Waitangi

I had a proper lie-in this morning. My Cambridge hostel had a high window without a curtain so I woke before 7am every day when the sun got up. Today I slept until 8 and then dozed for a while longer.

Eventually I got up, had breakfast and went along to Waitangi. It's a couple of kilometres from Paihia along the coast. Waitangi is hugely significant for New Zealanders as it's where the treaty that essentially founded modern NZ was signed, back in 1840, between the British and the Maori. The British didn't exactly hold to its terms, unfortunately, but it's used these days as legislation to determine land ownership and other Maori rights. The grounds where the treaty was signed now houses a marae, a war canoe and the house where the British Resident used to live with his family. And a big flagpole. I did a guided tour, which was interesting enough, and wandered around taking pictures for a bit afterwards. The Treaty House (the former residency) had a beautiful garden in full bloom with some gorgeous roses. The marae smelled of sweaty feet, although that might just have been me ... however the carvings were beautiful. The canoe was pretty awesome too, the largest waka in existence - it goes out every Waitangi Day.

There's a 6km walk to a waterfall from near Waitangi which I considered doing in the afternoon, but decided eventually to do it tomorrow in lieu of paying for a boat trip of some description - they're all hideously expensive and it seems daft to pay to swim with dolphins when I did that on my overnight Spirit of NZ voyage right at the start of my time in NZ, or pay to visit Roberton Island when I've been a guest of Jim and Terri who live there. The only really tempting trip was a sail on the R Tucker Thompson which is a locally-based topsail schooner, although I've also sailed these waters on Soren. So in the end I'm ditching the expensive trips and am going to walk to the waterfall tomorrow, which I think is a round trip of about 16km. Luckily there's a cafe at the waterfall so I don't need to carry lunch. :)

After a stop at the supermarket for dinner and a bit of procrastination at the hostel I drove to Opua as I was pretty sure Soren was still there. She was/is, but a little too far offshore to really hail her. I looked from the quayside and it was so very good to see her whole and healthy and seaworthy, when the last time I saw her she had a big hole in her side and no deckhouse.

So that was today. Fairly quiet, but the odd quietish day on holiday is, in my books, a Good Thing.