Day Three: The Bay of Islands

While our third in the Bay of Islands was spent mostly traveling back Auckland, we did have one event planned for the day at the Waitangi treaty grounds. Even though we were at the grounds for only couple hours, it turned out to be much more interesting than I thought it would be, and it easily rivaled any elementary school field trips I’d been on.

Waitangi is the sight where the British and the Maori negotiated a treaty in 1840. Turns out the British weren’t the first European nation to discover New Zealand. It was actually the Dutch, who in 1640 first discovered it. It was almost 125 years later when any other Europeans returned, that being the famous explorer James Cook in 1768. In terms of history, civilized New Zealand is one of the youngest settled land masses. In fact the Maori people have only been there since 800AD after migrated from eastern Polynesia.

A few of the things we saw while at the ground was the treaty house where the actual treaty was signed, the home of the British diplomat William Hobson, and the giant war canoes that seated around 75 Maori warriors. And to finish of the sight, we were given a cultural performance by some local Maori. This included some songs and the performance of the Kapa haka- the intimidating war dance that almost made me soil myself. Gross, I know, it was that scary.

After the performance we jumped back on the bus and headed back toward Auckland. A half hour bathroom and lunch stop proved the pre-made sandwiches for us were jus as bad as the day’s before.