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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 Eluned
October 4th 2009

Queenstown - for the 3rd time Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown

The park
Such a nice day! Kind of cold though

Back in Queenstown - again. Will be joining up with Stray I think, just to go down to the bottom of the South Island. Think I'm going to see Milford Sound tomorrow, which should be awesome as I've heard so much about how beautiful it is. I ran into Melissa and Lindsey, two girls that I met here back in May, this is seriously a small place. I also ran into a guy that I shared a dorm with back in Christchurch, though I have no memory of him at all! Strange. Today's a nice lazy day, that I'm going to [View Full Entry]

By roesweld
October 4th 2009

In New Zealand again Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Te Aroha

Chrissy on Olvera Street

Hello again to all our friends that read about our travels. We appreciate your interest and would value your prayers while we are on our trip. We left Columbus on Thursday, 30 Sept., and stayed one night in Los Angeles. We spent the day going downtown and seeing Olvera Street, a little historic Mexican street. It hadn't changed much from when we took the children there when they were younger. We also drove out to Azusa for Jim to see some of his old haunts at Azusa-Pacific College. It had changed so much that there wasn't one building that Jim recognized. [View Full Entry]

By saltandpepper
October 4th 2009

S&P brave the Milford (no) the Kepler Track in New Zealand Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown

At the start of the Kepler
Peter - ready to go!!

Arrival - Day 1&2: S&P arrive in NZ at Christchurch. Peter assures Sandra it's only a two hour drive to Te Anau in a hire car booked on an obscure website based in the Netherlands. Two hours later in an empty terminal and a number of telephone calls later (one to the Netherlands) we have a very little silver (cute) car! (it was a bargain). Two days later we arrived in Te Anau (after an overnighter in a wonderful coastal pub at Temaru with a wine list as long as your arm...and a fireplace to boot). It is (allegedly) spring so [View Full Entry]

By Ferdi and Talita
October 4th 2009

Day 248-252: Auckland, New Zealand Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » North Shore

From the lack of pictures in this issue of our blog it should be apparent to the casual observer that not much happened in the last few days. We hope you still enjoy hearing from us even though pulling teeth might be more entertaining. Anyway, lets get on with it… Happy birthday to our sister Lindy and our friend Megan! Hope you had a fantastic day and may God bless you with many joyful years to come. Wednesday, October 1st Today we said a sad farewell to our van, The Three Sisters. We spent 65 days together, covered 7510 trouble free [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 3rd 2009

Mount Doom Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Tongariro National Park

picture spot

Well my lovely brother decided to finally text me back but did it at 5 am and woke up everyone in my room haha. Packed up this morning and had breakfast. We weren't sure what time the stray bus was coming to get us so we stuck around the hostel and waited. Not so fun haha. It finally came at 10:30am. We stopped for some lunch and a picture stop on the other side of lake Taupo and then drove into Tongariro Park. There are 3 volcanoes in the area, one of them is Mount Doom from the Lord of the [View Full Entry]

By ICELilly
October 3rd 2009

Falling in love with Kiwi Land Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch

Christchurch, NZ

I love it here. Of all of my travels, this place is somewhere I could see myself never leaving. It must be something in the air. The flight that was supposed to leave NZ for McMurdo Station never left the ground yesterday. There are all of these rumors, none of which I know for sure because I haven't checked my work email in days! Nonetheless, I'm stuck in this lovely country until Monday for sure. No problem at all. I headed straight for the bus station in Christchurch after breakfast yesterday (with two seal biologists from Montana State!), and hopped on [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 2nd 2009

Coastal Walk Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo

Lake Taupo

We stopped in town to mail some postcards and then started off on the coastal walk. It was pretty cold and cloudy but not raining. Lots of black swans, ducks and seagulls wandering around. Saw some baby ducks. There was a couple of really nice houses right on the lake overlooking it. I had to take a couple of pics. They probably cost a lot with the view they have. I got really tired of walking so I turned around and headed back to the hostel and Meike kept on walking. I listened to some of the Flames game on the [View Full Entry]

By Jompa
October 2nd 2009

Aukland / Nya Zeland Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland

Aukland/Nya Zeeland Kära vänner, ärade prennumernater (alla sju) nu ska ni få ett tips: när ni ska ut och resa, välj då inte INTE resmål där huvuddelen av målguppen tog studenten i våras. Och om ni ändå måste, välj då för i böveln inte billigaste möjliga ställe! Undvik därmed allt som börjar med Backpackers... Det gjorde inte jag. Och nu sitter jag här. Känner mig som farfar och rent museal. Tittar ut över ett böljande hav av baggy jeans, fjuniga mustascher och nygjorda rastaflätor. Näe, melodin för att känna sig ung & fräsch är att med omsorg välja resmål där man [View Full Entry]

By the kemps
October 2nd 2009

Milford Sound and Lake Wanaka Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Wanaka

The journey begins

We left very early to start the journey to Milford Sound, unfortunately in the rush, a tragedy occurred, Ted, the turtle that I bought as a replacement for Barclay must have dropped out of the van and his final resting place was Te Anau - bye Ted. Luckily Tel decided to drive and I was very grateful, its basically a twisty turny road round hairpin bends and tunnels through the southern Alps, amazing but also nauseating in a car! We made it just in time to get the afternoon boat and were talked into buying the special winter package of barbeque [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 1st 2009

Huka Falls Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo

River

Finally some sun!!!! We were so happy we threw on shorts and headed out to Huka falls. A 20 minute walk from our hostel to get to the start of the hike and then an hour and a half hike from there. We walked along the river on a trail to get there. The Huka falls are really just white water rapids. The wide river has to go through a narrow section which creates the falls. We did the long hike back and finished just as the clouds started coming in. Stopped for a quick lunch ( a meat pie from [View Full Entry]

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