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Auckland and Bay of Islands
  • We are Living the Dream
  • We are Living the Dream

Auckland and Bay of Islands

3 weeks visiting Melissa,Luke and Charlie. First and last week in Auckland with week 2 staying in the Bay of Islands. En savoir plus
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  • Début du voyage
    8 août 2019
    We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Leaving Sydney and Arriving in Auckland

    8 août 2019, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    On our way to Auckland to visit Melissa, Luke and Charlie for 3 weeks.

    Looking forward to catching up and having lots of cuddles with Charlie.

    Our flight was a little delayed but due to the stong winds we arrived ahead of the original arrival time.

    Now at Melissa and Luke's ready to play and have fun.

    Melissa and Charlie picked us up at the airport.

    We are now at Melissa's playing with Charlie.

    He has had a play, dinner and a bath. I have just put him to sleep and about to have dinner.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    At home with Charlie

    9 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Most of the day we stayed inside and played with Charlie as again not great weather. He has grown so much since the last visit.

    In the afternoon we visited Tara a friend who has just recently moved to Auckland and lives 5 min drive from Melissa. It was a lovely catch up and a wonderful play date for Charlie.

    Once home we watched the slideshow of Charlie's first 6 months.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    On our way to Bay of Islands

    17 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We are now heading to the Bay of Islands for a week. It is a few hours drive from Auckland. Melissa and Charlie are coming with us, John visited the Bay of Islands before we were married on a cruise I am sure it has changed heaps.

    Looking forward to hopefully seeing Whales and Dolphins and going to a few cultural places.

    The Bay of Islands has 144 subtropical Islands hope to see a few of them when we do our whale watching cruise.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Hundertwasser Facilities

    17 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Renee mentioned we should stop into a small town along the way to check out the public toilet, weired yes, but we did. Very cool but glad it was along the way and we did not have to spend ages locating them. These fancy public facilities are right in the middle of town.

    In 1998 the Kawakawa Community Board was looking to upgrade the 40-year-old toilet facilities in the central township, and Frederick Hundertwasser Friedensreich Hundertwasser an internationally renowned artist and architect offered a solution from his design palate. To Hundertwasser, a toilet is very special because you meditate in a toilet. Like a church. "The similarity is not so far fetched" - he says. His concept was adopted and, with the artist personally lending a hand in construction supervision, including the provision of materials from his own studio.

    After our 5 min stop back on the road.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Home for the next week

    17 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We are now in Paihia our home for the next week. These are apartments in our Classic Holiday Club. They are right in the middle of town which is ideal we can walk around very easily to places for coffee, sightseeing and shopping. It is great not having to get in the car for the basics.

    Paihia is the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands in the far north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located close to the historic towns of Russell and Kerikeri. Missionary Henry Williams named the mission station Marsden's Vale and eventually Paihia became the accepted name of the settlement.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Kerikeri

    18 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Kerikeri, the largest town in Northland, New Zealand, is a tourist destination 240 kilometres north of Auckland and 80 kilometres north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei.

    It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of the first permanent mission station in the country, and it has some of the most historic buildings in the country.

    Today we drove to Kerikeri to visit Old Packhouse Market which is the Bay of Islands largest market, open every Saturday & Sunday.

    We did not find it all that good but it did have a few stalls which were nice. What we did find interesting was a elderly man and lady make some wonderful children's toys including Gollywogs and they explained how the name Gollywog came about. I researched this when we were home and this is what I found:

    "One theory of the origin of the name “Golliwogg” says that while British soldiers held Egypt in the second half of the 19th century they had Egyptian laborers that worked for them. Workers wore insignia W.O.G.S. on their armbands which meant “Working on Government Service”. British troops spoke of them as “ghouls” - which is an Arabic word for a desert ghost. Egyptian children played with black dolls which they would sometimes give to British soldiers or they would buy dolls from children. That dolls were later called “Ghuliwogs” and later “Golliwogg”. How much truth is in this theory - it is not known.

    “Golliwogg” doll in time became very controversial. While some see it as a part of tradition and part of childhood, other see it as racist. That is why they started disappearing from shops and advertisements."

    We also visited a choclate factory and had hot chocolate's in the cafe, yummo.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Kemp House and the Stone Store

    18 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    It was now time for more site seeing in the local area and we decided on Kemp House and the Stone store which are two of New Zealand's oldest buildings in the Kerikeri Basin. Kemp House and the Stone Store are the only survivors from the Church Missionary Society's second Anglican mission to New Zealand, founded in 1819 on land granted to the Reverend Samuel Marsden by the powerful Nga Puhi chief, Hongi Hika. Kemp House is the oldest surviving European building in New Zealand.

    The Stone Store is the country's oldest surviving stone building. The Stone Store was really interesting it had heaps of old toys and things to purchase.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Manginangina Kauri Walk

    19 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Now we are heading to a Kauri Forest, the drive is only 30 min from Pahlia so it will be a nice drive. There a quite a few tracks but we chose the all weather tracks which we can wheel the stoller and walk easily along the Kauri Boardwalk admiring the huge Kauri Trees.

    The Kauri has a fascinating past, present and future. History tells of mass felling of the trees for its exceptionally strong timber, and ‘Gumdigger Wars’ for the highly prized Kauri Gum. Without question, it was the drawcard for most of the early pioneers to this part of New Zealand.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Russell

    20 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    This morning started with a ferry ride to Russell . The town’s original street plan and names from 1843 are still intact and feature some of New Zealand’s oldest and most significant historic buildings. Russell Kororareka was developed initially as a shore station for shipping. The European population grew, with a mixture of deserting seamen, runaway convicts, and grog sellers, as well as settlers and traders. The township gained a reputation as a lawless and rowdy port and the unflattering nickname “Hell Hole of the Pacific”. Many of the buildings seen in Russell township now are dated back to these times.En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Pompallier Mission

    20 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Catholic missionaries landed in the Hokianga in 1838, six months before the Treaty was signed, Pompallier established the headquarters for his grandly titled Vicariate of Western Oceania at Kororāreka, directly across the Bay of Islands from the rival Anglican mission at Paihia. The gullible bishop paid trader Benjamin Turner an exorbitant £370 for a cottage and a narrow beachfront section and built a chapel, storehouse, outhouses and a printery.

    The French-looking building is a monument to poverty and passion. Lacking money but working under lay missionary architect Louis Perret, the priests used traditional Lyonnais methods, rammed earth for the lower storey and timber framework for the upper one. When the Marists moved on it became a tannery then a house for the Greenway and Stephenson families.

    The government bought the old building in 1943 and Historian Ruth Ross exposed the bishop’s palace myth in the 1960s, but ‘Pompallier House’ remained a venerated fraud until structural instability caused by Hamlin Greenway’s chimney and Public Works concrete ‘adobe’ forced its closure. Pompallier reopened in 1993, expensively conserved the grounds interpret its 19th-century secular history and the museum upstairs tells the story. Downstairs the Virgin Mary watches over the Gaveaux printing press.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur
    Flagstaff

    Waitangi Treaty Grounds

    21 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Waitangi was traditionally a meeting ground for the many tribes of the Bay of Islands, so when James Busby, the first British Resident, asked to build a home here in 1833, the location of Waitangi was supported by local Māori.

    Prior to Busby’s appointment, New Zealand had been witness to occasions of tension as European explorers such as Abel Tasman, James Cook and Marion du Fresne arrived and attempted to stake their claim to this new land.

    Visits that started well and initially proved to be mutually beneficial could end in conflict as Europeans remained ignorant to Māori customs and protocol, and in some instances caused irreparable offence to Tangata Whenua (people of the land).

    However, as the benefits of trade strengthened, there was a growing desire from both Māori and Europeans to improve mutual understanding of language, culture and ways of life.

    A growing desire for international recognition of New Zealand and its governance led to a meeting of Māori chiefs in 1835 at Waitangi. Concerned about the intentions of the growing number of Europeans, the chiefs put their signatures to a document that declared New Zealand’s independence.

    This Declaration of Independence (He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni) was acknowledged and supported by the British Government. However, overseas interests continued to arrive, with the United States and France competing for influence in New Zealand, as well as private British and French companies planning settlements.

    Over time, British ties proved to be stronger than all others, with Māori and British becoming interdependent through business, marriage, children and religion. As a result, the Treaty of Waitangi was drafted by Captain William Hobson, and translated by Reverend Henry Williams into Māori before being presented to local rangatira (chiefs).

    The Māori version of the Treaty was signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 by about 40 chiefs following extensive discussion and debate. By September 1840 over 500 leaders from throughout New Zealand had signed Māori versions of the document while only 39 signed the English version.

    Most rangatira signed the Māori version (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) and by 1845 there was much discontent stemming from different translations of key terms in the two versions, particularly relating to sovereignty and possession of lands and other properties.

    The morning started with a cultural dance which was very good.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    War Canoe

    21 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Hobson’s Beach is home to a ceremonial war canoe named Ngātokimatawhaorua, the world’s largest of its type. Waka have always played a vital role in Māori culture, essential for travel, and uniquely constructed and carved as symbolic representations of each tribe’s identity and spirituality.

    Ngātokimatawhaorua was built to mark the centenary of the Treaty of Waitangi’s signing in 1940 and was built by members of New Zealand’s northern and Waikato tribes. The waka is launched every year in February as part of Waitangi Day celebrations.    En savoir plus

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  • We are Living the DreamAuckland and Bay of IslandsVoyageur

    Museum of Waitangi

    21 août 2019, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi holds a stunning collection of stories and taonga (treasured objects) that bring to life the history of Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s most important historic site.

    The history of Waitangi is brought to life through world class exhibitions using interactive technology to offer a museum experience like no other. Learn about the history of Waitangi and its significance to both Māori and non-Māori people.

    We read how the Treaty of Waitangi became the founding document of New Zealand and viewed the taonga on display and discovered their significance to the story of Aotearoa New Zealand.

    It was a very interesting museum and we also watched a video re enactment of the signing of the treaty.    En savoir plus

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