North Island Hospitality: Cyclones and Earthquakes

Real time? We're a week away from leaving Aotearoa/New Zealand. 

Blog time (Week 6)?  We flew from Christchurch to Wellington, the nation's capital, looking forward to some different adventures from the wild South Island.  We had a well-planned itinerary: explore the capital with a side trip to Kapiti Island, a protected wildlife sanctuary; drive to Napier for its Art Deco festival (after a 1931 earthquake destroyed the town, it was rebuilt in the style of the times; the festival celebrates that period, with people often donning period dress) and taste wine in the nearby, famed Hawkes Bay region; head to Whanganui on the west coast and then Lake Taupo in the center of the island; and explore the Coromandel Peninsula and its coastal beauty.

Well ... Mother Nature/Mother Earth was having none of that!

As many of you noted, a deluge had hit the North Island while we were South Islanding it, bringing destruction and some deaths in Auckland and environs., but we'd hoped the region would recover by the time we made it north.  But the recovery had only started when Cyclone Gabrielle hit in the second week (Valentines Day to be exact) of February, propelling massive mudslides, sweeping away entire roads and bridges, felling huge trees,  The Coromandel and Hawkes Bay were isolated for days without electricity - and cell service - fuel, and food.  Farms, orchards, and vineyards were submerged, beaches littered with debris. 

Though Wellington, itself, was fine - locals told us the gusty winds and side-blowing rains were normal for one the windiest cities on earth - our plans were kaput.  Our day-trip to Kapiti was cancelled by the ferry captain because of the impending cyclone winds.  Getting to Napier was impossible, with all roads closed. 

We were fortunate to have a gracious AirBnB host who promised us we could stay an extra day if need be and who advised us as we devised alternative plans.  And our Home Exchange hosts for our planned next stop, Whanganui, offered to take us in several days earlier.

Indeed, Graham and Libby were our saviors in many ways.  They were easy "housemates" (their home is small, about the size of ours in Anacortes, but we really enjoyed their company, including discussions about Kiwi and American politics and some friendly but competitive cribbage games) and they went out of their way to help us adjust our plans.  They even hooked us up to stay with friends near New Plymouth and to rent another friend's apartment in Mount Manganui on the Bay of Plenty.  The 3 "boy friends" had gone to teachers training together back in the day.

Our stay with Graham and Libby was "spiced up" by a 6.2 earthquake centered near Kapiti Island to the south, which shook the house for about a minute while we were having dinner together.  What was going to happen next ... a plague of locusts??

So, here are a few highlights from our first weeks on the North Island.  Wellington, includig an ebike tour along the harbor and the national museum.  Whanganui, including a jet boat tour to the Bridge to Nowhere.

Dotting the "I"

Wellington's wind needle - vertical on the day we rode ebikes by it, but often bent over by the wind

"Solace in the Wind" invites one to hold its hand and stare out into the harbor

A fun ebike tour on very good bikes

Wellington is very hilly, with funiculars as the only way to access some houses like this one

The viewpoint at the midpoint of the ebike tour

One of many Maori sculptures at Te Papa, the National Museum

 

After 6 weeks of travel, it was time to take care of some business, like a haircut, in this very traditional-looking barbershop in Wanganui (the 70-year old guy is in the middle chair)

Whanganui is a bit of an arty town, with some very good galleries, including this working glass-blowing studio

At the Whanganui farmers market

Our pilot and guide for a jet-boat tour up the Whanganui River.  Here he's pointing out how high (roughly 40 feet) the waters surged during the floods of 2018.  He is a descendant of early Maori settlers and farmers in this area, so had many stories to tell.

 

 

Like the First Nations people of the Columbia River, eels make up a sizeable part of the Maori diet.  This structure is used to catch the delicacy.

 

The Wanganui River is wild, wide at times, a narrow gorge at others. After years of advocacy by Maori communities and advocates, it was granted legal "personhood" several years ago, which will help protect it from threats like dams, deforestation, and water diversion.

The "destination" for our jet-boat tour: the Bridge to Nowhere.  It actually does go somewhere - it's on a multi-day hiking/biking track and was originally built as part of a roadway that was never completed.

Relaxing in our hosts' beautiful garden

Last South Island Adventures

Well, I've finally gotten to the end of the first chapter of our trip, the 5-weeks touring around the South Island (we are right now - 21 March - in Brisbane, Australia visiting friends before returning to finish our exploration of Aotearoa's North Island).  A few highlights:

The Moeraki Boulders - North of Dunedin, on our way to Mount Cook, we stopped to marvel at these mysterious, spherical rocks.  Their formation started about 65 million years ago as calcium seafloor sediments, eventually "concretizing" as part of the land as it was lifted up over the millenia.  The spheres then essentially fell out of the cliffs as they were eroded by the sea, falling onto the beach, there to come full circle as waves and tides eventually break them apart.

Maori Rock Paintings - The paintings, less than 200 years old, reminded us of the Aboriginal rock art  we saw in the Red Center of Australia, though the latter were a bit older.

Mount Cook - You may recall the post about our heli-splurge from the West Coast to see Aoraki/Mount Cook, its sister peaks, and their glorious glaciers.  We had planned to see the 12,000 foot mountain from the other (east) side as the last stop for our campervan tour.  We were fortunate again to have a glorious day to hike the Hooker Valley with panoramic views of Aoraki - where Edmund Hillary honed his skills before climbing Everest - and its stunning environs.

Panorama of Lake Pukaki with Aoraki/Mt. Cook in the center background

One of three swing bridges over Hooker River on the 3-mile hike up toward Aoraki

Receding glaciers on the peaks near Aoraki

The rushing, glacial silt filled Hooker River, Aoraki in the background

The intrepid explorers with iceberged Hooker Lake and Aoraki behind

Crystalline iceberg in Hooker Lake

I'm a Fan of Fantails

Piwakawaka, or the New Zealand fantail, is one of best known of the endemic birds in Aotearoa.  It flits about, displays its tail feathers in a fan, and often seems to be curious of humans, coming quite close in the forest.  Apparently, that latter behavior isn't curiosity but hunger ... fantails eat bugs of various kinds, including those that fly, and we tend to scare up  flying bugs as we walk by.

Well, whatever ... behold the fans!

The Treaty of Waitangi

As with the colonization of North America - but unlike Australia, where the English didn't acknowledge the existence of Aboriginal communities that have lived there for 60,000 years - the English crown sought agreements with the peoples they "discovered" - Maori, descendants of Polynesian explorers who arrived some 700-800 years previously - when they began to establish settlements in Aotearoa/New Zealand in the 1830s. 

The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 by the crown and a large number of Maori chiefs, seems (from this admittedly outside and ignorant vantage) heralded by many on both "sides" as the bedrock of the country's multi-cultural heritage and the relationship between the New Zealand government and Maori communities.  It promised to protect Maori culture and, in return, gave the crown the right to govern the country and to represent all New Zealanders.

But like the agreements with First Nations of North America, the English authorities played fast and loose with it, often undermining cultural assets - including land and water, life and liberty - when it suited the interests of the colonizers.  Today, however, it appeared to us that the treaty has stood the tests of time, and its signing is now a national holiday.

We had the great fortune to be in Dunedin on "Treaty Day," because not far away, at a "pa" - Maori community gathering place - on the Otago Peninsula, was to be a special celebration of the 1840 signing (the English spent much of that year taking the treaty around the two islands to obtain Maori signatures).  Special, because this pa, Otakou (from whence the peninsula name is derived), was one of the main places where the treaty was signed.

We had no idea what to expect of the day as ignorant foreigners or as pakeha (non-Maori people), but it turned out to be a fascinating experience.  The Otakou marae welcomed all who came with open arms, allowing us to witness important aspects of Maori culture and view the wood-carving rich buildings that serve as meeting halls and spiritual centers. We stumbled onto a buffet feast of local foods; at first we thought we were "crashing" a private event, but we then learned this is the Maori way, to welcome and feed all their guests.

One very interesting event during the celebration was a panel discussion about a new national policy - "3 waters" - to integrate governance of surface and ground waters across the country and share that governance between the national and Maori governments.  It was inspiring to hear about the importance of shared governance as well as the challenges to achieving it.  Both pakeha and Maori leaders spoke of the need for a common set of values if the country was to be truly unified.

Made us wonder how that discussion would go in the US??

Anyway, here are some photos of what we saw as well as a short video of a "haka," a Maori ceremonial dance performed by five young local men.

Room-size copy of the Treaty of Waitangi at Te Papa, the national museum in Wellington

Entrance to the Pa, or gathering grounds of the community

The main community hall

The treaty celebration brought together people from many backgrounds

A panel - two pakeha male political leaders and three Maori women leaders - discusses the imperatives of cooperative governance of the nation's water resources

The Little Penguin with a Monster Job

You may recall from an early post that we did a kayaking tour with a community organization near Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula south of Christchurch.  The group is dedicated to restoring a small, endangered colony of Blue penguins ("Little penguins," "Little blue penguins"), the smallest penguins on earth.  It's threatened by the ubiquitous little mammals introduced by the English settlers - possum, cats, weasels - that raid their burrows.

Well, as we've driven around the country since then, we've found many places where Blues can be found; they may be threatened as a species, but their range is wide (which is probably a strength evolutionarily).  We were able to observe a healthy colony that lives on the protected grounds of the Royal Albatross Center at the end of the Otago Peninsula near Duniden, on the east coast of the South Island.

The night-time "tour" was fantastic.  Because the beach where we would watch the penguins as they came ashore from fishing was a sacred Maori place, our hosts gave us a great presentation on the legacy of Maori sea-faring.  Over the span of perhaps 1000 years, Maori in their wakas (wooden canoes) - and with deep knowledge of the stars, weather, ocean currents, and animal behavior - ventured from south Asia to progressively explore and populate most of the South Pacific islands and even east to Rapa Nui, or Easter Island.  You can see in the photo, below, the "triangle" of exploration by Maori ancestors, with Hawaii as its northern point; their last "discovery" was Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Back to the Blues. The hour-long oral presentation was designed, in part, for us to wait until the sun set and it was dark enough - darkness is protective cover against predators - for the little birds to head to shore.  Small they may be, but their day jobs are massive: they leave their burrows and young-ones before dawn, swim about 10 km to their fishing grounds, cover another 10 km in the hunt, and then swim back 10 km ... whew!

They emerge from the now-dark waters in groups - "rafts" - stand warily on the water's edge watching for threats, then waddle (yes, a group of Blue penguins on shore is called a "waddle") to the base of the cliff or sand dunes where their burrows and hungry charges are.  You can watch the process in this video and the photos that follow:

A "raft" of Blue Penguins emerge from bay and check for dangers

The "waddle" reach the base of the hill where their burrows and hungry youth await.

Two stragglers check things out before proceeding

Two hungry young penguins bide their time playing together while waiting for their parents to return with dinner

Returned parents waiting in line to scale the ridge to their burrows and their hungry kids

The "waddle" proceeds from the edge of the sand up the hill