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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 BenandCharmaine
November 11th 2009

River Valley arrival Oceania » New Zealand

Today…first thing…not feeling too bad. Quite impressed with ourselves really, maybe the hangover hasn’t kicked in yet, quick Charmaine get them ibuprofen..oops sorry I mean ibufofen….(haha…private joke) On the bus we all got, some people were so tired, some people were so ill, some people were still even drunk, it was a funny morning I think everyone went full out…silly eh! Now we have about a 4hour bus ride to River Valley. Today we stopped randomly at a waterfall…JP the bus driver said did anyone want to jump in?…he said it was about [View Full Entry]

By Leanne and Simon
November 11th 2009

Farewell New Zealand Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Kaikoura

Bye bye New Zealand

After 10 weeks we have finally come to the end of the New Zealand leg of our trip. We've had a total blast exploring the country and have experienced things we will never forget. Highlights have included skydiving, swimming with dolphins, tramping in Abel Tasman and climbing Fox glacier. We have met some great people (and some right weirdos) and survived living in a campervan for two weeks without killing each other. It's been fantastic. We could've spent a lot less time here and still have done everything we have because the country is so small and easy to get around. [View Full Entry]

By Compass Rose
November 11th 2009

North Island Checking in Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo

Laura meets the Maori.

It's been a few days since we've had access to email. We drove into Rotorua and found where the locals stay for the hot springs. While it looked scary from the road it was a total delight to soak in the "natural" springs straight from the earth. It was great to finally rest and slow down. We met some folks from Seattle making thier way around finding cheese makers writing for US magizines. They shared thier cheese while we shared our wine. It was a great evening. The New Zealanders know how to make cheese!. We have a few days left. [View Full Entry]

By Ibbus
November 10th 2009

Waitomo, Rotorua, National Park og Wellington Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Tongariro Crossing
Her er en graf over vores tur

Waitomo var stedet hvor vi boede paa camping, spiste fint og legede i grotter, og i Rotorua forsaetter vi med vulkaner, River rafting og WetZorb :) Dernaest til National park hvor vi var paa vores livs tur paa Tongariro Crossing og videre til fridage i Wellington. Loerdag tog vi tidligt om morgenen afsked med Paihia for at koere mod Waitomo. Koereturen tog ca. 8 timer hvor vi ind i mellem stoppede for at se vandfald, haengebroer ect. Omkring kl. 17.30 ankom vi til den camping plads vi skulle bo paa, og efter lodtraekning indkvarterede vi med de roomies, der havde trukket [View Full Entry]

By Stelson
November 10th 2009

Rotorua through Hamilton and our LAST night in the North Island:-( Oceania » New Zealand » North Island

Volcano

On our final day in Rotorua, Stephen and I woke up early after a relaxing spa night. We headed to Lake Rotorua and snapped some shots of the scenery and the black swans. We decided to walk into town and check out what was there...we found a bunch of souvenir shops and a Starbucks!! As we drove through Route 5 heading towards Auckland, we made one last stop to the Skyline. The Skyline is an action park where one may ride a Gondola to the top of the mountain, Sky Swing off a cliff, and luge down fast tracks!! We did [View Full Entry]

By BenandCharmaine
November 9th 2009

Southbound - Taupo Oceania

Haku Falls

Today we headed off to the apparent cool town of Taupo. The stop we did today was at Haku Falls, it was quite amazing actually and I’ll post the photos to see yourself. Arriving at about 2pm after a longggggg trip straight away I went out to explore, had a little look round the shops for a coat as we were doing the Togariro Crossing 19.4k walk up a mountain tomorrow. Ahhhh. I managed to find a few coats for me and Charmaine; had a little gander then went to the hostel bar until about 11. we then went back to [View Full Entry]

The Waterfall thing at the end of Haku Falls

By Ferdi and Talita
November 9th 2009

Day 283-285: Karamea, New Zealand Oceania » New Zealand » South Island

Talita cutting her dove-tail joint

Thursday, November 5th We continued with the course and after successfully cutting our first dove-tail joint Ferdi felled his first tree. It was quite an adrenaline rush, leaving his arms a little weak. We planted four big logs as a foundation for the structure we will build during the course. The structure is the top part of the gable-end of the roof and covers every technique needed to build your entire log home. There was also a bit of tension in the group because two of the guys has very strong personalities and lots of tree felling experience and tried to [View Full Entry]

It takes precision cutting and lots of eye-balling

By FREESTYLIN
November 9th 2009

New Zealand - South Island Oceania » New Zealand » South Island

Looks fake its so good!
just couldnt afford to camp!

Hey from New Zealand!!! So we figured we would tell you about each island individually...this does mean that this blog is going to be alot longer than the North Island blog as we have spent much more time on the South than we will on the North.....first off though just to confuse matters, we actually arrived on the North Island, Auckland but made a quick journey to the South!!! We arrived in Auckland after a smooth airport entry and found our third musketeer waiting patiently for our arrival - for those of you that don't already know a friend from [View Full Entry]

By Leanne and Simon
November 8th 2009

Swimming with dolphins Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Kaikoura

Dolphins

Kaikoura, Nov 6 - 11 Swimming with dolphins is something I have wanted to do ever since I can remember and today we did it. What an experience... Our day started at 4.45am as we had to be at the Dolphin Encounter office at 5.30am. We are not used to getting up so early but soon woke up when it was time to wiggle into our wetsuits - another great fashion moment. During our briefing we were told to sing to the dolphins (underwater and through the snorkel obviously) to attract their interest. We were soon out on the water looking [View Full Entry]

By kristenflo
November 8th 2009

WWoof 2 Urenui Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taranaki

ST832005

Notre trajet vers Urenui et les deux semaines passee avec Maria et Molly (nos Hotes) ... Our journey to Urenui and the two weeks spent with Maria and Molly (our wwoof host) ... [View Full Entry]

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