.


There is a basic website with all the pages if you get stuck or discover a missing page. It's not optimised for mobile phones so is a bit clunky to read but came in handy when I couldn't find the next clue. (I think my adventure had two missing pages as I could only see plastic ties around the lamp posts holding what should have been laminated pages.) Also, this Wellingtonian found Google Maps invaluable as I didn't always get a sense from the basic maps on the pages where I should be going and where to look once I got there. (Side note: there sure is a lot of building and construction going on in Auckland right now. Streets and landmarks look quite different if you only visit once every year or two!)

I won't give away any spoilers other than to say that my adventure happened in eight pages. They took me around several blocks before coming to a rather unfortunate end involving a "messy descent into conflict" and my character being arrested on unknown charges. *gasp!*

This is a really cool activity idea and one that would be great for creative folk in other towns and cities to develop for their own communities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tried to do this on Monday but they're all taken down :(