But first, we must finish with Wellington.  Doing it this way because some of this last part relates to what we saw in the Bay of Islands.

This beautiful model was found at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, one of the 500 best places to see in the world.  Here we learned more about the Maori and their journey to today.  Their DNA shows that they are Pacific Islanders who made their way from Taiwan ages ago on boats such as these.

This piece of artwork was made with Spam cans.  It was designed to show how bad the Maori diet got over the years.  When they first got to New Zealand they lived off the land and ate a diet of fish, nuts, and berries.  Thanks to the Europeans their diet evolved into one full of fat and sugar so they have the typical First Peoples’ curse of obesity and diabetes.This fantastic building is a Whare, pronounced farey.  It is the communal gathering place for the tribe and there can be one or many in any town depending on how many tribes or factions there are.  This one was built for the entire community, all races included.  Very nice.

We flew to Auckland from Wellington and then drove to Bay of Islands.  On the way we stopped at a forest of Kouri trees, some of the largest in the world.  We saw another silver fern, the symbol of New Zealand, a huge tree, and a cut log.  See Mark standing at the foot of the tree?  The mileage sign is mostly for Terri in Ontario.

A fun bathroom in Orewa, a little Maori town.  It was just designed and built by an artist who was trying to give some life to the town.  Didn’t work.

Here’s another giant tree, a Norfolk Island pine.  Check out the needles Mark is holding.  And an example of what you can do with river rock if you have enough time and super glue!

Our first adventure in the Bay of Islands was to Russell.  First stop was a mission founded by the French who did not so much as try to convert the Maori as they did give them the Bible which they felt explained the Maori system of beliefs.  They got this huge cast iron printing press there and printed, tanned leather, bound the books together and gave the Maori the word.  Mark got to pull the printing press and made this print which he gets to keep!  The brothers at this mission printed over 40,000 copies of books in the years they were there.  They got along with the Maori and seemed like a good presence on the island.

The Maori wanted to keep control in this part of NZ because Russell Island was an old trading, whaling, and commerce port.  It grew into —-

The Hell Hole of the Pacific!  More on this later.

The afternoon was a cruise of the Bay of Islands to The Hole in the Rock.

What a gorgeous day and what an absolutely gorgeous place.  We all thoroughly enjoyed this adventure!  And on the way we saw- – –

Dolphins!

And finally, the end of the story!  The Brits landed and tried to take the Maori land.  They were also trying to get rid of the French because they wanted this land.  So because there was this big standoff the King of England told the governor in Auckland to get a treaty done between him and the Maori.  Because the governor didn’t speak Maori he had a local missionary translate the document.  This missionary changed a few strategic words which gave the Maori sovernty over their land and themselves.  After a big talk the treaty was signed, then lost.  In the meantime the Brits started taking Maori land.  Eventually the treaty was found and Queen Elizabeth said that the treaty had to be honored so they started giving back land, giving Maori the right to govern themselves, teaching Maori to all children, and embracing the culture of these First People.  A better ending than most First People have gotten.

So now I come to the end of this saga with a happy heart and appreciation for the two great countries we’ve seen.  And best of all, we found out today we e been upgraded to Business Class for the trip home!  Perfect ending to a perfect trip!!

Let’s start today with a detour.  The road bridge over a river was washed out by a rain and wind storm so these intrepid kiwis improvised by re-routing traffic over a railroad bridge.  Sweet!  You pretty much take your chances when a train comes along!!

Let us next talk about the stupid (but really fun!) idea we had to fly out over the glaciers of NZ.  Here is our ride.

Here we are on the Fox Glacier with our comrades in crime, Ralph and Frankie from New Hampshire.

Above is the Franz Joseph Glacier, the Fox Glacier, and the glacial moraine and run off from Franz Joseph. See the Tasman Sea beyond?  Oh, and by the way, this is an active earthquake area with the fault line running right under the gas station in the town of Franz Joseph.  Funnily enough the government is contemplating moving the town.  Think it will help?!

When we got back on Earth, we decided to hike to the foot of the moraine.

The top pic is of old Franz Joseph again, but this time from the bottom and not careening perilously close to the jagged rocks waiting to eat us.  Of course, the Glacier has receded miles in the last few years.  You can see the scraping of the glacier in the rocks of the canyon wall.  Doing a 180 we saw the rippling sunshine in the run-off from the glacier.  What a spectacular day!

Continuing our theme of getting high, haha, the next day we took the Queenstown cable car up to the top of the mountain.

We had these spectacular views of Queenstown, the sound, the incredible mountains, and the sun breaking over us.  What a beautiful place!!

On our way to Wellington we stopped to take a walk along the ocean to see the Punakaki Pancake Rocks.  Okay, you all know I like geology, and this is a fantastic example of what Mother Earth can create.  Stacked like pancakes, these rocks have been shaped by wind and rain for eons.  In the first one if you look hard you can see faces, wombats, owls, anything you want.  The bottom pic is of what the Maori call flax.  They split the leaves into their fibrous parts and use them to spin fabric, rope, and other useful things.

On another stop over the Arthur Pass, where we just beat a snow storm which closed the road, we stopped at a sheep station to watch working dogs, sheep shearing, and llamas.

That’s Debbie with the sheepdog, Blue, and me getting drooled on by llamas.

And we also went to an old mining town called Reefton.  Here was mined coal and gold.  The mines are gone now but the town is recreating itself as a tourist destination.  My favorite part was meeting the “Bearded Miners” who made us biscuits and tea and showed us how to pan for gold.  It was here that Mark discovered tea rich with Manuka honey.  This is a special type which supposedly has antibacterial and healing properties.  Maybe.

So next up was Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

Windy Wellington as it is known is another vibrant city built around water and profiled along with the entire country by its favorite son, Peter Jackson, who designed this sign.

On the top we have The ‘Beehive,’ a name fondly (or not) given to the legislative building.  More interesting is the other picture which is of the Supreme Court.  The interesting detail around the top of the building was made from melted down pennies which were removed from circulation.  Very interesting!

But back to Peter Jackson.  His touch is everywhere.  One of my favorites is The Roxy.

The Roxy was an old theatre that had gone through many iterations until Peter and Weta Workshop pal Jamie Selkirk decided to restore it to its former glory.  We watched a brief collection of clips from new and old movies.  It’s amazing how many we knew and how movies have been intertwined in our lives.  Jamie won the Oscar for editing.  Weta workshop lets you know why they are what they are.  There are orcs, goblins, heroes, eagles and other reminders all over Wellington.

My favorite is this one in the airport.  You know there’s more but WiFi is slow here (maybe they should put Peter on it!) so all my pix haven’t downloaded yet.  I have a few more to share and then we head out for the final leg of our journey to The Bay of Islands.  Soon!!