Bay of Islands Bliss

This past weekend was Labor Day Weekend here in NZ.  My first long weekend!  Which meant time to venture farther than a 3 hour radius!    I bought a voucher online for a half-price boat cruise on the Bay of Islands (I'll call it "BOI" from now on), so I figured this would be the weekend to use it, since BOI is pretty far North (to the tune of 8.5 hours by car, ugh).

I headed out Friday after work, spent the night in a little town exactly halfway, and woke up the next morning and finished the drive by noon.  Not too bad for travelling solo!

The only touristy stop I made along the way was the town of Kawakawa, to see their toilets.  Yes, their toilets put them on the map.  An Austrian artist named Friedensreich Hundertwasser made the small town of Kawakawa his home and designed a beautiful set of public toilets, with brightly colored tiles and glass bottle murals.   

Quite possibly the most famous toilets in NZ, maybe even the Southern Hemisphere!

I used these toilets to change into... *drumroll please*  SHORTS!    Hurray!    Labor Day Weekend here is usually the kickoff to nice weather.   And it was.  Sunshine and warmth (in the 70s!)  all weekend long.  FINALLY!

So, moving on--- BOI is located in the Northland portion of the country, just about at the tippy-top.  It's a group of 144 islands, and was the first area of NZ settled by Europeans.   The main towns are Paihia, Russell (accessible by ferry), Waitangi, and Kerikeri.   Paihia is the main tourist town, so I landed there first, and took a 2 hour beach walk to the next town.

It was great.   And so was lying on the beach in a bikini with a beer when I was done and getting some quality SUN!  

I read somewhere that BOI was ranked #2 (behind Rio de Janiero) for bluest sky in the World.  BLISS!

Later on that evening I headed up the road to Waitangi.   This is quite a historic town, as the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Waitangi were both signed here.  The whole tourist hoopla costs $25 for admission, but free for NZ residents.  They let me in for free when I showed them my NZ library card. Score!

Here's is the world's longest waka (Maori war canoe)

This is the house where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and NZ became part of the British empire on February 6th, 1840.  This treaty did 3 things: established a British governor of New Zealand, recognized Maori ownership of their original lands, and also gave Maori the rights of British subjects.  February 6th is Waitangi Day, a public holiday nationwide.    To this day, there is still much controversy on the true interpretation of the treaty, leading to many protests by Maori activists.

This is the Maori Whare Runanga, a meeting house built in 1940 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

 

Here are some of the carvings inside.  Remember how I explained how the paua shell was used for the eyes of the Maori masks?  Here are some examples!

 Warning:  PG-13 rated Maori warrior below  :)

I spent Sunday morning visiting a few more waterfalls and historic sights, but the highlight of my trip was my boat cruise on THE ROCK!

The Rock is a converted carferry boat owned by a husband and wife team that provide 22 hour overnight adventure boat cruises on the BOI.  It was a blast!   We fished, kayaked, snorkeled, travelled to and hiked on a remote island--- and had some absolutely spectacular views!

Some islands were tiny:

 Some much larger!

 It's subtle, but this is my favorite picture- contrasting the white sandy beach on the left and the more rocky grey sand on the right.  What a difference, huh? 

We had our share of seafood, too.   While snorkeling we collected several dozen kina (New Zealand sea urchin) by hand and ate their slimy (but delicious!) contents on the boat afterwards!

Their roe (eggs) are a delicacy--- they sell for about 100 US dollars a kilogram! 

This snapper's body was fried for Sunday dinner, and head was smoked for a tasty Monday snack!

 One of the neatest parts of the trip was the diversity. The boat sleeps 35, and of those 35, there were folks representing US, Ireland, NZ, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and the Phillipines! Here we all are after hiking to the top of one of the islands:

After the awesome boat cruise, I hopped in the car to start the 8.5 hour journey home.  Boy did going back to work on Tuesday morning suck.  But the trip was definitely worth it!

Definitely a labor-less Labor Day Weekend :)