Bay of Islands Waitangi

We entered the Bay of Islands and anchored off shore. It was overcast and we were wondering what the weather would be like on the other side of the bay. There were islands everywhere lust and green. Waitangi is a resort for tourists to relax and is a miniature Banff. Today's all day tour would take us to the other side of the island where we would see the countryside and the well know Waipoua Forest. We were looking forward to going into the interior of NZ. Our tour had only 8 people so we were fortunate and the driver and guide was a retired principal who enjoyed telling us all about this area where he resides. He is in the minority here and has learned the Maori language.

We traveled across the northland in sunshine seeing sunflowers, sheep, herds of Holstein cows, horses and small farms. We arrived at the other end of the North Island at Hokianga Harbor and saw a huge hill of sand. This sand is blown from the sea onto the hills and forms large sand dunes that the locals dune buggy on. These sand dunes are at the entrance of this harbor where many sailing vessels capsized.

We had a beautiful lunch at the hotel overlooking this beautiful harbor and were met with the Maori guide. He greeted our guide with a nose rub and a hand shake. This is still the informal greeting of the locals. Saw our guide meet another Maori and they also rubbed noses and starred each in the eye.

We drove up into the Waipoua Forest. There was all kinds of vegetation with tree ferns silver leafed fern (NZ symbol) tea trees a very poisonous tree and kiwis hiding everywhere. We didn't see any for they only come out in the evening. This forest is home to some of the oldest trees in the world. During our stroll with birds chirping and insects buzzing we came to the Four Sisters kauri trees. They are so huge and old that there is all kinds of vegetation growing up in the boughs of the trees. Our Maori guide sang to the trees in his language and was so enthusiastic and happy that we came to see these trees. Doug loves trees so he was happy plus it was so nice to get out into nature. The guide prayed to these trees and then we were off to see the largest kauri tree in New Zealand. We came upon it and looked way way up in awe. It rises to a height of 167 feet and is estimated to be 2000 years old. It was an impressive sight to behold. Doug sat down on the bench and looked up in awe of this old old tree still standing. Again the Maori guide sang some songs and said some prayers to the tree.

We had a lovely ride back home to the ship and a very enjoyable day.