Beautiful Bay of Islands in the far Northland

Ellen at the I site in Rotorura.
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Here we are in the "winterless north",  NOT!  We came here to escape the cold and rain but they have followed us!  We are freezing to death.  We may have to go out and buy little possum "pasties" that are sold in the stores.  But for the end of May and the beginning of June we continued to travel north  ending in the small town of Paihia in the Bay of Islands.  We stayed in a youth Hostel and as always made many friends, especially with the staff who were closer to our age.  The town became our base for the next 6 weeks.

The quaint town of Cambridge....one of our side trips on the way north.
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During this period of time we spent 3 weeks wwoofing;  2 weeks at one and 1 week at the other.  Both hosts originally said no, and both  changed their minds.  Both were widows;  both had adult children; both were grandmothers; family was very important to both women; both had full lives and were involved in many community activities.  Both were on opposite sides of New Zealand culture.  One was Maori, a mental health therapist who worked very long hours and  lived on a very large farm.  The other was Pakeha (European New Zealanders), a farm wife most of her married life and who now lives in a new middle class subdivision.  My head was swimming listening to them talk about the same issues from a totally opposite perspectives.  I almost thought I was visiting 2 different countries.

HONOR, PRIDE, RESPECT, LOVE

We now travel in a newer "rent-a-wreck".
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At the Womens Lodge  in Waipu we have been having wonderful discussions and a very poingnant statement was made that I believe everyone  is guilty of: when we look at different cultures and make judgements we are looking at them through the eyes of our own culture and we never stop to ask the other culture how do they define themselves.  So it has been very interesting hearing the two ladies give their point of views about the happenings in New Zealand.

Now on the lighter side, we went fishing one day for red snapper with 3 young men from Australia whom had just completed a 4 day tournament catching kingfish.  They came in 2nd with a catch of 54 fish in the 4 days.  This day they were catching so many red snappers from their side of the boat while Ellen and I were getting nibbles and catching other little fish that I made them change sides with us.  Did it work...................no.................now they were catching them on the side we just left...............go figure!!!!!!!!!  The Bay of Islands was as smooth as glass which enabled us to enjoy the little blue penguins [they are about 12 inches]that were swimming all around the area.  At the end of the morning we went across the street from the dock and gave our fillets [they did this on the boat for everyone]to a lady in a fish and chips shop.  She "crumbed" the fish in the most delicious batter in the world and boy did we have a treat that evening.  Speaking of treats.......as part of our cultural exchange with Sharon we told her we would bring  home all the fish heads that were caught on the boat so that she could make the Maori dish of fish head soup.  She was beyond excited when she saw how many we had, and she gave most of them to her son to "smoke" while she boiled the 4 heads that she kept.  We sat there in awe as she ate all the facial meat and sucked the brain tissue.  We didn't even ask her to share it with us....My children, Tiffany and Jason, used to be told as kids that I was making fish lips for dinner......little did we know !

Cathy and Monique, a staff member at the Paihia Youth Hostel.
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Another day we went to the Dargaville Museum where they showed us all about the lives of the Kauri tree gumdiggers.  From this gum, varnish and shellac were made along with linoleum and  other things.  They really took great pains in protraying a very accurate and detailed account of everyday life.  Most of the gumdiggers came from the Dalmation coast of Europe.

On another warm, sunny day we went on a boat trip out the Bay of Islands to the Pacific Ocean.  At this point is a huge rock with a hole in it large enough for the boat to pass through, which we did.  We were hoping to also see a whale or dolphins but none were seen by us or any other boat that day.

Looking across the bay from Paihia at Russel, the first capital of New Zealand.
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In Paihia is the famous Treaty of Waitangi that was made between England and the Maori in which many things were promised but not fulfilled by England. [sound familiar]  Several days ago they completed a huge court case and many thousands of hectares in lumber worth many millions of dollars were given back to 7 tribes of the North Island.  This is the biggest settlement of reparation so far and only happened in part because the Maori have sent their children to law school  and now they know how to force the government into honoring this treaty of 1840.  Giving the land back to the Maori is not just about returning land, because the Maori believe they are the "land, the trees, the rocks. etc".