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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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Tuesday, October 6th Just when we had packed away most of our cold weather stuff winter decides to come back with a vengeance. Not only was there a mad gunman on the loose in the central north island, the snow also closed two roads down there. When Ferdi went downstairs to get some of our winter clothes he found a pamphlet given to us by mom Corné months before we left. It deals with the periods between the seasons of life. We realized that this is exactly where we find ourselves now. We are "between seasons", a frustrating, confusing and uncertain [View Full Entry]

Ferdi and Talita - Ferdi & Talita de Lange | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1134 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 9 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 11th 2009 | 147 Views | [diary=442428]

It's still a bit chilly, but the fresh air is worth it!
Nicol saving the ocean from the terrible cone
Keira in her element

Made some breakfast, watched the snow going crazy and really felt like I was back at home haha. Today I did a lot of reading, read most of my book, watched another movie, the next stray bus came in and a guy from Edmonton was put in my room. Always fun haha. Made our dinner early which was lucky since the power went out again but this time it wasn't coming back on. We sat by one of the fires to stay warm. Matt, an Aussie guy who was working on the ski hill for the winter decided to try to [View Full Entry]

Laurene - Laurene in the South Pacific | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
222 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 13th 2009 | 31 Views | [diary=444248]


Auckland, Sept 1 - Sept 4 Bay of Islands, Sept 5 - Sept 13 Jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft is probably one of the most terrifiyng things we have ever done. Actually it is the most terrifying thing we have ever done. You may be wondering how Simon, who is afraid of heights, managed to do this extraordinary feat. The fact is he didn't really have a choice. Within 15 minutes of inquiring about the possibility of maybe doing a skydive in Paihia we were en route to the airfield where we were met by the tiniest plane you [View Full Entry]

Leanne and Simon - Hello World! | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1261 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 44 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 7th 2009 | 68 Views | [diary=442828]

Skydive - the plane
Skydive - lesson
Skydive - view

We left Auckland in Bitsy armed with a list of the places we would like to visit (thanks to Elisha) but with no clear schedule of where we would stay. We had booked the ferry for early on the morning of the 6th, but that was our only deadline. We headed south. Our first scheduled stop was at the Waitomo Caves however en route we passed by the Kiwi House in Otorohanga. We shrugged at each other and said why not? We are not bird lovers, but the Kiwi bird only comes out at night, so we were unlikely to see [View Full Entry]

SineadandPhilippeRTW - Sinead Neylon Philippe Counet | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1168 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 8th 2009 | 44 Views | [diary=442896]

Philippe birdwatching...
Waitomo Caves
Thermal streams in Rotorua

Woke up to pouring rain. It was miserable out. Not only was it raining but it was SOOO COLD!! Well, not cold like Canada but cold when you're not expecting it and have no proper clothes for it! We just hung out at the hostel trying to stay warm, by the way NZ doesn't have very good heating systems!!! Had some lunch, looked out the window and saw snow...yep...snow. Was not expecting that! We watched another movie, had dinner and then the power kept shutting off and turning back on and then shut off for a good hour. The hostel had [View Full Entry]

Laurene - Laurene in the South Pacific | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
118 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 13th 2009 | 27 Views | [diary=444244]


Vintage Cars
Vintage Cars
The vintage cars were on display
On Saturday 3 October we visited the museum for the "Settlers' Day event. Lots of people were there and all seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day. Michael and Cathy were there also - with Jason and Anita also a friend of Jason. [View Full Entry]

McHearns - George and Beb Hearn | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
42 Words | 6 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 4th 2009 | 48 Views | [diary=441868]

More vintage cars!
and more cars!
... more cars (with nice model)

The park
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]

Eluned - Eluned Parri | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
114 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 5 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 7th 2009 | 31 Views | [diary=442804]

Appreciating the sunshine
The Chinese Settlement in Arrowtown
More of the same

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]

roesweld - Shirley Roe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
461 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 5th 2009 | 53 Views | [diary=442095]

Jim and his friend John Rose
T-Bucket for John Wolfe
Another T Bucket

At the start of the Kepler
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]

saltandpepper - Peter & Sandra Onus | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
662 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 4th 2009 | 66 Views | [diary=442133]

Sandra tramping
Luxmore Hut
Winter Wonderland

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. Thursday, 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]

Ferdi and Talita - Ferdi & Talita de Lange | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
785 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 5th 2009 | 90 Views | [diary=442142]