Thursday 14 to Monday 18 November – exploring the north

Thursday we went to the Waitangi Treaty grounds just north of Paihia. It is a protected site where the signing in 1840 of the first accord between the British Crown and the Maori people took place. There were two versions of the Treaty – one in English and one in Maori. They are not exact translations of each other which causes debate right up to today, according to our guide. The country was so full of natural resources that the Brits were desperate to hold onto the country, they did not want the French to take it away from them …. sounds a bit like the Caribbean! The area was a place of seasonal gathering for the Maoris before the Europeans arrived. The grounds are lovely with big sweeping lawns and a lovely view over the bay. In1833 James Busby built the first NZ Government building and home here. It was an interesting visit, one museum is dedicated to the thousands of Maoris who volunteered to fight in both World Wars. Interestingly the Brits used NZ troops during the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902) but the Maoris were not allowed to enrol in that war.

Photo copied off google as my photos did not do it justice

A waka (traditional war canoe) named, Ngātokimatawhaorua was built to mark the centenary of the Treaty of Waitangi’s signing, in 1940. It was built by local Maoris from Northland. The waka was used in 1940 and then left in a shed for 34 years until it was restored in 1974 for a visit from Queen Elizabeth II. The waka was given to the Queen which theoretically makes it part of the British Navy! It is the world’s largest ceremonial war canoe and is launched every year in February as part of Waitangi Day commemorations. They have to soak it in water for 3 days before they can roll it into the water. The 35 metre long waka has 70 paddlers and weighs more than 6 tons.

My photos again

The wooden carved Maori Treaty house

Cultural performance was full of song and dance

The guy on the left sounded South African to me, he was impressively convincing, definitely the skinniest Maori we have seen!

Friday was a wet and grey day, not the kindest of greetings for our friends on Witwat who got in from Tonga yesterday evening. They are a couple we met soon after we started sailing, in the Bahamas, nearly 5 years ago now. We bump into them along our travels most years, it was lovely to catch up with them over lunch at the marina cafe. Rowan’s cousin Roy and his wife Libby also joined us, they have recently got back from the Med where they have a boat. Luckily we are all Catamaran owners, loads to talk about! We needed a little afternoon siesta as we had planned with Karen (on Witwat) to go out to the fanciest restaurant in Northland to celebrate Dennis’s birthday. The restaurant Terra, is in Paihia, we had spotted it yesterday and thought it looked pretty unimpressive, upstairs above some very garish touristy shops. Thankfully it was a real treat, the restaurant was buzzing, absolutely full and we had the most delicious meal. It was a great birthday celebration for Dennis, along with two other tables also celebrating birthdays. Dennis and I had oysters which were sensational. We have been watching the crates of oysters coming in every day, so it was good to give them a try.

The oyster raft coming into the ramp at the marina, to offload onto a huge refrigerated truck

Look at all those oysters

Saturday morning we headed off in our hire car to go and explore the northern tip of NZ. It was a good day to be in the car as it was grey and rainy to start, but it cleared in the end and we had lovely weather from midday. Our first stop was a little historical town called Mangonui, which had some lovely old historical buildings on the edge of a huge bay. A lady in the old Courthouse gallery told us we must visit the Ka Uri centre where local carvers specialise in carving the Kauri trees. It was impressive, they have a trunk made into a spiral staircase to get to a viewing platform overlooking the workshop. A lot of the wood has been under the water, starved of oxygen and has been carbon dated to be over 45000 years old. Quite incredible, I couldn’t resist buying a small pebble of this ancient wood, it was so tactile and deceptively light. The polished pebble glows, it is remarkable. From there we headed to the Gum Diggers museum, it was a glorious sunny 40 minute walk through dense woodland scattered with Kauri trees and full of mining pits from the gum diggers. The story of the trees starts when Gondwanaland broke up, and a sub species of evergreen, Agathis Australis was confined to Northern NZ. They don’t grow anywhere else in the world. The demise of these great forests still remains a mystery, – tidal waves or meteorite strike are the most popular theories. Small pockets of these forests have been preserved by a chemical cocktail in the Northland peat. Trees have been preserved in perfect condition for thousands of years. When damaged the Kauri trees produce loads of sap that congeal into big lumps, over thousands of years this sap hardens and fossilises into gum/amber. The Maori found many uses for it and started trading it with Europeans in 1814. The gum was soon prized for making high quality varnish and by 1860 it was like the gold rush, digging for for gum flourished into a huge industry. Interestingly a lot of the gum diggers were called Dallies, Croatians from the Dalmatian coast seeking a better life. By the end of the first world war the industry collapsed as cheaper alternatives were sourced. The museum was run by a lady from Uganda who went to school in Kenya, they bought the place as a retirement project a couple of years ago. It really was a fascinating place in the middle of nowhere.

We continued north to the tip of NZ to Cape Reinga, it is a narrow spit of land. On the western windward coast is the Ninety Mile beach, the east coast is more rugged. Reinga is the Maori word for underworld, the belief is that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. We had a lovely walk down to the lighthouse in sunshine. There was a distinct mark in the water where the water from both sides of the island collide, quite dramatic.

Once back in the car we had to find a place to spend the night, we headed back south. We passed two young lads hitch hiking, we didn’t stop as we planned to go and visit the enormous sand dunes at the start of the ninety mile beach. It was a long slog uphill, we felt more and more guilty so we turned around and picked them up. Two very respectable young kiwi lads who were on a stag week end, they had all walked in a group along the coastal path, then the race was to get back to their Airbnb accommodation in a town about 40kms away. They were the last two to get a lift. We dropped them off at the turn off to the dunes and said we would pick them up again on our return if they hadn’t got a lift. The dunes were huge, we decided not to climb up as it looked rather hard work, the afternoon was closing and we had no idea where we were going to spend the night. We headed back to the main road, the only road south, we thought the boys must have got a lift as we had gone quite far. We came around the corner and there they were with their back packs. We picked them up and dropped them at their Airbnb. Both lads grew up in KeriKeri which is in Northland, the one had gone to boarding school in Christchurch and was now working as a landscaper at a vineyard, the other was still at Uni. We quizzed them where we could spend the night, which was disappointing as there was nowhere decent, just a few dilapidated Gaming Lodges! We finally went back to Mangonui where Rowan found us a lovely Airbnb on the bay, out of 5 cottages we were the only guests on a Saturday night. We went to the famous Fish and Chip restaurant on the waterfront for supper, we got in with minutes to spare as the kitchen closed at 7pm. We opted for the Seafood basket, the fish was delicious, but the scallops were disappointingly from Chile!

Historic Mangonui

Very pretty little waterside historic town

Famous Fish shop where where we just made it in time for supper

The Gum diggers forest, a Kauri tree beyond Rowan

I liked these spider webby ferns

Gum digger pits

Imagine digging for gum in this terrain

The ancient Kauri

A close up of the wood which is now disintegrating as it is exposed to air

The Gum washing machine

Loads of Croatian names up here

Cape Reinga, the northern tip of NZ

The Cape with it’s huge dunes

Coves on the walk to the lighthouse

The lighthouse is still used

Windy!

The sea on both sides of the island collide and create turbulent water

Old lighthouse updated with solar panels and led lights, no longer needing a massive power cable all the way to it

Up close to the sand dunes

The view from our lovely Airbnb

We had a very comfortable night, the essential cup of tea in the morning was possible which was the major concern. The view was stunning, and we felt very at home as the lovely garden we looked over was planted with various proteas (South African plants).

We had a delicious breakfast back in the town, where we were armed with water pistols to keep the gulls at bay. We headed back to the main road south, Highway 1, and discovered it was closed for repairs. It meant doing a long squiggly detour along the western coast, which was absolutely stunning. Very remote, with lush indigenous bush covering the mountains. We finally made it at midday to a little town where we caught a car ferry to the other side of the bay to a very bohemian hip old town called Rawena. We drove out to the dramatic headland of the bay which has enormous sand dunes on the opposite side. The sandbar at the entry to the bay was a melting pot of sea waves, no wonder yachties don’t sail this west coast much. Our luck ran out and the heavens opened, it was a good sign to return home to PolePole.

We went to the marina cafe with Karen and Dennis, it is the cafe’s Sunday live music night . We also met up with the couple from the boat called Water Dog, that we had met in the Lau group in Fiji. Loads of storytelling in a very busy cafe.

Proteas from our balcony at the airbnb

Lush mountains on our route through the back country

Car ferry across the bay

The heads into the bay of Opononi

Inside the bay

Big waves at the sandbar at the entrance to the bay

Rough seas, so glad we are in a car

From Paihia up the east coast back down the west coast, back to Paihia via Opononi

Monday was a day of getting ready for our departure to head south to Whangarei. The guys came on board to do all the new rigging, a lot of our lines (ropes) needed replacing and a new furler replacing the one that stopped working . A quick pop to the supermarket to provision for the week as we potter down south. A couple on the boat Thetis, he introduces himself as Herman the German came around for a quick drink in the evening. They were on the World Arc with us, we met them in the San Blas islands.