After leaving Teal Bay, we went further north to the Bay of Islands. This is a beautiful area of New Zealand and a popular tourist area. It is best seen by yacht, but we were not that fortunate. It is also the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is a treaty signed by England and most of the Maori chiefs at the time. It addressed issues such as protection and the sale of land. Many Maori today look back on it and feel like they got ripped off. When you sell a property for a couple of guns, some flour, two horses, and a shirt, you can see why they got the short end of the stick. The other side is the treaty set them up to have a part in the new country. It is certainly better than other natives fared. Race relations have always been very good here, but in recent years, some discontent and tensions have started to creep in.
We left the Bay of Islands and headed back to Auckland down the West side of the country. We passed some massive sand dunes in Opononi, then we traveled through the Waipoua Forest. This is a beautiful forest full of big old Kauri trees. The biggest one is called Tane Mahuta and supposedly 2000 years old.
1 comment:
Beautiful pictures. Looks like Emma was having a hard day... Good luck in your race this weekend. Can't wait to hear all about it! Let's skype next week when you are too sore to do anything else. :) Love and miss you guys!
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