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Published: November 22nd 2010
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Blog #5 Sunday Nov 14th to Tuesday Nov. 16th: Ways to explore the water….
On Sunday the 14th we drove down to Waitangi, the place where the first treaty between the British and Maori was signed in 1840…however it was controversial and inconclusive, and much negotiation continues today. The interesting part for us as tourists was to visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. These are located at the spot where the ‘British Resident’ of the time lived, and the ‘Treaty house’, built in 1832 and much renovated, still survives surrounded by a lovely English garden. In 1932 in an act of far sightedness, the Governor-General of the day, Lord Bledisloe and his wife, purchased the property that the old house sat upon, and donated it to all the peoples of NZ; it is now run by a trust. They invited Maori people to build a ‘whare’ (meeting house) upon it, and for the centennial (in 1940) the Maori also built some waka (very large canoes out of Kauri). It was great to see the historical process by which this important site was saved and how the Maori were encouraged to contribute their perspective to it.
Then we drove into Paihia, the
key town on the Bay of Islands. Good thing we weren’t there during ‘high season’; after the quieter ‘Northland’ , the rather flashy and uptown tourist machine of the Bay of Islands was a little overwhelming. So we continued across the bay to Russell, the first European settlement. From here we set off on a great adventure – an afternoon sailing on a ‘tall ship.’ Yes, we got to hoist the sails, but didn’t have to swab the decks, and neither of us was hit on the head with the boom. Clipped into a safety harness both of us journeyed out to the ‘bowsprit.’ It was all great fun and now when I read the Patrick O’Brien books I’ll have a much better idea of what all the lingo means.
Monday we left the bright lights of the Bay of Islands behind. With only a few detours to charming little beaches we proceeded south to Tutukaka. We took the ‘old Russell road’ along the coast. One of our blog readers had suggested we take a picture of the car - good idea, an exterior photo will be forthcoming. But it won’t show the fingernail marks on my door and
piece of the dashboard. Some of the roads I've sent us down are truly crazy....this day we actually turned around on one and went back out the way we had come. (Actually, the pull out where we found a place to turn around was a trail head so first we hiked up the trail and I mean UP for about 20 minutes and then came back down it. Just to work up an appetite for lunch.)While we were up there Jim received and sent some texts to Emily. Weird to be texting from the Jungle, he said. Anyhow, regarding the roads: Jim is an excellent driver but it's very unnerving the way it appears that the wheel on my side of the car is going over the left edge of the road....I don't remember that phenomenon as the passenger on the right side of the car in Canada; perhaps because the roads here are all wider. But we safely arrived in Tutukaka.
On Tuesday we tried a motorized method of being out on the water. We went out with a company called Dive! Tutukaka for a trip that they market as “A Perfect Day”. And it was. The weather
was fabulous. Being early in the season, there were only 18 guests on a boat fitted to take 75 people at a time. The launch took us out to the Poor Knights Islands, apparently a world famous dive destination. The skipper provided an informative commentary as we went. When we got there they anchored the boat and got us all fitted out in snorkeling gear – I even had a prescription mask which really worked well. We were glad for the wetsuits – the water was chilly, even for Yukoners. A local was chatting with us the evening prior and gave us some advice – “Get a good wetsuit because the water is cold – only 15 or 16 degrees…..” We don’t have a waterproof camera, so you’ll have to take our word for it that the snorkeling was fabulous. The fish colors weren’t as brilliant as those we saw in Mexico or Hawaii, but the quantities were vast and we were often completely surrounded by them; they would brush up against us (a slightly eerie feeling). The whole area is part of a marine reserve; we couldn’t land on any of the islands, there is no fishing etc. Again,
another farsighted act to help preserve these special places. After lunch the launch took us into an enormous cave, and we traveled through some sea arches. It was very interesting. We wrapped up ‘a perfect day’ with beer and lattes, and the next day we concluded the Northland and the twosome aspects of our trip as we returned to Auckland and picked up Emily!
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Kate Dawson
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Still catching up to you
Wow the water always looks so good from landlocked Yukon. Did you take your own wetsuits? I love the pictures of you guys on the tall ship.