Huruku Falls and Waitangi Treaty Grounds

A view of the falls from our camper.

A carving in the Marae (Maori meeting house)

Ngatoki Matawhaorua, the world’s largest war canoe

08.23.08: As we left Mangawhai towards the highway, I was got a call from Caitlin. The school year was starting at Sonoma State, there were things I need to take care of and I hadn’t been connected to the internet since our first day in New Zealand. It didn’t appear that any of the other campgrounds had internet access, except for the second one we stayed at in Muriwai. And there, when the groundskeeper let me on his computer, the keyboard all the sudden stopped working. So, I passed. Along the highway, we found a lodge that had a huge banner advertising they had internet. I walked in to find an internet “machine” where you stick $2 coins in and it gives you a certain number of minutes. I stuck the money in the machine but it wasn’t connecting me. I asked for help from the lady tending bar only to find that it was broken. She refunded my money, but we were out of luck with the internet.

As we continued our drive, it didn’t rain hard, but it was steady. So we just bee-lined it all the way up. Our next stop was the Huruku Falls campground, which sat inland, next to a river and waterfalls. The view of the waterfalls right from our camper definitely gives this place some merit! AND as if by luck, this campground offered wifi. So with access to the internet, I spent most of the afternoon catching up on business again as well as finishing up on some blogs from Australia. Sean and Kai explored outside, enjoying the sounds of the rushing waterfall and feeding the local ducks the leftover ends of my Pitango 7 Seed Sourdough Spelt bread. That night, it rained so hard we could barely sleep!

The next day, we woke to some very rushing waterfalls. Sean originally wanted to fish, but the water was rushing way too hard to even do that. The water looked like chocolate milk. So after getting dressed, we went to the nearby Waitangi Treaty Grounds. It was along the coast and we did see a couple surfers out in the water enjoying the new swell, although I personally didn’t even see anything breaking out there.

Our first stop at The Grounds was their café for lunch. I heard great things about their meat pies last year while doing some travel research. It struck me as strange that a café adjoined to a big tourist spot would get such good merits. But, there were more locals than tourists enjoying their Sunday brunch there, so that was a good sign. I ordered the smoked eel and kumara (a NZ sweet potato that you see on menus everywhere) cakes on top of a salad with farmhouse cheese and a glass of Sauv. Sean got the scallops on top of a homemade ravioli with a Steinlager (which he says tastes different than in The States). And, Kai got the chicken nuggets, chips (fries) and a Phoenix Organics apple and feijoa juice. The feijoa is a green fruit that is related to the kiwifruit but doesn’t have fur. To me, it looks like a small mango and tastes like a soft tangy pear. Anyway, all was phenomenal! (…except for maybe the chicken nuggets, which were “standard”.) Afterward, we still had some room to try the lamb pie, which was good, but nothing like our first dishes.

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds is described as “the most symbolic place in New Zealand for Maori (original natives) and Pakeha (non-Maori, usually white)” because it was here in 1840 that Queen Victoria’s representative William Hobson (U.K.) and nearly 50 Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi. The short version is that it was supposed to afford Maori protection and guarantee them rights over land and resources. After the treaty was signed, the settler population grew, demand for land increased, and the government passed laws that gradually stripped Maori of control of their affairs. This led to the New Zealand Wars of the 1860’s. From my perspective, the first part sounds very similar to the history of the US, where white men came in and declared land as theirs, when natives were already living on it, then “gave” it back to them. Later, they wanted to take it back.

Anyway, the Treaty Grounds consisted of the Treaty House, colonial style, built in 1833-34 and has displays on how the settlers, aka “white folk”, lived back then. Also, there’s the Maori meeting house, built between 1934 and 1940 as a cooperative effort between all Maori tribes, rather than one single tribe. That had some pretty cool tribal carvings inside. Also housed on the grounds is the Ngatoki Matawhaorua, the world’s largest war canoe built from two huge kauri (New Zealand native trees) by five northern tribes and measuring over 35m in length. It seats 80 warriors and is traditionally launched very year on Waitangi Day, a New Zealand national holiday. We basically ran from one sight to another, because it was consistently sprinkling and looked like it would rain harder at any moment.

So far, New Zealand seems like it’s hard to unbury it’s history, especially anything before when settlers came. So I’m glad that we learned a bit more about it. However, I’d still like to know more about it’s native Maori culture. So hopefully, we can dig up more as we explore the country.

As we headed back to the campground for the night, we stopped by a grocery store. I ended up finding Primal Earth organic shave gel for Sean who had been in need of some for quite a while. When I got back to the campground, I read the label to find that it was made locally and was impressed by what and how it was made. I wish I would have seen what other products they had available! I think they also have a shop in Wellington, so I’m hoping I run into these products again.