7/2/2012 I had two more days in Paihia and I was going to be back on my own again. It was about 2am when I got to bed last night. I woke up this morning and went for breakfast at 7.30am. God was I wrecked! After being up yesterday morning at 6am and not going… Read more »
6/2/2012 Waitangi Day – Evening celebrations Dinner was ready by 6.30pm and all the tables were nicely decked out with white tablecloths and decorations. The army provided us with a feast and after dinner there was a group of young Maoris who performed a song and did a haka. It was very enjoyable to watch… Read more »
6/2/2012 I was up at 5.45am. It was still dark of course but everybody was ‘up and at it’, by 6am, for breakfast. It was Waitangi Day, so an early rise was necessary. There were a few people like myself and Jello, who weren’t paddling wakas in the celebrations and we got down to Haruru… Read more »
5/2/2012 Breakfast was at 7.30am. There was cereal, porridge, fruit, toast and some leftovers from last night’s dinner. It was strange to be eating kumara (sweet potato), lamb roast and the like for breakfast but it was very nice. After breakfast there was a group of fifty or sixty guys practicing their waka moves. They… Read more »
4/2/2012 Near the end of January, I got an email from Joe Conrad, the guy who was in charge of organising everything for the Kaupapa Waka (maintaining, celebrating and teaching the guiding principles of the Maori traditions) at Waitangi, to say that he had moved the location of Tent City to Haruru Falls. I missed… Read more »
3/2/2012 During my research for the trip, I was trying to figure where I could stay during the Waitangi Day celebrations in Paihia. I asked Tamahou Temara, the Operations Manager of Toi Maori if he knew of anybody that I could stay with. He told me that some of the waka leaders would arrange for… Read more »
2/2/2012 I was dozing away in bed this morning but at 7am, I was promptly woken up out of my reverie by quite a strong earthquake. It didn’t last for long actually but it was the strongest I’d felt so far. It felt like someone had the taken the house by it’s gables and shook… Read more »
1/2/2012 When I was catching up on writing the journal last night, I had Wicki, the psycho cat, watching me. She’s sixteen years old and was sitting on the edge of the table, just looking at me writing, as if to say “what the hell is she doing”? Wicki would be walking somewhere and would… Read more »
31/1/2012 Last night, I went outside to have a look at the night sky. Kaikoura, on a clear night, is a great place to see the night sky. I wanted the chance to see the Milky Way and the Southern Cross before I head north to Wellington and the North Island. It’s not as easy… Read more »
30/1/2012 The last few times I was in Kaikoura I did the Whalewatch and the Maori Tour and this time around, I just wanted to do a few short walks. Kaikoura is stunningly beautiful, with the rare opportunity of both mountains and sea coming together to create fantastic dusk and daytime scenery. On my way… Read more »
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