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Published: November 13th 2008
18th September 2008
In rained all night and disappointedly the dive was cancelled because of an unusually large ocean swell. It seems the whales don’t want to meet us.
Oh well we set off again to the Bay of Islands via a visit to the ‘Longest Foot Bridge in the Southern Hemisphere’. To our surprise we were met half way across by a lady leading a beautiful horse. The horse was in the water swimming, his morning exercise apparently, he seemed to really be enjoying himself. We also were welcome by a gorgeous dog which we made a big fuss of and thought of Barny and Lucy, a sad moment on a glorious morning.
Pili insisted that we stopped off at Kawakawa to visit the World famous ‘Hunderwasser Toilets’. These amazing bogs were really made famous when Billy Conolly visited them. They are a sight to behold (see pics) Pili was brought down to earth sharply here. She was taking some photos of the amazing artwork when she heard a series of painful sounding farts and a splash followed by a large Maori woman exiting a cubicle. Art is in the eye of the beholder, but still we
were in the toilets. We left the town in haste when we noticed we were drawing attention from the locals. How do I put this without offending, the town was rural, a little country, banjos tunes on the wind and not a thumb between them. We were gone!
We headed on to Paihia in the Bay Of Islands. We checked our emails and booked a ferry crossing to Russell Island. We were hoping to see dolphins but our bad luck was still with us. The dolphins had been in the bay all morning and had just left, typical!!!
When we reached Russell Island we climbed the hill to the famous sundial, on arriving the heavens opened, the irony was obvious. When we got back down the hill the sun came out (of course) and ventured off to buy supplies while Pili, Neal & Louise visited the local church (those who know me won’t be surprised I didn’t tag along)
The ferry was due to leave at 5pm, at 4:50 the church goers arrived and wanted to looked around the shop, I told them they had no time but was ignored, the ferry left without us!!!!!
We then
met a couple at the docks. A large handsome Maori called Colwyn and his lady friend Barbra. Colwyn had until recently been the island Policeman but was now the proprietor of a hotel. He invited us for drinks at the private, members only fishing club. How could we refuse? The club was very cool with some very large Marlin and Swordfish on the walls. Colwyn insisted on buying the beer and we sat and had a really interesting conversation and awaited the ferry arrival. As the beers flowed, the next ferry came and left without us, leaving us with one more ferry of the night. I think Barbra and Colwyn had something going on, even though they claimed to be just friends and Barbra was married, she was very tactile and I think he was a little embarrassed. Colwyn asked me to make sure Barbra didn’t drive back to her hotel, a couple of wines and she was half pissed. She agreed to let me drive her and in return offered us the use of her hotel room and showers, especially for the girls.
After disembarking the ferry and a short drive to Barbra’s hotel we blew our invitation.
Arrest this woman!
ALERT! Spanish dog abuser!Barbra had told us previously that she had to attend a business conference this evening. She’d phoned ahead and her college said he would stall things until she arrived and also suggested we use his room for showers, what sweet people. We parked the cars and instead of following Barbra into the hotel to find out where we were going, the girls faffed around for 15minues looking for stuff. Of course Barbra couldn’t wait she was late as it was, we all missed out on hot showers and fluffy towels, GIRLS!!!!
We had to drive back into town and park in the public car park next to the toilets, NICE. We found a local pub and had some great fish n chips, it turned out to be a Maori gambling den, full of drunk locals, I was past caring, it had been a strange day and it would come as no surprise to end up being stabbed, ass raped or both knowing my luck, all while Pili was looking for her tooth brush, ho hum.
19th September 2008
New day and the sun was dancing off the sea, I could still smells the loos though.
We’d
Kawakawa Hundertwasser Toilets
Billy Connolly's favourite bogs! booked ourselves on a trip around the island in search of the illusive dolphins and whales. We were told that last week a pod of dolphins had been attacked in front of a ferry full of tourists by a school of Orcas. The tourists were shouting at the skipper to do something!!! Nature raw in tooth and claw, the whales have kids to feed as well.
During the 4hr trip in strong westerly winds we saw 2 adult dolphins with a young pup, a few seals and a few birds, the winds made it tough for the birds and I guess they were sheltering. We did stop for lunch on a small island and I got some great shots of a pair of New Zealand Dotterel which is an endangered species (see pic)
On arriving back to shore we headed up to the Maori Treaty House, this was very impressive except for the info boards. You’d think from reading the text supplied that the English arriving was the best thing to happen to the island and its people. Yet again another case of selective history. They say the winners always write the history books, and this couldn’t be
a truer example, nuff said.
I did take some glorious photos of the bay, with a rainbow and a delightful Pied Shag in the foreground.
We bumped into Barbra and her colleges in the garden, she was a little bemused as to what had happened to us the night before, I explained and she had a good laugh about it.
I suggested we get a riggle on and head up to the very top of the island, Cape Reinga. Louise had other ideas and de-toured us to a crap waterfall, a stone house and a fake/tourist Maori settlement around KeriKeri. I took the piss a little and she didn’t approve.
That night we camped out at Matauri Bay and early in the morning we visited the Rainbow Warrior Memorial to the French photographer Fernado Pereiro who was killed protesting against nuclear testing by the French in the South Pacific in 1985. The French stopped in ‘96
Over the last 24hr our new friends have turned a little strange on us, I’m not going to slag them off here (I’ll tell you all when I see you next) but they turned into a couple of freaks.
After today we would go our separate ways, or so we thought!
We made our excuses and left the freaks and headed for Cape Reinga for the sunset via the coastal road passing through and taking a few photos of Whangaroa Harbour, a quick peek at the volcanic dome at St Pauls, Coopers Beach, Cable Bay & Taipa. At the turn for the north road (Awanui) we stopped and had a coffee and chocolate brownie, one of the best I’ve had. It reminded me of a school pudding -Chocolate Crunch - Do you remember Mr Hims?
Before heading on the one road north we filled the tank and topped up the food supplies.
It took us about 2hrs to reach the Cape, via a quick stop to photograph the Te Paki sand dunes at 90 mile beach (in reality the beach is 64 miles) At the Cape we pulled in and guess who we found there, Neil and Louise. We were shocked. Louise was meticulous with her map and Lonely Planet, ticking off every little viewing point, stone building and beach, she had to see everything and tick it off. When we’d made our excuses and left
Paihia, Bay of Islands
With friends before the weirdness began earlier because we had less time than them and we needed to get a move, we could tell they were a little put out with us. Now they’d beat us to the Cape!!! They must have really shifted; we’d only stopped briefly for food and petrol. They did mention that they saw us a couple of times, at the supermarket and petrol station, they were really smug, sad, sad people.
Louise had gotten really competitive with us, who’d seen the best stuff and who had the best photos. I SHOWED HER HOW TO USE HER CAMERA PROPERLY AND SET IT UP FOR HER, oh well. We told them we were camping at the Cape and they snorted and left, good riddens!!!!
I filmed the amazing sunset and the frothing sea where the Tasman Sea and The Pacific Ocean meet. I promised myself that I’d be up to film the sunrise also. Another van had parked next to us which made us feel safer. We’d heard a few scary stories about some of the locals up at the Cape and several people had warned us about staying up there.
No sooner had I started to prepare dinner, a
truck pulled up with a light on the roof looking official. I heard Pili ask the driver if it was ok to camp overnight, the driver grunted “no problem at all”. At this point I started paying attention, my spider senses where shouting at me. The guy got out of the truck, pulled on his jacket and walked around. I closed down the van putting all the knives away and went to greet and distract him. The guy was a big Maori with an outwardly aggressive persona. Pili sensed I wanted her out of the way and started doing stuff away from us. The guy lent on the truck and I moved around the other side and opened a friendly conversation with him. He was quite challenging to say the least. “He was born of this land and his people were buried here” and started giving me all his ancestors history and how the English had screwed them. He started to talk about the Maori/English treaty and how the English had to placate the Maori because they couldn’t beat such fierce warriors, his people. I saw my opening and asked him to tell me the REAL history and not what
we’d been told by the tourist board, which I had figured was a white wash anyway. Got him, his mood changed immediately, people love to talk about themselves. What started as a possible problem / confrontation turned into a really memorable night. He ended up making us tea and the three of us lay under the stars and I ended up telling him facts and figures about the Milky Way and also his native Flora & Fauna which seem to really fascinate him. He was obviously a well read man, just bitter and I didn’t hold that against him.
Talking about the stars, I’ve never seen the Milky Way so brilliant. It was vivid from horizon to horizon. When we were laid on the sand bank looking up at the galaxy it seemed as if we could just hold up our hands and swirl the stars like you could oil on water. Definitely the most memorable night so far.
One regret, I never got the guy’s name or even a photo. In a few years I’m sure his face will fade from memory, not quite yet though, I think I saved our hides from a potential Maori Hannibal
Lector!
One last note, Cape Reinga in Maori is ‘Te Rerenga Wairua’ which means ‘The Leaping Place of the Spirits’.
There’s an ancient tree hanging onto the rock face at the very end of the Cape, this is where the Maori believe the spirit goes, nice story. (see photos)
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brendan byles
non-member comment
misrepresentation
winston peters dad wasnt the only 1 who build this bridge my grandfather wilfred byles did alot of work too