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| view of Ninety-Mile beach, as the plane was landing in Kaitaia. sand dunes & coral formations everywhere!!!! |
| while driving my rental car, i took many road-side photos, so many picturesque views to behold... |
| most of the inhabitants in Kaitaia are descendants from Yugoslavian - Dalmatian immigrants & native Maori |
| Michael & Barbara, archivists at the Far North Museum helped me find historic documentation on Jurgis Seizys, an "eccentric" and "frugal" storekeeper & gumdigger in the region more than 100 years ago. So eccentric was he, that the coral in the harbor where he resided is officially named after him by the NZ government: "Scheigis Rock" |
| thanks to the Far North District Council, i managed to locate the unmarked grave of my uncle, and marked it with Lithuanian+Latvian flags: symbols of his native homeland - Lithuania, and where he spent his life prior to fleeing persecution for distributing Lithuanian literature in the 1800's - Riga, Latvia. my family had lost touch with him in the 1930's. i had to do some indepth research prior to this trip, and had much help from the archivists! unfortunately, not even his descendents in auckland have seen his former land & burial site! (for the record, Jurgis Seizys was indeed the FIRST Lithuanian to settle in New Zealand - circa 1882.) |