Today, we went to the proper Treaty Grounds, not the place full of ancestor poles that we saw yesterday - this was the real deal and with a Maori guide we explored the history of the partnership between the Maori people's and the British. The treaty between the two nations was signed on the 5th February 1840. In the late 1920's. The site had become run down and was put up for auction. As the NZ government declined to do anything about it, the land was purchased a...

The weather forecast was rather glum for today - rain and high winds. Despite that your intrepid travellers rose reasonably early and went down to the jetty and booked the Dolphin Cruise. We set off in a large catamaran in pouring rain and low visibility. After a somewhat interesting high speed ride the skipper announced that dolphins had been spotted about 10 minutes away so off we set at high speed once again. There they were, a pod of dolphins playing around a...