Farewell Northland, Hello Waikato

Our last day in Northland saw us heading north to the Bay of Islands again.  This time we’re off to see the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.  This is the place that the British and the Maori signed the Treaty in 1840 which ended hostilities between the nations.  Over several months more than 500 Maori tribes signed the Treaty.  In essence the articles of the Treaty are an agreement between two peoples to live and work together as one nation.  It guarantees the rights of both Maori and non-Maori citizens.  Waitangi Day is New Zealand’s National Day.  The Waitangi Treaty Grounds include the Treaty House, where the British Resident in New Zealand, James Busby, lived.  He was responsible for the negotiations with 35 Maori chiefs which resulted in the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand in 1835.  This was the precursor to the negotiations resulting in the Treaty.  There is also a flagstaff erected at the place where the Treaty was signed.  A Maori Meeting House, Te Whare Rununga, was opened in 1940.  It has a typical meeting house appearance and was designed to be shared by all Maori tribes.  It is a national marae and has carvings depicting ancestors from many tribes.  There are intricately woven screens and paintings on the rafters representing the major tribal art styles.  In 1940, to celebrate the centenary of the treaty signing, a Maori war canoe (waka) was built.  The canoe, Ngatokimatawhaorua, is 35 metres long and needs 76 rowers. It was built from 3 massive kauri trees. The grounds have some lovely walks along the coast and through native forest.

 

On our drive back to Whangarei we stopped off at Kawakawa which was developed as a coal-mining town in the mid-late 1800s.  It’s claim to fame these days is a toilet block designed by Austrian ecologist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser who settled in Kawakawa about 1975 and died there on the 19^th February 2000.  We saw several of his buildings when we were in Vienna in 2007.  They are distinctive in their use of bright colours, mosaics and curved lines.  These toilets were no exception and we were not the only visitors taking photos.  Most of the buildings he designed are functional – incinerators, apartment blocks and …toilets.

 We left Whangarei in bright sunshine for our drive south to Otorohanga about 60km south of Hamilton in the Waikato, where we’ve booked in for a couple of nights.  We arrived in this small farming town mid-afternoon and had a short walk around the town.  One of the highlights of the town is the menswear shop which is reminiscent of an old fashioned men’s clothing store.  It’s owned and run by 2 brothers, Kelvin and John Haddad who designed their own hat which can be bought there.  The stock is all stored in boxes piled high at the rear of the shop and we were assured that they know exactly what is in each box.