Birth place of New Zealand

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Next door to Paihia is Waitangi, this is the birth place of New Zealand. We went to Waitangi treaty grounds, this is where the treaty was signed between England (Busby 1840) and the Maori chiefs for protection of the island by queen Elizabeth and peace on the island. But this is also after the europeans invaded the island and caused all the upheaval in the first place. We watched a short history video, walked around the gardens and to the treaty house where it was signed. We went in the meeting house, which is like a community hall for the maori people. Inside you have to take your shoes off. It's made of wood with lots of carvings and decoration.
In the afternoon, as the sun had shown itself, we relaxed on Piahia beach.

29.10.05 After a nice stay in the Bay of Islands (which we thought was slightly overated) we headed west through Oponoi, which had some of the biggest sand dunes we had ever seen and through Waipoua forest, home of the oldest Kauri tree (Tane-Mahuta) in New Zealand, over 2000 years old and massive(5m girth). Unfortunately we couldn't give it a hug because the roots of the kauri trees are really shallow and if you stand on them they die. We came to Trounson Kauri park so we stopped there for the night as we had read about a night walk you can do in the forest at this site. Which we did that night. It was a 2 hour walk into Trounson Kauri Forest and the guide told us all about the different plants and wildlife. We saw a woodpigeon, an eel, a te weta (a very large grass hopper that can jump 3m) and, wait for it........a wild kiwi!!!!How cool! Very difficult to see one as there are very endangered and only 200 in the whole forest.

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Photos

Guess which one is the ancient statue??
Carvings in the Maori meeting house.

Oldest Kauri tree in New Zealand
5m girth and 2000 years old,WOW!

Kiwi
We were not able to take a photo of the real one so this will do.

Comments

[Zoe]

Fantastic
New Zealand looks fantastic - cant wait to go now - we fly on the 6th Dec - you still there then or will you have moved on? My uncle lives in Warkworth and my auntie in Titirangi - surnames Gamble. Enjoy your stay - will have to let me know tips and hints about your stay and best places to go and places to hire vans from....Love to you both

[Auntie Mags]

Where have you been !

[Auntie Mags]

Oops sorry pressed the wrong button, what I meant was I have missed your accounts for the last week or so. Sounds great, it must be nice not having to carry all your gear? Take care

[Joyce and Robin]

keeping in touch
Hi you two, we are following your journey with great interest. The stars are something special out there arn't they. You both will be so fit when you return - love to you both from us both love Joyce and Robin.