2006/05 NZ trip - Waitangi treaty grounds |
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Our destination for the day was Waitangi and its treaty grounds. This is where the British and the Maori signed the treaty back in 1840. At the time, the Maori outnumbered the British about 5 to 1, so this was a feat of diplomacy. Unfortunately, the Maori and British translations differ, so there are still disputes to this day.
We treated ourselves to lunch at the Waikokopu Café. My meal was named the Rainbow Warrior, after the Greenpeace ship that was blown up and sunk in Matauri Bay by French saboteurs. The meal’s description began “French toast sunk in ….”
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Waitangi treaty grounds (3.21) |
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The treaty grounds include the original building where the “resident”, Queen Victoria’s representative, lived, and the site of the signing, and Ngatokimatawhaorua, an enormous war canoe built in 1940 to celebrate the centenary of the 
signing. The canoe and the Maori meeting house are magnificent examples of Maori carving.
The grounds overlook the Bay of Islands, aptly named, and beautiful in the sunshine.
We opted to camp at Waitangi’s Motor Camp, run by a Maori couple. The campground is on the estuary of the Waitangi River, with a view of the bridge to the treaty grounds. The Maori lady was complaining that this was the wettest and coldest May that she ever remembered. It seemed pretty nice to us! The bathrooms were labeled “Wahine” and “Tane” so we must have learned a little of the Maori language as we ended up in the right places.
Friday May 19th
We’d just about run out of food, so it was time to restock. We can report that Woolworths is alive and well in New Zealand, even if it’s dying out in its home country. We also got phone cards, as the satellite phone doesn’t seem to function properly in NZ. (I later found that I needed the Australian overseas code, not the New Zealand one.) We at last found an Internet café and replied to all the mail that had built up.