The Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Saturday, November 9, 2013

Saturday 9th November

We struck lucky today and I'm not sure how we will better it. The day dawned clear and sunny and 9am saw us on board the NZ Explorer to explore The Bay of Islands from the water. There are 144 Islands in total, some small with a single poignant tree and others large and luxuriantly wooded, but the overall effect is stunningly beautiful. Only four are populated, two owned by single families, with glorious beach houses, only approachable by sea or helicopter. Must be unbelievably tempting for the average billionaire - I could join him!! We approached the Island where Captain Cook landed (unpronounceable name) and hovered in Cook's Bay studying the spot where history was made. In 1769 Captain James Cook sailed into the Bay on his ship Endeavour and subsequently named it the Bay of Islands. We saw the sugar loaf hill he climbed to survey his surroundings and all was carefully documented in his log, rather like this blog, but sadly I'm unlikely to get to name anything! We were able to sail in amongst a very friendly pod of bottle nose dolphins, that really put on a show for us, gorgeous creatures that they are and finally the skipper nosed the boat through the hole in the rock in Piercy Island. A bit nerve racking, but obviously perfectly safe as he does it twice daily weather conditions permitting. An exhilarating ride back for lunch on dry land, before we headed to Waitangi, where the treaty between the Crown and the Maori was signed by Captain William Hobson for King William 1V and 500 Maori chiefs in 1840. We were taken on an entertaining and illuminating tour by the young great grandson many times back of one of the signees of the treaty. He is a modern man in every sense of the word, but with his roots very firmly in his Maori Culture and he explained very eloquently that the treaty is responsible for the equal status of the indigenous people of New Zealand. The estate is in the hands of a trust and now in a very good state of repair, although this has not always been the case. The ceremonial waka, or war canoe was carefully inspected and we were then invited to approach the meeting house for a Maori Welcome, but before this could happen, we would need to select from amongst our number, a chief, to greet the Maori and who could proffer a symbol of peace (a frond of silver leaf fern, the NZ national emblem). At this point there was much shuffling about and studying of shoes before Reg shoved Peter in the back and volunteered him. I know PL may have been considering a role for his retirement, but in his wildest dreams, I don't think Chief Peter, as he was now to be called, would have been a consideration!! The Chief had to stand his ground as he was approached by spear waving warriors with all the Haka type gestures of intimidation. Not a flinch from our hero, you'll be proud to hear. It was eventually established that our party came in peace and on removing our shoes we were allowed to enter the Meeting house and Mrs Chief had pride of place to watch Chief Peter perform the welcome ceremony. This involved presenting the silver fern leaf to the head warrior after much posturing and bloodcurdling war cries. Yet again, our chief held firm and concluded the ceremony with a rub of noses with a extremely large skirted Maori warrior. No comments please, believe me he has already heard them all!! He was then required to make a speech, which he delivered with his customary aplomb before being allowed to retreat to watch the rest of the presentation with Mrs Chief (naturally the power behind the throne) and his people! You will see various photos (I hope - don't know what happened yesterday, they are all showing on my copy here) which will hopefully give you a flavour of a most unusual episode and one we will certainly never forget. It will no doubt go down in Maori folklore, the day that Chief Peter came to the land of the Long White Cloud and made his own version of history!?!
Follow that? Goodness knows how. I'm hoping for a boring quiet day tomorrow. This is only day two. Can we stand the pace.............

There is a postscript to this tale, which those of you following this from Devon will find particularly interesting, if hilarious. We were just winding down from all the excitement and putting on our shoes outside the meeting house, when suddenly a voice pipes up ' Chief Peter, is that Reg Nicholls with you?!' Chief and Mrs Chief are somewhat confused, whilst Reg and Geraldine look on in astonishment as up walks Phil and Gail Bond who farm in neighbouring Dartmouth. You couldn't write the script!!!Read more