Our next stop in New Zealand was Paihia in the Northland region of New Zealand. Having picked up our fairly knackered (and consequently fairly cheap) hire car, we set out on the 4 hour journey to the north. It’s only 150 miles, but the roads here are less motorway, and more B road. Add to that the fact that the recent extreme weather has caused a few road closures and landslides and journey times start to add up. The scenery however is absolutely stunning, so why would you want to miss it. The undulating and lush green landscape is littered with dairy and beef farms, as well as tropical fruit plantations. It’s almost like a cross between Somerset and the wilds of Scotland, but with a perfect subtropical climate. New Zealanders refer to this area as the winterless north due to its balmy winters rarely dipping below 15 degrees, while the summers see the mercury hovering in the mid to high twenties.
We managed to grab a bite to eat on the beach in Waipu Cove to break the journey up for the kids. The beach here is well worth a look with its long expanses of sand and sea-shell littered rock pools around the river mouth.
On our first day in Paihia, we were keen to learn a bit more about the history of this area. European settlers first landed on these shores all the way back in 1642 when the Dutchman Abel Tasman stumbled across its shores while seeking a passage across the Pacific to South America. It was again visited and extensively mapped by James Cook in 1769, but the crown showed little interest at the time in occupying these lands. However, as trade increased between the Māori and the British over the following years, it seemed sensible to both sides to form a proper relationship to protect the Māori from other interested nations and preserve their way of life. In a nutshell, a treaty was eventually signed in 1840 between the Māori chiefs and British representatives including James Busby (Britain’s “resident” in NZ) and William Hobson who became the first governor of the newly formed colony of New Zealand.
This treaty was signed here in the Bay of Islands, at Waitangi where James Busby has lived for the previous seven years. His house and the surrounding grounds are now known as the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, and are also home to a fantastic visitor experience where you can learn about the forming of this nation, and the ensuing troubles between the two sides.
There are a few fantastic museum buildings to visit on the grounds, as well as Te Whare Rūnanga (the Māori meeting house) and James Busby’s original residence.
Near the cafe (which serves amazing food by the way), there is a small pond with eels which are fed regularly. Next to the cafe, stored beneath an enormous boat shed, lies the largest ceremonial Waka (war canoe) in the world. At 35 metres in length, and made from only 3 trees, it’s pretty impressive. It is launched once a year on Waitangi Day and can carry 80 paddlers and 55 other passengers.
The real highlight of the day though is the cultural performance at the meeting house, involving a display of Māori weapons, music and a traditional Haka.
All in all, this place is a fantastic day out, and we left with a real sense of how New Zealand came to be. We even managed to squeeze in a quick game of cricket on James Busby’s lawn in the shadow of the flag pole.
That evening I had arranged to catch up with yet another old friend who had made their way to sunnier climes. I first met Lara almost 40 years ago when we attended Hillcrest primary school together. Despite going to different schools from the age of nine, we continued to hang out into our late teens, but lost touch after that point. Once again, through the magic of facebook, we are all able to keep an eye on where old friends have ended up on the world, and when I found out that Lara had made Paihia her home I knew I had to make an effort to say hi. Lara and her partner, Manu, invited us round for a BBQ, and while our kids played together we chatted about old times and current times. I’ve gotta say, these guys are truly killing it. They live in a gorgeous glass fronted modernist pad that they designed and built themselves, overlooking the rolling hills of Paihia with far reaching views out to the Bay Of Islands. They are raising two beautiful little girls, and they seem to be absolutely loving life. If ever there was an advert for seeking a better life somewhere that really makes you happy, then I reckon these guys are it. I suppose the only downside is the fact that it’s quite literally as far away as possible from family and friends, so you’ve gotta be committed. Luckily they are, and it seems that the path they’ve followed has worked out perfectly for them.
Here’s a fun game for you – take a look at the primary school photo. That’s from our nativity play, probably around 1986. See if you can pick out me and Lara.
Day two in Paihia saw us taking a trip to Waiomio (after the daily grind of homeschool) to visit the Kawiti glow worm caves. I didn’t know much about these little critters before, but it turns out they only exist in New Zealand and parts of Australia. If you’ve ever seen a “glow worm” anywhere else, it turns out they were actually something else, probably fireflies. They are actually the larvae of fungus gnats, and they hang out in their homemade hammocks on the ceilings of dark caves, trying to entice tasty flying insects using their bioluminescent butts. They dangle long, sticky strands below their hammocks in which to snare any unlucky flies who become enchanted by their dazzling lights, then they turn their lights off to conserve energy while they digest their unfortunate victim. It’s a clever system, but more importantly it creates a stunning visual effect when viewed from the ground, almost like staring at a night sky, studded with thousands of bright bluey-green stars.
This cave and the land around it is still owned and run by its historical owners, the Kawiti family, who are the direct descendants of Hineamaru, the chieftainess who discovered the cave in the early 1600s.
The site is extremely uncommercialised, unlike some other similar sites around the country. The 45 minute tour was conducted by a very knowledgeable and friendly member of the family, who gave us a history lesson as well as a biology lesson on our walk 200 metres deep into the stalactite ridden cave on the purpose built boardwalk. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed, to protect the little critters from flash photography, so you’ve just gotta imagine how it looked.
On our way back from Waiomio we drove through the town of Kawakawa, and I noticed a brown tourist sign for the Hundertwasser toilets. I suddenly remembered reading something online about these “most architecturally important public toilets”, and so I swung a hasty left off the roundabout to see what all the fuss was about. Sure enough, it turns out that this humble and slightly run-down town is the home of a public toilet that is considered to be an international work of art, and consequently a pretty big tourist attraction. Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an Austrian eco-artist and architect who spent much of his later life in the Bay of Islands, and this toilet was the last project he completed before he died in 2000.
It’s a pretty wacky looking building, built from recycled materials and with a green, living roof. It was pretty interesting to visit as we were going past, but at the end of the day, it’s just a cool looking public toilet. I guess at least now I can say that I’ve urinated on an internationally treasured work of art!
That evening we met up with Lara and Manu one more time, down at the beach. The kids played in the play park, we all had a swim, and a final catch up before they had to head off to the South Island for some family business.
While we sat there chatting, a small Māori kid, probably about 2 or 3 years old, slowly sidled towards us. Without saying a word, he put on Hunter’s shoes and started to slowly walk away, all the time fixing us with an expressionless stare! This was pretty hilarious, the brazenness of the kid was almost applaudable – I mean, he saw the shoes, he liked the shoes, so he wore the shoes. Lara managed to grab them back from him as we all scanned about for potential parents, but there weren’t any. There were just more kids, I guess they were looking after each other. That’s something I’ve noticed a lot of here, the local kids are left to their own devices and pretty much allowed to amuse themselves most of the time. A short time later, Lara and family were enjoying a fish and chip dinner, and guess who made an appearance again? Yep, the same half naked shoe stealer from earlier. I guess he liked the smell of the fish and chips, because suddenly, out of nowhere, he was sat at the bench with us, helping himself to a chip! Again, no words were spoken and no expression was visible on his face at all. I mean, the balls on this kid! I know he shouldn’t be, but he’s kinda my hero. This time, Grandma (we think) appeared from nowhere to retrieve him. Maybe that was a step too far? Maybe she thought he would ruin his dinner? Who knows, but it was pretty funny.
We said our goodbyes again, and said that hopefully we would catch up again when they next visit the UK in the summer. Pretty mad really, that’s three old friends from decades ago I’ve caught up with on this side of the planet so far. The nostalgia was palpable.
Our Wednesday post-school outing took us to one of the only non-beach based swimming holes in the area – Charlie’s Rock on the Kerikeri River. I had read several posts people had written on how to find the swimming hole, as it isn’t signposted at all. The instructions turned out to be good, but it seems they may have underestimated the difficulty of the 15 minute walk to get there. I presume the recent inclement weather has made the muddy, rocky and overgrown path more perilous than usual. We picked our way slowly down the track, avoiding the thorn ridden sheer drops into the fast moving river below. Unfortunately though, one of the rocks we had to traverse moved under Kates feet, and as I turned to see the source of the scream I saw her face turn from a previously worried one to a picture of despair as her leg started to leak claret. We were close though, so we carried on and eventually reached the falls. We found it suspicious that there were no other swimmers there, but figured we would check it out anyway. As it turns out, I reckon the lack of other bathers might have had something to do with the high water levels from the recent torrential rains causing a fairly fast current through the watering hole and down the river. We managed to get in the water to cool off and enjoy the now impressive waterfall, but we all thought better of actually swimming for fear of being dragged downstream and over the slightly terrifying looking ensuing rapids. So, after half an hour or so of not really swimming, and Kate (almost literally) licking her wounds at the waters edge, we called it a day and made the equally perilous 15 minute bush trek back to the car.
Finally safe and sound, we made a quick detour to visit the local Stone Store in Kerikeri, New Zealand’s oldest surviving stone building dating to 1832. It’s a lovely building, and well worth a visit, and the gift shop it now houses sells a variety of very nice kiwiana and bric-à-brac.
Back to the motel to regroup and make a plan for our last three days in the Northland, stay tuned for Paihia Part Two…