Keri Keri

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On our way up to Whangaroa (remember its a f not a w) we stopped at Keri keri which is on an inlet of the Bay of Islands, as it is a place with a history of Maoris, missions and whaling. It turned out to be a thriving little town, and we went down to the "historic basin" to see what we could see. There is the old Stone Store, one of the few stone buildings in NZ, which over the years had many uses, but ended as a sort of hardware shop. Although it is a musem now, they still sell all kinds of stuff you can't get these days, like sacks made of sacking, nibs for pens and the most beautiful cast iron cooking pots with legs. How I wanted one, and asked Alex for it for Christmas present, but he said it would be too heavy! Next door is the Mission House, another historic building, which gave a feeling of what it would have been like living then. We also looked at a replica Maori village and the arboretum.
After Alex bought me a delicious lunch, we set off to Mapouri Bay to find the memorial to the Rainbow warrior, but only caught a glimpse of it through the drizzle (after a deluge!), and no photo, sadly.

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Photos

stone store and mission house
the historic centre of Keri Keri

the stone store
here are the lovely cooking pots, just right for a camp fire.

more wares for sale
at the stone store.

replica maori village
we had a look round, huts are small because they only really used them for sleeping. There had been a village on this spot for centuries, I think!

arboretum
there was a good collection of native trees, but not all labelled! aguide book explained the uses of each tree to the Maoris.