A Trip to the Far North

There's so much to tell about our trip to Northland, I'm not sure I can do it justice, but I'll do my best to give you a taste.  John had planned this trip while I was away and did an excellent job, making for a variety of adventures.

 Mostly we went to Northland to see the giant kauri trees, which grow only in the rain forest above Auckland. They were the inspiration for the movie, Avatar, with its special effects from Weta here in Wellington and its strong message about environmental preservation.  It's hard to give you a sense of the scale of these incredible trees.  This one, on the left, is the McKinney Kauri, reportedly number 4 in size, so perhaps you can imagine the size of Tane Mahuta, the largest.  He was named after the god of the forest, represented here between his two siblings, god of the sea (Tangaroa) and god of the winds (represented here on the right).  We saw him too, but our pictures don't really tell the story.

These trees are tall and straight and were harvested to make the spars for ships and for Maori war canoes.  The wood was also used for fine furniture.  The trees produce gum, which was dug from the roots and used for various purposes, including jewelry, since when it hardens, it resembles amber.  The consequence of all of this harvesting, of course, is that most of the trees were cut down.  They are very slow-growing, so now they are endangered and protected.  Now the only carving is done using trees which have fallen into swamps.  The wood is so hard it will not rot, even when it has been underwater for thousands of years.

We stayed in the Puketi Forest in sort of a farm stay/B&B.  Ok, it was a cow shed.  But it was a very cute cow shed that had been made into a sort of apartment.  Our hosts, Ian and Barbara Candy, own a beautiful dairy farm and do eco-tours in the forest as part of their work with the Puketi Forest trust.

Our first day we took an all-day cruise around the Bay of Islands.  It is called the Cream Trip, because in earlier times the boat collected the cream from the dairy farms on the islands.  Now the boat just picks up and delivers mail and dog biscuits to residents and their dogs who come down to meet the boats.  It was a gorgeous day, cloudy in the morning but sunny in the afternoon by the time we reached the climactic destination of the trip, the Hole in the Rock, pictured above.  From the boat (the Tangaroa), we saw dolphins and blue mau-mau, along with other smaller fish, and a number of sea birds. The young and thrill-seeking (not us!) took a turn being dragged through the cold waters in a net attached to the boat, but we were content to drink it all in, along with the sun, and listen to the educational commentary provided by our skipper, Tammy, whose mother was the first female skipper in the Bay of Islands.

At the end of the cruise, we hopped off in Russell, once known as "the hellhole of the Pacific" but now a charming little seaside village with a Swordfish Club, displaying trophy fish and the stats on this year's fishing contests.  It is also home to some interesting history.  I especially enjoyed seeing Christ Church, the oldest church in NZ, where Charles Darwin attended when he stopped by NZ on the Beagle, and which had a lovely little cemetery and an amazing array of tapestry cushions with seaside themes, which have been made by members of the congregation.  That night we had dinner at the Pear Tree in KeriKeri, near a mission house with a lovely little garden with a stone store and Maori village nearby.

The second day we took an all-day forest walk, 9km in and 9km out, with Ian as our guide as we looked at trees and flowers and listened to the birds and stories of him hunting wild boar and weta in the woods with his brothers.  Here's a picture of John hugging the kauri where we stopped for lunch.  At the end of our trip, Ian took us to a gorgeous waterfall on the property where at least one adventurous Kiwi bride and groom climbed down by rope in their fancy clothes for wedding portraits.

Day #3 found us searching in vain for NZ Scopes, where they make kaleidoscopes out of ancient kauri, bits of paua, and fishing tackle.  Frustrated, we took consolation in a winery tour at Ake-Ake vineyard and brought back a bottle of their red, called Chamboursin, for our hosts.  The next stop was the Parrot Place, which had a variety of brightly-colored parrots from NZ, Australia, Africa and South America, including the Quaker grey and my favorite, a young African grey (like Felicity, for those of you who've read Julia Glass)  We even got to hold a few parrots and fed them some peanuts. I was "honored" to receive "the mark" on my shoulder and had to be sanitized; apparently, being pooped on is a common occurrence.  John noted that this is a common occurrence in any true relationship.

Afterwards, we decided it was time for a little history and drove to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.  We lunched in the cafe and marveled at a giant kauri canoe, which held up to 80 warriors.  We saw a film about the treaty between Britain and the Maori chiefs, signed in 1840.  British Resident James Busby had been appointed to guard the interests of British citizens and to also protect the interests of the Maori.  He moved his family to Waitangi, and they lived in a small, unassuming white frame house which had been preconstructed in Australia and which was used for negotiations and to provide hospitality.  Busby had no real authority, and he and his family had the challenge of living in the midst of wars among the Maori tribes of the area.  The display includes a tableau of a famous occasion when one of the Maori chiefs sheltered the Busbys' 9-yr.-old daughter in his feather cloak.  Finally, Captain Wm. Hobson was sent as an official representative of the British Crown to negotiate a treaty with the Maori, and after much deliberation, it was signed in Feb. of 1840.  Since the Maori, like many native peoples, had no concept of ownership of the land and since the translations of the Treaty were imperfect at best, its implications are still much discussed and debated in NZ today, but it was the beginning of a conversation among NZ's people that is alive and ongoing.

Today the Treaty House still stands on a majestic overlook next to a reconstructed Maori fishing village.  In 1940, Lord Bledisloe bought the property and gifted it to the people of NZ.  At that time, to celebrate the centennial of the Treaty, the Maori built a beautiful meetinghouse that stands nearby.

We had just a little time before the shops closed, and we stopped in Pahia for a kaleidoscope we had seen there and some cheese and crackers before heading back to Puketi for a night walk.  We joined Helen, our guide, and a couple from S. Africa for the walk through cow pastures, then into the forest as night fell.  In the woods we saw weta and a number of spiders and heard kiwi and moreporks, the tiny native NZ owls.  We climbed down into a creek where we saw eels and the red eyes of crayfish reflecting the light from our headlamps.  We turned off our lights and saw glow-worms on the banks in the darkness.  On our way home, there was a hedgehog by the roadside, and we looked up at the night sky and the bright stars of the Southern Cross before falling into our beds exhausted.

We decided to spend our last day driving to the very northernmost tip of the North Island to Cape Reinga.  We enjoyed the views but decided to take the road instead of driving on the 90-mile stretch of beach, especially when we read that damages incurred would not be covered by our renter's insurance.  On the way, we stopped at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom to view the amazing carvings.  I took a picture of John climbing a staircase made of one kauri stump, which led to a gallery of amazing carvings and intricate inlaid bowls.  At Cape Reinga itself, the wind was gusty as we walked out towards the lighthouse.  This is the place where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea crash together in turbulent beauty.  Maori legend says that souls go to the one lone pohutakawa tree on the rocky outcropping to jump from this world to the next.

It was a long day, but when we returned to Puketi, we were rewarded by a feast prepared by Barbara.  We had roast lamb and roasted vegetables from the garden and a topnotch apple crumble with honey almond ice cream.  A very interesting couple from South Africa joined us for dinner.  The man was from the UK and had worked as a general surgeon in Zimbabwe, where he met his wife.  They decided to buy a farm in NZ, and it sounded as if he was especially enjoying the big digger he had bought for his sideline as a gentleman farmer. John's wheels were turning as he considered all of the uses he might find for a digger at home.

After these four fine days, it was time to leave Northland, just as the rain and gusts were due to arrive.  So after a long drive and one last stop at the Kauri Museum, we flew back to Wellington.  We're planning to be here till the 27th, as John says his farewells to the CCDHB and to prepare for our final South Island trip before the passage home.