Days 7–8: Paihia & Waitangi
Learning about Maori culture in the old capital
After leaving the Mermaid Pools, we drove on up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. We stayed in Paihia because it had the nicest campsite within a reasonable distance of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds; the place where The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, symbolising peace and cooperation between the Maori tribes and the British Empire.
Unfortunately, there were no freedom camping grounds in the region so we had to fork out for a place in a campsite. The benefit of this though, was that we had our first proper hot shower — without a time limit! — since leaving Wellington. It felt pretty good!
Paihia is a seaside town so, in the evening, we went for a walk along the front.
It’s an odd little place.
Most of the buildings were either, hotels, motels, or hostels, and most of the rest were a mix of restaurants and souvenir shops. The final few were a mish-mash of well-architected, luxury homes that must be worth a small fortune.
Despite it being high season, everywhere had vacancies, and none of the restaurants was that busy. All in all, it reminded us both of the kind of resorts you find in Spain that cater for English people; one main strip, lots of accommodation, lots of restaurants, and lots of souvenir shops. The only difference being that it was very quiet which just gave the place an eerie Stepford Wives-like vibe.
Anyway, we survived the night — without being replaced by robots — and the following morning, we headed for the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Entry tickets weren’t cheap at $50 a pop, but we certainly had a good day there. Had we thought of booking them in advance on BookMe, we could have bought them for $30 each, but what can you do?
First on the agenda was a guided tour of the grounds. Dan Busby — our tour guide — is a direct descendant of James Busby, the man sent by the British Empire to Waitangi — at the request of the Maori tribes — to restore law and order to the region after British convicts, from the penal colony in Australia, managed to escape and make their way over on trading ships. I can only assume that one of James’s descendants got it on with a Maori at some point because Dan was definitely Maori.
The tour was great and gave a lot of information about both Maori culture and the build-up to and aftermath of the signing of the treaty. Typically, I can’t remember much of it, but I did take some photos to help jog my memory.
Instead of ships, Maori people made canoes. Some of the canoes were pretty huge, and the war canoe that they have there at the moment is in the Guinness Book of World Records for its size.
The canoes are made from Kauri trees. The one pictured above took three trees and two years to make using traditional hand-powered methods.
Our final stop on the tour was the original (refurbished) house that James Busby had built when he arrived in Waitangi.
It has had a few modifications since then, but they kept one wall unchanged to show how it looked back in the day. The building was made and assembled in Sydney, and then dismantled and sent to Waitangi where — unlike Humpty Dumpty — it was put back together again.
The treaty was signed out on the grass in front of James’s House.
Once the tour was over, we had a bit of time to explore the house some more before going to the Maori carved meeting house for a Maori cultural performance.
The performance started with one person from our tour group volunteering to act as the chief of the group (or tribe). Don’t ask me what my hand was thinking, because I don’t know, but for whatever reason, after a couple of seconds of nobody volunteering, it decided to raise itself and nominate me for the task.
I instantly hated my hand for this betrayal, but there was nothing to do but get on with it.
Essentially, I had to stand there while a Maori tribesman swung his big stick — not a euphemism — inches from my face. Then, when he laid down a small leafy branch, I had two options: leave it there which would symbolise hostility, or pick it up which would symbolise peace. I’m not really sure that they’d have let me leave it there as part of the performance and besides, I didn’t have a big stick of my own — again, not a euphemism — to defend myself with, so I picked it up.
We were all then welcomed into the meeting house where everyone but me got to take a seat. I was left standing at the front with the Maori leader while he gave a welcome speech. Once he was done, I had to give a speech of my own! Fortunately, I was told it didn’t have to be long and that I just needed to say thank you — which I just about managed.
With that done, Mrs Chief (Anna) and I got front-row seats to the traditional performances that the tribe then performed. The songs and the dances were really cool and were the highlight of the day for me.
There was definitely perks to being the chief, like the front-row seats, and it also meant that Anna and I went straight to the front of the queue when it came to taking photos with the tribe (the main blog photo).
Finally, the last thing we did on our visit was take a look around the on-site museum.
Most of what was there was just a more detailed account of everything we’d learnt on the tour, but it was still an impressive museum to visit.
And there ended our day at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. We left there and made one very quick stop before moving on to somewhere new.
This is Haruru Falls, and we only stopped there because we saw a sign that said it wasn’t far off of the road we were on.
By the time we came back to the carpark, we had found a few new friends that didn’t make it easy to drive back out again…
