Getting up early on Wednesday, Rebekka and I headed off to the ferry terminal in Paihia for a 6 hour cruise around the Bay. It was cloudy to begin with, but then brightened up as the day progressed. We headed out to sea on a catamaran and went looking for dolphins in the wild straight away. I'm not sure how they did it, but the captain managed to find a pod of about 4 of them within about 30 minutes. While we couldn't swim with them because there were young dolphins in the group, we got to watch them play around the boat for about half an hour, which was truly awesome.
After navigating the Hole in the Rock on Piercy Island, the captain dropped us of on an undeveloped island for a couple of hours, giving us the choice of what we wanted to do. While some went swimming or snorkelling, I went for a walk to the summit on the island to look back and admire the scenery. If you ever had a preconception about what paradise might look like, it'll be close to what this place was. It was almost like being in the TV series 'Lost', with the palm trees and empty beaches leading up to untouched forrests on hillsides. You really had to see it to believe it.
When we got back to Paihia, Rebekka and I walked to Waitangi to visit the Treaty Grounds. This is where the Maori chiefs and the delegation from Britain signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which is essentailly the founding document of New Zealand. The English translation didn't say exactly the same as the Maori one, and issues arising from that are still relevant today.
After grabbing some dinner at a fish and chip shop, we headed back to the Treaty Grounds to watch an evening Maori culture show. Performed in a traditonal meeting house decked out with the full decorative carvings, it gave a theatrical representation of the main Maori legends and their cultural background. After studying exploititive tourism in Geography at school, it was hard not to think about it in that context, but it obviously wasn't in the same context as places like Kenya. The show was really good though, and explained all of the basic Maori traditions and priciples through and entertaining storyline.
Not a bad day to mark the completion of my first two weeks in New Zealand!
