The Waitangi treaty grounds and Haruru Falls

Woke up this morning and had my usual brekkie of yogurt and manuka honey. It was overcast but I figured, oh well, I am probably due for some rain. I headed out for the half hour walk to Waitangi to visit the treaty grounds. The grounds are gorgeous with native bush, views of the bay and english gardens. This is where the treaty was signed in 1840 between the British and the Maori. The treaty basically provided the groundwork for today's country and government -- two people working to one goal. It is a way of working studied by the UN today and admired by many. Although there are, of course, more areas of discussion about the history and the process, it is different in that the Maori seem to have been working from more of a position of power and a genuine desire to work to a peaceful outcome to settlement. The Maori are a spiritual people so the areas of religion were something they were interested in and they engaged the missionaries and converted to Christianity with an understanding and a, shall I say, admiration. They believed in a god and were happy to worship a Christian god while still keeping their other gods -- the god of land, the god of water, etc. Not unlike pagan Romans or North American indigenous peoples. If there is belief you can argue and adjust those beliefs to encompass more belief -- or different beliefs. Okay, that's my simplistic viewpoint. But I would also like to say that I learned today that the Brits refused to have any women sign the treaty and the Maori women revolted. Although they had clear designations of roles iin their tribes they were considered 50-50 roles of participatoin in society. Prominent women who descended from chiefs had a tribal importance and they wanted to be involved with signing the treaty. And they won out and there are women Maori who signed. And it is that involvement in government that led to New Zealand being the first "country" to give women the vote.

There was an amazing carved war canoe on display (built in 1940 for treaty centenary celebrations) and it still goes out into the water for celebrations. Created through joinery -- no nails or glue. Amazing that the Maori people actually got to New Zealand from the Pacific Islands -- Hawaii, Tahiti, etc -- in wooden boats like this (larger even with double pontoons). Imagine being out in the Pacific with nothing to protect you. I am always amazed to read about European settlers on their boats but, my god, those that came before them were really overcoming the odds. But with their faith and spirituality I imagine they had good karma with their sea god to provide some protection.


The meeting house was also amazing. The guide explained a bit about the structure and carvings on the outside as well as inside. Inside there are carvings and weavings from all the tribes making up the walls and ceiling of the meeting house. The only tribe not represented on the walls is the one tribe from the south island. Because the south island is much colder the Maori didn't really settle it. And the one tribe that did intermarried with European settlers very easily and didn't have the problems they had in the north island so didn't feel they were part of the treaty. (I had read about this in Dunedin where the Settler's Museum had a good exhibition on the Maori mingling very peacefully with the mainly Scottish settlers.) They did sail up by canoe to provide a carved wooden throne that is placed in one corner of the meeting house in order to explain that although they felt their history wasn't part of the treaty they were part of the Maori history.




After looking around the grounds I stopped at the cafe to have a lunch of sweetcorn and corainder fritters (and, yes, glass of savvie). By this time the cloud cover was clearing and the day was becoming quite fine. Then I headed out to walk a bit up the road to find the start of the trail to Haruru Falls. It was a five kilometre walk to the falls through natural bush and a quite spooky mangrove swamp.



Past the mangrove swamp I came across some trees full of some gorgeous birds. I think they might be a type of heron? I have to look them up. You can see a mum feeding her baby in their nest in the tope portion of this photo (with two other birds below them)...


Then I got to the Haruru Falls ...

... and took a look at them and turned around and walked the five kilometres back to the treaty grounds and then back into Paihia. A good long walk. Then relaxed on my little deck area with my book and Sassy. I was going to go out to one of the seafood restaurants but decided to stay in and cook the pasta I had leftover from the other night with sundried tomato pesto.

Tomorrow I have an early start as am heading up to Cape Reinga -- New Zealand's northernmost point. The "Dune Rider" is picking me up at 7:20 in front of the motel. A German woman, Siegrid, checked into the motel this afternoon. She stopped to talk to me (and Sassy) when I was sitting out this evening on her way back from the grocery shop. She just flew in from Frankfurt to Seoul to Auckland to Bay of Islands today so was fairly tired. But she was interested in going to Cape Reinga and I told her I was going tomorrow. She asked if I would mind her coming along with me and I said absolutely not. So she asked Suzi to call to see if there was a place open for her and there was so we will head out tomorrow morning.