Rather Nice (North Island 1 of 3)

Dunedin born and bred, I am a ‘mainlander’ through and through. In my teenage years I developed a staunch, rather naive belief in the superiority of the South Island and Otago in particular. Imagine my delight to then discover in my 30s that the North Island too has much to rave about! These wonderful islands both make Aotearoa the amazing place it is and I have grown to realise there is no need for competition.

Antony and I planned to see some of the North Island before we set off exploring the world. We timed our 5 weeks of travel here with as many Black Caps cricket games as we could conveniently schedule, including a memorable thrashing of Australia at Eden Park on the eve of our departure.

Despite planning and looking forward to our overseas trip for several years, we were rather sad and reluctant to actually leave the country come February 4th. The summer had truly been one of the best! Here’s a little about it…

Wellington

After saying goodbye to Antony’s family in Motueka we crossed over Cook Strait to New Zealand’s cool wee capital, Wellington, where we said hello to my brother and his family. Spending 5 days here was great and time with my beautiful nieces (age 3 and 5) was clearly the highlight.

We went to the fabulous national museum Te Papa, where we saw ‘Gallipoli: the scale of our war’ that Weta Workshop (of LoTR fame) helped to create. Amazing and on until April 2018. We also visited Peter Jackson’s ‘The Great War Exhibition’ which provided a fascinating and sobering look at WW1.

Together with some of Antony’s friends, we spent an evening listening to live music in the botanic gardens surrounded by pretty trees all lit up. It wasn’t my first time at this kind of event here and hopefully not my last – great music and chilled atmosphere.

Wanganui

Wanganui was our next destination, which for me was only known as home to ‘the’ river and my Uncle Gerard. I had only been there once, briefly, for my uncle’s funeral on Valentine’s Day almost 2 years before, so it was good to see a little more of the area. We drove alongside the Wanganui River all the way to Jerusalem – where the church was quite fascinating. Next time we need to explore from here on the water itself, such a beautiful big awa.

Surf Highway 45, Taranaki

The coastal ‘surf highway’ from Hawera to New Plymouth rewards the visitor with views of surf beaches and the stunning Mt Taranaki. We drove this way on a sunny day but clouds hung about the top of Taranaki, occasionally moving aside to allow us glimpses of this beautiful maunga. With each sighting, I kept repeating myself, wow -it’s so beautiful!

We went to Parihaka and although there is today nothing much there to see, I was incredibly saddened by remembering our past and the way Maori were treated here. The Parihaka settlement was home to a large non-violent resistance movement to European occupation of confiscated land in the 1870s and 1880s. The Maori community here was met with a military assault, leaders were jailed and most inhabitants were dispersed throughout the region with no food or shelter. Their own buildings and possessions at Parihaka looted and destroyed by the attacking soldiers. It is a very sad event in our nation’s history which at least was acknowledged by the Waitangi Tribunal in 1996 in ‘The Taranaki Report, Kaupapa Tuatahi’. I quote from its eighth chapter “A vibrant and productive Māori community was destroyed and total State control of all matters Māori, with full power over the Māori social order, was sought.” So much for Partnership, Protection & Participation. 🙁

For centuries Mt Taranaki had a strong Maori name with significant history and sense of belonging associated with it, but today it is often refered to as Mt Egmont – a name given to it by Captain James Cook. He named it after a John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, who never saw the mountain or even came to NZ, not even his descendents were interested in visiting it. To not only steal the land but to rename significant places after a disinterested British Earl with no connections to this land seems to add insult to injury to Maori of the area.

Tawhiti museum deserves a mention here. At the Hawera end of the surf highway, it is a private museum definitely worth visiting. There are thousands of scale models and life size exhibits illustrating all sorts of things from the past. It is a testament to one man’s passion and love of history.

At the other end, just before New Plymouth is Oakura– a small town near a fantastic beach. We stayed a night with my cousin here. He was kind enough to take us out fishing on his boat. What a great experience! We caught a few fish which Stephen gutted and prepared. In the evening we dropped some of the fish off at the busy local fish & chip shop to be cooked then headed to the sea for a quick swim while they cooked the fish. Enjoying fish & chips by the beach, in our togs, in the beautiful evening light….can’t get a more quintessential kiwi experience than that! Having a cop come speeding up to us with lights flashing as we parked was a bit of a surprise though! He assumed we pulled over and parked because we had something to hide and wanted to avoid the road block police had set up further down the road. He discovered we didn’t have much to hide except my blindingly white body in bikini and Antony’s fresh fish which he wasn’t going to share with anybody so he headed on his way again.

New Plymouth marks the end of the surf highway. When we weren’t building compost heaps or pulling out weeds for our helpX hosts, we saw a little of what New Plymouth had to offer and we liked it a lot. We hope to get a housesit here in the future; to base ourselves for a few weeks or months in this stunning area would be fantastic.

We completed the short but steep walk near the port up Paritutu Rock which gave great views over the town to the north, down the coast to the south and out to the Sugarloaf islands just offshore.

We enjoyed our time in the Puke Ariki museum and the contemporary Govett-Brewster Art Gallery which was housed in a funky twirly mirrored building.

One evening we went to the Botanic gardens for the Festival of Lights and were spellbound at the magical lights in the trees, on the bridges etc. It was just beautiful and there was live music too.