Our world tour Part 1

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Our real first day of our holiday and what a day it was!

It started this morning with a solid breakfast in Auckland and finished with a great dinner in Paihia in the Bay of Islands about 250 km north of Auckland.

We traveled the distance by car,

that we rented. Driving in New Zealand is on the wrong side of the road, i.e. left, which initially brings a lot of complications. Different driving functions are on the opposite side of the steering wheel, which has very clean windows as a result, because every time you think you indicate direction, the wiperblades come on and when you think you turned the lights on, after some time, you come to the conclussion that the wiperblades on the rear window is on.

The landscape here is unbelievable beautiful, rolling hills, fresh green and animals, (cows, sheep) are everywhere.

An advantage of driving here is that there is little room for mistakes, you take road number 1 and just keep driving. Makes driving on the left much less confusing.

After approximately 3 hours driving we reached Waitangi Treaty Grounds where a treaty was signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. From the British point of view, the Treaty gave Britain sovereignty over New Zealand, and gave the Governor the right to govern the country. Māori believed they ceded to the Crown a right of governance in return for protection, without giving up their authority to manage their own affairs. The controversy has never been totally resolved satisfactorily to the local tribesmen, but parties live peacefully together.

We visited the site where the signing took place, the corresponding museum and war canoes exposition. Subsequently we were treated to a Māori cultural performance with dance, singing and the handling of weapons. Quite impressive.

Now we are at a spectacularly situated Bed and Breakfast with our own beautiful cottage,with a view of a river and meadows with cows.

The weather today was absolutely perfect: sunshine and temperatures around 20 C.

The attached pictures give an idea of our day.

Note: New Zealand was discovered in 1642 by Abel Tasman, a Dutchman, who gave the place the name of Nieuw Zeeland, a dutch province with some similarity to the coast of NZ, where Tasman was born, Zeeland.

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Photos

IMG_1829
Panorama

IMG_1834
Bay of Islands

IMG_1836
View from Waitangi Treaty Grounds

IMG_1851
Tribal house

Comments

[Mariaka]

Teletransportacion para alla available?
Ese viaje se ve buenisimo, pendientes de las fotos y sus historias!!! ese lugar se ve espectacular! los quiero mucho, Mariaka

[Kees Vonk]

Familiar
I recognice the problem with the wiper blades. The same problem with my rv. I won the price of the man wigh the cleanest window in that year (2011) Now it's your turn brother!