Winter in the winterless north

This weekend we ventured a bit further north, and spent two nights in the Bay of Islands, a beautiful and historically significant part of New Zealand.  It was the coldest weekend of the year so far, and even in the “winterless north”, it was definitely winter.  We made our escape late Saturday morning, arriving in Paihia mid-afternoon and checking into our rented apartment.  Knackered, I popped out to the local supermarket for some food, plus some pens and a pad of paper, then Andrew and I fortified ourselves with cups of tea and coffee while the girls unleashed their creativity by  drawing, and eventually settled in to watch cartoons. 

Recovered, we found a lovely cafe in town for an early dinner.  The specialty was pizza and it was delicious, although Lucia is still in the phase of life that requires her to eat only about 5 different things, so she mowed her way through a bowl of fries instead.  

The next morning we woke early to find it was pouring with rain.  Our planned trip to the Kerikeri farmers market looked a little unappealing, but after bit more sleep we were amazed to find it was only 10.30am and the rain had pretty much stopped, so we decided to try the farmers market after all.  

It was absolutely wonderful.   Even though it was bone-chillingly cold we spent an hour wandering around trying different types of food and listening to the buskers’ music.  We sampled crepes, spicy hot dogs, pure organic apple iceblocks, brioche, carrot cake, and of course coffee.  Everything was delicious and if we had not been driving a Mini Cooper with barely enough room for our arms and legs, I would have bought a carload of food to take home.  The fruit and vegetables were all bright and shiny and bursting with good health.   

We headed back to Paihia and took the ferry to Russell, a tiny town that was once, briefly, the capital of New Zealand.  It was also a town of very ill repute, although now it is a charming seaside town that is host to many B&B’s and cafes.  There is a great little museum with an amazing model of the Endeavour, the ship that Captain James Cook sailed to New Zealand in 1769, the first European ship to reach New Zealand since the Dutch visited more than a century before.  

Next we visited the Pompallier Mission, New Zealand’s oldest Roman Catholic building.  Built in 1841, the building was originally home to a printing press that was used to produce Catholic bibles in Maori, as part of the Roman Catholic Mission’s attempt to spread the Catholic rather than Protestant church in New Zealand (I think they lost that particular battle).  The building was also used as a tannery and a private residence, but was eventually restored as a living museum.   The girls were suitably exhausted at the end of the day and went to bed without even a squeak.  

We were rudely awoken the next morning by a fire alarm, which lasted only as long as it took for us to find a jersey and stumble outside.  It stopped us from sleeping in, which was good, and although it was still freezing cold it was very sunny, so once we had packed up we headed for Waitangi. 

Every New Zealander knows the significance of Waitangi, so for international readers I’ll just say it is the site of the first signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.  The Treaty was an agreement between the indigenous Maori population of New Zealand, and the British Crown.  The Treaty grounds are beautiful, and are even more special for my family since a cousin of mine was married there in 2005. 

For me, there are three especially enchanting parts to the Treaty grounds.  The first is the Treaty House, the home of James Busby, who held the position of British Resident of New Zealand, and was instrumental in the drafting and signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.  Busby raised six children in a tiny four room house – it seemed to have essentially one bedroom, a parlour, a kitchen, and a fourth room that may have been either a study or a second bedroom.  It has been restored with replica furniture and its fascinating to imagine eight people living there while the future of an entire nation is determined, literally, outside the front door.

The front lawn of the Treaty House is the site of the initial signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (it was then taken around New Zealand to be signed by many Maori tribes), and is the second of my three favourite parts of Waitangi.   The expansive rolling front lawn has spectacular sea views, and it is easy to believe that it hasn’t really changed in the last 169 years.  (The lawn is a little wind-swept though, and poor little Madeleine’s hands got so cold she couldn’t do up her seat belt when we got back in the car.)

Finally, a large ceremonial waka (war canoe), that was constructed for the centenary celebrations of the signing of the Treaty in 1940, is a gentle walk downhill from the Treaty House.  It is currently being repaired to make it sea-worthy for the 170th anniversary celebrations in 2010, and was in a number of pieces.  The girls were most disappointed to find it wasn’t actually another piece of playground equipment for them to climb into.

We finished our visit to the Bay of Islands with a photo opportunity at Haruru Falls, which is a very beautiful waterfall that happened to have a large tree stuck in the middle of it when we visited.  It was sunny but raining a little and a bright rainbow arched over the falls.

We broke our long drive home with a stop at a fabulous little cafe in Waipu (hotpots all round, except for Lulu, who had hot buttered toast…), and a play on some swings at Langs Beach.  With that, we bade farewell to the wintery north.   We’ll be back…in summer.