Into the Matai Bush at Dusk

 

Sunday Evening, March 27

When we travel, we have had an unwritten rule, that we try to have our own experiences not those provided by tours. In Rotorua, there are Maori family reserves doing big business and almost all tourists there spend an evening eating from earth ovens and seeing traditional performances. It is said to be a good way to learn about that indigenous culture. On our second and last night in Rotorua, on the spur of the moment, we relented and spent the evening in the company of a couple hundred others with the Maori Matai family.

The hangi dinner was tasty--kumara (sweet potato), roast lamb, and other treats. The table company was multinational. They were all interested in American politics, so Henry obliged.

At dusk groups were led down the path to clear beautiful Rainbow Springs, water bubbling up at the bottom of the stream. Further on a fantail bird is close by in the brush. Then, young men power up the stream in a traditional waka (wooden canoe) in torchlight as night falls. Walking back up the path in the dark we see points of light, glowworms! From there to the traditional performance of the welcoming ceremony, a protocol not understood by early European explorers. Maori warriors challenge visitors to test their intent with threatening swinging clubs, staring eyes, and protruding tongues. Women then make the welcoming call and sing. Peace is made and eventually our visitor representative experiences the ritual touching of foreheads and noses (hongi), binding friendship. In addition, traditional dances were performed. The men participate in a very physically demanding war dance. The women dance and rhythmically swing white poi balls (made of NZ flax leaves). The leader explains more about the earlier Maori stone-age way of life. We all leave a little wiser.

Bay of Islands

Wednesday, March 30

The Bay of Islands lies north. Its calm aqua waters are a famous harbor. Paihia and Russell are its communities. The bay is where New Zealand, the colony, began. Captain Cook found it welcoming, just as the Maori did in when they arrived. The bay's history of rowdy sailors, whalers, and other ne'er-do-wells made Russell the "hellhole of the Pacific." When Darwin visited in 1835, he noted as much. In former times, when New Zealand was Aotearoa, a Maori fortified village there was called Kororareka or Sweet Penguin.

We take a ferry ride from Paihia, where we are staying, to Russell and spend the afternoon visiting small museums and walking along the beach. I find a fragment of an old dish, white with brown painted decoration. One museum had so many such artifacts, it had no interest in mine. These days visitors to Paihia and Russell learn history. Close to Paihia is where the Waitangi Treaty was signed in 1840. That treaty is still the basis for Maori-Pakeha (European settler) relations.

We did not swim with the dolphins, fish for marlin, jetboat, parasail, kayak, or dive the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior.

In the Canopy of Kauris

 

Tuesday, March 29

We spend the morning with our friends aboard their 38-foot sailboat, on the hard at Dockland 5 in Whangerei. Then, lingering over lunch in town by the Hateo River marina, we give Linda photo cards of Shrek the sheep and Brad gets a small gadget. The sailors head back to much more work preparing for their departure to Tonga, and we take our leave. Our best wishes go with them. When and where will we see them again?

Just north, within walking distance, is the AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park. We slip quietly out of the afternoon sun and heat and onto the moist green path. We hear overhead the greeting of the honey-eating tui, whose song penetrates the forest. Also called the parson bird, its white bib is in stark contrast to its black body. Part of the path lies along a stream, but the best part is an elevated wooden walkway about halfway up the enormous kauri trees, where we peer down through the lacy silver tree ferns to the shady water below. It's an entirely new perspective. Instead of craning our necks to look up so far, we see the way some birds experience this remnant of an ancient forest. Coolness envelops us. We're tempted to linger there by the waterfall at the end of the trail. It's our only chance to see the kauri, these old podocarp trees from an age beyond our imagining when continents split apart and isolated these islands.