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.
June 28th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua Right in Rotorua at the moment, which is a very sulphurous area, therefore smells like stink bomb all the time which is pleasant.
Met up with Will and Shane in Wellington which was nice, if a littl ... [full story]
June 26th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua
Following our Bungy in the rain, we headed into town and picked up a few gifts before heading back on the road for a short journey to Rotorua.
Rotorua is a city on the southern shore of Lake Rot ... 30 photos[full story]
June 25th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua Monday 23rd - Today we finally left Auckland and was on the move, courtesy of our Bus, Magic. It was an early(ish) start, especially after our lie ins in Auckland, and left around 8. From there we wen ... [full story]
June 20th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua Well our plan of working in Tauranga never really happened. We arrived at the worst time of year for work, as it was the gap between picking and pruning which meant there were lots of backpackers tryi ... [full story]
June 10th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua The whale watching trip was awesome (thank you very much Nicola and Rob), we saw a sperm whale on the surface twice and then a humpback whale just swam alongside the boat for a while. The sperm whales ... [full story]
June 8th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua Ok, I dont actually mean my stink, but the stink of Rotorua. To be fair, it wasnt as bad today as it can be, but still quite odd. Used to it now though. Left Taupo at 9am, having got up at 7am for a s ... [full story]
May 14th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua I ended up staying for a couple more nights in Taupo after leaving Petra. Lake Taupo is one of the popular stops on the commercial tourist bus routes, and the hostel was full of backpackers (most of t ... 14 photos[full story]
May 17th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua Don't get me wrong, I love this city, but yeah, it smells kind of like farts. (I'll explain later)
So yesterday morning started kind of rough- watch out kids, there are a lot of lessons in this s ... [full story]
May 13th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua After Whakatane, we went back to Rotorua to give it another go. Rotorua was the first place we stayed after leaving Auckland back in December and we were amazed by the change in colour that the rest ... 16 photos[full story]
May 12th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua Nach meinem Extremadrenalinerlebnis vom Vortag, war ich auf den Geschmack gekommen und beschloss, nochmal was sportliches zu unternehmen. Etwas, das pur Kiwi ist. Nein, nicht Bungy-Jumping, das reizt ... 3 photos[full story]
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