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 and gifted to the people of New Zealand by Lord and Lady Bledisloe, in 1932. On the site is the Tu Whare Runanga or tribal meeting house with ancestor carvings around all the walls.
Our image today is the giant 35 Metre long Maori Waca or war canoe on the site that requires a minimum of 76 paddlers to get it moving. This was made from the trunks of three massive kauri trees from the Puketi forest.
After a lunch at the on site cafe, we drove to Kerkeri, to sample the wares of the local chocolate factory mmm! Also to see the Stone House - a fortified store house and trading post also used by early Christian missionaries; the Kemp house - one of the earliest existing buildings and the local church where we talked to ladies cleaning the brass and arranging the flowers for a wedding on the morrow.
That evening we dined at 35 degrees - a restaurant on the shore by the jetty- not bad at all.