Exploring Northland
We were now north of Auckland, on our way to the northern part of New Zealand, our first stop was to be the “Waitangi Treaty Grounds,” and we had hoped to go the long way, through “Russell” as we were already at “Orewa,” and for the most part we were travelling on divided roads.
However, something went wrong, and while we were on the back-road ( to Russell, road-works blocked our way and we were forced to go back to the main road, missing out on the ferry ride from Russell to “Paihia,” where we had morning break before heading that last bit to Waitangi to explore the treaty grounds.
At Waitangi we saw the largest existing Maori War Canoe and it is only taken out on “Treaty Day,” it is that big it takes 80 people to paddle it around the “Bay of Islands” and the other canoes look small when they are beside it, this canoe is four times the size of a Chinese Dragon Boat and yet it still has some rich carving on it to protect it and all those on board.
We continued our tour of the treaty grounds with me pushing mum in a borrowed wheelchair up a long steep slope to the Maori Meeting House, I only took one photo before remembering that it was not permitted to photograph inside these buildings, unless the Maori Chiefs had given permission, which I did not have, this was a pity as the inside of this meeting room was beautifully carved with traditional figures representing the Maori Tribes of New Zealand. We also looked at the cottage built for James Busby, the European who signed the treaty for England , before having lunch at the café at the grounds.
After lunch we continued to explore the Bay of Islands area before heading further north to “Awanui” arriving there late in the afternoon, too late to see the “Ancient Kauri Kingdom,” so we booked into the local hotel and just explored this small town on foot before retiring for the night.
In the hotel we found some information about different things we could see so that evening we planned the following day’s activities and slept well knowing we had lots of things to see
Copyright
Viewgrant Pty Ltd 2025
Richardsclan
Welcome to Herman and Carolann’s New Zealand Travels