May 26, 2007, Kaitaia, New Zealand

Manganui Bay

Mauri carvings on top of Waitangi Marae.

Mauri waka (canoe) - a large one that requires 75 people to paddle.

Face on front of waka.

Inside of marae.

Cable Beach along Hiway 10 - where first communications cable landed on New Zealand.

 

Date:  Saturday, May 26, 2007

Kaitaia, New Zealand

 

Today Charlie, Nila, Linda, Joan and myself took the Toyota van and headed over to Pahia with the intent of taking a boat over to Russell.  Along the way we came to a beautiful bay and pulled into a small park.  At the Tip Top Store across the street where we got ice cream cones (hokey pokey for me) we found out that this was the spot where the first communications cable that came to New Zealand landed.  They had a sample of the original cable on display along with a lot of photos from the time.

 

A little further along we stopped in Manganui where the fish market there has the best fish and chips in New Zealand as reported by our friends in Kaitaia.  As we were looking around town we came across Bob, Esther, Carl and Barb doing some shopping in some of the gift shops there.  Later as we were getting into the van Carl came over and said that they couldn’t get into their motor home and that the remote and the key would not work.  After some anxiety about the situation they found a window towards the rear of the motor home that was still open and as we were walking over they were hoisting Barb in through the window.  Their problems were not over though as none of the keys would work.  Something just was not making sense.  About this time Bob happened to think that he had another set of keys in his pocket and sure enough they had gotten switched.  Earlier Bob had asked for the keys from Carl to get something and ended up with both sets in his pocket and when Carl had asked for the keys back Bob had given him the keys to his camper.  This ended the crisis and provided the basis for a lot of story telling and laughter back at the campground.

 

We drove on to Kerikeri with stops there at the chocolate factory where we saw our first macadami nut trees and pickup a few that had fallen.  From there it was on down to Waitangi and a stop to see the treaty house where the government and Maori tribes had signed the peace treaty.  It was a beautiful area on the along the Pacific and extremely well manicured with hikes along the shore and through the forest in the reserve there.  The large waka there and the marae house were all very nice.

 

By the time we got to Pahia it was 4:30PM and decided that it was too late to go over to Russell so headed back to Kaitaia.  Along the way we stopped at Manganui and the fish market for dinner.  This was the same place that on a previous trip the tour bus had ordered fish and chips from for us.  To order a fish dinner you decide how many pieces of fish you want and whether you want one or more scoops of chips (French fries).  The fish are fresh in a pan in the display case and the server picks out the number of fillets that you wanted and weighs them which then determines the price of your meal.  The server suggested that one scoop of chips was enough for two people and she was right about that.

 

As we were driving towards the campground after reaching Kaitaia we were stopped by the police and a sobriety test was run on Charlie who was driving at the time.  The policeman said that random testing was being done.  Charlie passed with no problem and we went on to the campground.  We arrive about the same time as Carl and Barb and here he had also been stopped.  We read in the newspaper on Sunday that they had conducted 43,000 tests throughout New Zealand on Saturday.  Approximately 350 arrest had been made.

 

Again another interesting day here in New Zealand.