New Zealand 7

Now we had a long journey ahead as we decided to spend some time in North Island to replace the train trip.  Back down the lake, as brilliantly coloured as ever, and then out across the increasingly conventional landscape of sheep and cattle farms until we reach the Christchurch plain for the short hop to Auckland.  The countryside is all divided up into huge squares, lined with neatly clipped tree-high windbreaks that made us think of the landscape of Through the Looking Glass.  One thing about NZ is that everyone seems to take immense pride in the place.  Every field boundary, every verge, every garden perfectly manicured and at this time of the year, fresh and bright with new flowers.  Given the size of the country this represents a huge effort for its small population.

A quick heads down at the airport hotel then off first thing to the Bay of Islands.  This is an area I visited 10 years ago and really loved, and Ian also found it very pleasant.  We were extremely lucky with the weather, which helped. We had found a great apartment facing the bay at Paihia, and took it very easy, visiting the Waitangi treaty grounds, crossing the bay to Russell on the little ferry, and doing a bit of home cooking for a change in the evenings.  The treaty grounds and the house of the first British Resident give a detailed idea of the early history.  The Māori actually invited Britain to provide protection.  Whether they regretted it later is not told.  They had heard what the French did to Tahiti, and saw the lawlessness of the trading and whaling port that later became Russell, the hellhole of the South Pacific as it was then known.  Now it's a sleepy tree shaded little village with a ferry pier and NZs oldest pub. The Resident seems to have been left to his own devices by the powers that be but peace generally reined.  The treaty seems to have been respected more than most and has been used as recently as the 1990s to confirm Māori rights such as the ligation to maintain and encourage the language.  

So back to Auckland and the next and most remote stage of our adventure.