Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Bay of Islands – what kind of name is that?  This spectacular bay in the extreme north of New Zealand has 140 small islands in it and only five of them are occupied.  Retires and vacationers like this area because of the sub-tropical and mild weather as well as the beaches.  The weather is also good for agricultural crops such as the “ugli” fruit (a combination of grapefruit and orange), kiwi, olives, avocados, and bamboo.  They even have wineries.

This area also has a lot of historical significance.  Indigenous people, the Maori, have occupied New Zealand for many centuries.  Captain Cook also explored the islands in 1769.  It wasn’t until the early 1800s when the Christian missionaries arrived that modern New Zealand was created.  The missionaries brought new technology to the Maori, things such as nails, hammers, and other tools.  They also helped them develop trade with Europe and gave the Maori traders a flag to fly on their ships to protect them from pirates.  Consequently, the Maori became Christian and to the day are very religious.

Michael:

I had an unexpectedly pleasant tour today of the “Birthplace” of New Zealand.  The ship was anchored and after a pleasant 15 minute tender ride over to Waitangi Wharf, our bus departed for Kerikeri where New Zealand missionaries built the first house, Kemp House, and the adjacent “Stone Store.”  These were interesting to visit and beautiful.  Kerikeri is now the principal orchard area of New Zealand.


We drove next to Paihia, the commercial center of the Bay of Islands; it is the site of one of the earliest missionary stations that was established in 1823.  Today, it is a charming, and very popular waterfront tourist area.  Next, and this was the high point of the tour, we visited the recently restored Waitangi Treaty House.  It was here that the Maori chiefs signed over sovereignty of their lands to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1840 creating the nation of New Zealand.  Here you can see the original house where the treaty (the equivalent of the U.S. Declaration of Independence) was signed, the Maori meeting place, or marae, and the ceremonial canoes.  The grounds themselves were gorgeous.  Did I mention it was an absolutely perfect summer day with a temperature of 81 degrees?

Beverly:



My tour started out like Michael’s.  We toured Waitangi and the Kerikeri Basin where heavily forested snowcapped mountains were interspersed with peaceful rolling green pastoral valleys.  There has been a tremendous amount of deforestation going on causing destruction of wildlife habitat as the land is needed for agriculture and people.  The native Kauri trees are now protected from harvesting.  These hardwood trees were used by the Maori to make canoes, and later, the European settlers used it to make furniture.  The only native species to the island is the fruit bat; everything else had been brought in by Europeans.  There are 50 million sheep now – that’s a lot but not as many as there used to be.  They now farm deer, cows, goats and alpacas.  There are over 80 million possum and they are considered a destructive pest.  They are good for target practice and road kill; however, I have knit with possum yarn and must say it is soft and warm.  It seems that these creatures have no natural enemy except humans.

 Upon our return to Waitangi, I took a tender back to the ship, picked up Michael (who got back earlier and had lunch; I was late and did not get lunch), and took a different tender to the now charming beach town of Russell.  In the early days, it was known as the “Hell Hole of New Zealand” because of all of its saloons, brothels, and so forth. We walked the town enjoying the beautiful weather and finished our journey walking along the Strand under huge trees. 

Tonight was a farewell dinner with friends, Robin and Gerald.  We are going to miss them as we have had so much fun together.