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Waitakere Ranges Travel Blogs

Background: The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the British began the first organized colonial settlement. A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native peoples. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars. New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances lapsed by the 1980s. In recent years, the government has sought to address longstanding Maori grievances.

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By LCinNZ
October 18th 2008

week 4 Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

DSC01085

cant believe already had a month here!!!!!!!!!!!! SUN - went to rangitoto island with fellow vols :) was brilliant, tis the most recent erupted volocano of them all in North Island. Was beautiful, massive Pohutakawa forest on the lava fields (some bits a lil like iceland), stunning weather aswell - little hellish though as we marched full speed to the summit (did an hours advised walk in 40 mins!!) dripping with sweat...lurvly :) worth it when we got to the top though :) amazing views of auckland and surrounding areas. knackered my hip doing this though...not so good, hardcore limping now [View Full Entry]

By JackLindsay
June 9th 2008

Day Twenty One Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

Photo 1

JACK HAD FUN!!! He just threw on his tight jeans and t-shirt, grabbed his glow sticks and danced the night away... kind of. No, he did dance, though. It was great! There is this style of dancing from Australia that is all this fancy footwork like they are walking in place. It's hard to describe, but it was really cool. Some of the people at the club were really talented. It was nice to see Auckland on a Saturday night, too. Sunday morning I volunteered to play on Steff's soccer team since they were short players. Jessica, I thought of you [View Full Entry]

By JackLindsay
June 7th 2008

Day Nineteen Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

I have to appologize for the list we made! That must have been a fun post to read, right Bobbi? When we had typed it up it was in columns and A LOT easier to understand. So, we had a column for the item, then a column for NZ and a column for the USA. So in the States a "fanny" is a butt, while here it means a female reproductive organ in more slang terms. Older generations here would be offended if I were talking about fanny packs. Haha, so no more lists until we can get the formatting right. [View Full Entry]

By JackLindsay
June 6th 2008

Day Eighteen Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

Photo 1

Wow, we have had anamazing two days! The last time we posted, we did wind up finding that beach! It's called Piha, and it's not too far at all from the house. We climbed a giant bluff called Lion Rock, played with other peoples' dogs, watched surfers, found a cave, found an even bigger bluff, got sprayed by massive 20 foot waves, I screamed, took a bunch of pictures, and climbed a sand dune! We have pictures of the whole day, but since I can't get internet access from my own laptop, I can't post them yet. Soon, though, I promise! [View Full Entry]

By Inspirado
January 20th 2008

West Side Story Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

Arataki Visitor Centre

It wouldn't be a normal weekend for us here in Auckland if we weren't treated to a day out with our surrogate mum, Liz, and her hubby Allard. Today we took off to the Waitakere Ranges, one of Auckland's Regional Parks located in the mountains on the rugged west coast. Just a hour's drive out of the city, it is an area of lush tropical rainforest with some the greenest, most picturesque scenery we've seen since we arrived. Expertly following his nose rather than the map, Allard wound us around hairpin bends and through pretty little townships with houses hidden away [View Full Entry]

By Cat and Big G
December 24th 2007

Its Christmas! Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

grahams camera 062

So we have not updated our blog for the past few days. We left the Bay of Islands to mixed weather, so we decided to just eat up the journey, as we would be charged extra for the van if it was late!! We stopped briefly at a gorgeous beach, only for Graham to almost to lose his trainer in some sinking sand. We arrived back at R & N's and quickly empted the van, before scooting up the road with just minutes to spare at the rental firm. On christmas eve, we actually did our first of christmas shopping in [View Full Entry]

By Kickinitkiwi
February 24th 2007

Visit From Home! Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

Mom's Here!

After much anticipation, Melissa's Mom FINALLY arrived for her visit. Her and Gary arrived at a very early 6 AM on a Saturday morning...but we didn't mind at all. We spent the morning catching up and having breakfast. They were very excited to see our new place and the life we have been building for ourselves. Around lunchtime we went out to take them on a tour of the city. We walked along Queen Street and showed them Melissa's bank. Then we went up the Auckland Sky Tower for some great views of the city. We got to see someone that [View Full Entry]

By Elanor
November 20th 2006

Out in the wild west... Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

A view of Bethells Beach

I MADE IT TO NEW ZEALAND!!!! One of my long time, dearly held and most important dreams has finally been fulfilled! I am soooo happy! Had a very long journey from Bali to NZ via Sydney. It was an overnight flight and of course I didn't sleep, so by the time we landed in Sydney I was on one of those jet lagged, over tired, crazy highs you get LOL...I sent about a million hyper active emails from Sydney to various people telling them I was in Sydney International Airport! Crazy...However on the flight into Sydney I did get to see [View Full Entry]

By PhilAndShell
November 12th 2006

Day 6 - Canyoning at Piha Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

Phil and Shell

Last night we camped on the beach at Piha and watched the sunset over the sands and islands. Today we went Cayoning at Piha (Shelley says "sorry" to Anna) and get absoluletly drenched! We abseiled down four waterfalls including a 50m pitch. We had to jump into lots of deep pools and swim back out, and crawl under huge boulders, gradually working our way downstream. The water was freezing! A great day with a bunch of really friendly travellers and guides. In the evening we set off driving to Rotorau. [View Full Entry]

By Karen and Jamie
November 7th 2006

'Jumping' in the Magnificent North Island! Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges

'Mordor'

After quite a rocky boat journey, we arrived in Wellington on the North Island. First impressions were that we liked Wellington a lot but the weather was awful - rain constantly! Unfortunately, it remained like this for the next couple of days whilst we were there so we didn't get to do a great deal. Our first evening there we spent driving around the city in the campervan (so we could at least see it and stay dry!) Then we went to the Embassy Theatre. Its a lovely theatre that had been renovated for the Lord of the Rings Premiere. Its [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Waitakere Ranges