Day 397, Year 1: You Can’t Have It All
Date: Sunday, November 19, 2006
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day; Cooler Temperatures
Location: Opua, New Zealand
Rain and warmth or sunshine and cooler weather. That seems to be our choice here for now. The bit of sunshine we got last evening stayed with us through today, but when we woke up this morning it was considerably cooler than it had been. With the sunshine came cooler temperatures and we’ll just have to be satisfied with that. It was 50 degrees F early this morning and is now 61degrees F. That’s doable. I just hope it doesn’t get any cooler.
I’m no fun at all. I had to stay on the boat again today because I am just not any better. Mark is feeling some better, so he went in to do the laundry. I think my foray on Friday to Paihia in the windy weather set me back a bit. Tomorrow we hope to take the shuttle to Paihia and then walk to Waitangi. This is the site of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between the British and the Maori which still is the basis for much of law and community of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are home to the Treaty House which is one the oldest homes in New Zealand and the Te Whare Runango which is a fully carved Maori meeting house. The word fale in Samoa, fare in Tonga, and whare in New Zealand all mean house, and the ‘wh’ in Maori is pronounced as an ‘f’. So whare is ‘fare’ and Whangarei, where we will be taking Windbird, is pronounced ‘fan-gar-A’. But back to Waitangai . . . there is also a Ngatoki Matawhaorua or 80-man Maori canoe there. It should be an interesting day.
I realize that I haven’t done much in the way of describing the area here. You come into Opua from the Bay of Islands via the Veronica Channel. On the way in, there were many islands and once you are in this bay, the area is hilly with lots of deciduous trees and a few evergreens. There are expansive areas of green, green grass that dot the hillsides. We’re not sure if they are the lawns of huge estates or fields. The area reminds us very much of the Pacific Northwest. Opua is a town of 350 people, and the only things here are the Opua Marina, the Opua Cruising Club, a little store and restaurant, and marine businesses. Opua is the northernmost customs clearance port in New Zealand and it appears that catering to the yachting population is the main business here. Paihia is a two-hour walk along the water or a 15 minute drive and as I stated in Friday’s log, it’s main business is tourism. The town of Russell is across the channel from Paihia, and it will be our destination on Tuesday. It is also known as Kororaeka, a seaside village with a very interesting history. More about that tomorrow.
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| 061120 Day 397 New Zealand–Opua School Presentation |
