Sitting at around latitude 35 degrees South and longitude 174 degrees East is Paihia and at its centre on the wharf you'll find the fabulous 35 Degrees Resturant. \n[img[cafe|\nhttp://www.northlandnz.com/activityimages/721_35_degree_south_restaurant.jpg]]\nThe views are bay are wonderful but it is the tranquil 66 000 litre saltwater aquarium, with several different species of fish, that really grabs the attention. Local fishes swim past as you eat. Recommend the lush ice cream sundaes and cold Monteiths on tap.

Ahipara is at the southern end of NinetyMileBeach, 14 kms west of [[Kaitaia]]. \n\nAhipara Motor Camp and Lodge is an ideal place to camp. A small friendly site with a large trampoline for amusement. A typical Kiwi campsite it offers a well equiped campers kitchen, barbeque area, good showers and a television for entertainment.\n\nGet amongst the big west coast swells powering in from the Tasman Sea - endless lines of rollers stacked to the horizon. When the ‘Old Man’ southerly bluster is pushing up the waves, the place to be is Shipwreck Bay, Ahipara. This surfing mecca at the southern tip of the famous Ninety Mile Beach has one of New Zealand’s best left-hand point breaks. It was featured in the ground breaking 1960’s surf movie ‘The Endless Summer’, and has never looked back since then as a popular surfing venue. The bay performs well on all tides and given big swells, can produce exhilarating rides several minutes long.

The road stops short. If you want to see this west coast gem you are going to have to walk. The well-kept track takes you down onto the beach, which is divided by Parera Point, a small headland that squats between the smaller southern beach and the main beach.\n\nWhen the loggers came they linked Anawhata to [[Piha]] by the means of a bush tramway.

Gateway to the Ranges. \n\nInspirational interacive displays tell colourful stories and tales of the park and it's inhabitants. Check out the display cases with CaveWetas, [[Geckos]] and [[stickinsects]]\n\nDramatic, dominated by nature, designed around the existing trees, Harry Turbott's visitor centre plays on the idea of a telescope. The [[Karekare]] based architect has highlighted both the city and the bush, the supurb veiwing decks lookout on fantastic vistas of the surrounding ranges.\n\nThe entrance to the centre is guarded by a pou (post). Carved from two [[Kauri]] trees taken from the ranges, depicting the illustrious ancestors of the local Te Kawerau a Maki, the pou is a affirmation of Te Kawerau's mana.\n\nInside the centre are four other guardian figures representing the ancestors of Te Kewerau a Maki.\n\nThe kids' corner is a delight for young visitors. With jigsaws, puzzles and a mircoscope for viewing insects up close.

Open seven days a week, from 10.00am to 4.30pm, an invigorating exhibition programme and a welcoming GalleryShop are surely enough to entice you to walk from the centre to Corbans.\n\nRecent exhibitions worth mentioning-\n\nGravitonGravy by Mark White.\n

New zealand largest city by a long way, Auckland is home to one in four Kiwis and is the starting point for many a visitors trip.\n\nFlanked on the west coast by the Tasman Sea and on the east by the Pacific Ocean, straddling a narrow isthmus, Auckland has a unique location offering a variety of stunning stunning beaches, coves and large natural habours. The glistening [[Waitemata]] and the moody [[Manukau]].\n\nThe west coast beaches of [[Karekare]], [[Piha]], [[Anawhata]], TeHenga and [[Murawai]] are famous for their fantastic surf and spectacular black sands. The two large habours of Waitemata and Manukau offer tranquility on their gentler shorelines.\n\nAuckland is the starting and finishing point of the TwinCoastDiscoveryHighway that goes off up one side of NorthLand, to the top of the [[North Island]], before then sweeping back down the opposite coast.\n\nThe city oldest park, the AucklandDomain, is a popular place for visitors and local alike. This inner-city sanctury is an escape from the bustle of the city. On the summit of the Domain stands proudly the AucklandWarMemorialMuseum. \n\nAnother favourite museum, for young and old alike is [[MOTAT]], out in Western Springs, and spread over two sites is this fasinating mixture of transport and technology.\n\nTo many, the whole urban sprawl that spreads out from central Auckland is one city, but politically and geographical that sprawl has been carved up and claimed. [[Westies]] are a distinct breed that live out west in the suburbs that have been given the name of WaitakereCity. I rarely leave the safety of the, eco-city, as the local council discribes Waitakere, working and living here and when I do venture into Auckland I'm captivated by the gloss and bustle, oh, and by how easily alcohol is available beyond the dry boundaries of Waitakere.\n\nThe outdoor magazine Wilderness, claimed that while Auckland gets a lot of stick from the rest of the country. Beneath it's concrete skin, lie wonders, that can't fail to impress, like the cities wet and wild WaitakereRanges, the [[volcanic peaks]] or the vast [[harbours]].\n\nThe concrete skin does deserves further investigation, and these HeritageWalks include the cities historic buildings.\n

New zealand's oldest park is an inner-city sanctury from the hustle and bustle of central Auckland. It sit upon the slopes of a 50,000 year old volcano and is a link between the cities past and it's present. \n\nOn the hill overlooking the cricket ground, during the 1820's, a Maori chief Te Wherowhero came from Waikato to make peace with the feared Nga Puhi tribe, he then went on to become the first Maori King. Later on this same hill, Lieutenant Governer Hobson met with the Ngati Whatua people and founded the City of Auckland. He set aside the 200 acres on the cone to become the cities' first park.\n\nToday the park various atractions, 100 year old trees, natural springs and relaxing picnic areas delight visitors and locals alike,they may choose to visit the AucklandWarMemorialMuseum or the GlassHouses.

On top of the hill, inside the AucklandDomain, are the elegant buildings of the Auckland War Memorial Museum.\n[img[Veiw of the Museum|http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1460/wikitag2ga5.jpg][link]]

Hot pools, have captured the imagination and delighted people for centuries all over the world. Here you find fantastic pools and a charming campsite to boot.\n\nTent up, splash into warm pools, after dinner, relax into the steamy mineral spa and soak under a starry night sky. This was a great introduction to the mood we could expect for the next 10 days.\n\nThe camp ground is a short drive into the town of [[Whakatane]].

Piha's commumity Hall is used for all sorts of uses, fom yoga to dances and local meetings. It also home to Piha Pre-school and playgroup.

Here's one of my favourite birds, the [[Pukeko]], others that I have routinely come across are the Black Swan, the New Zealand Dabchick, the Black Shag, White-faced Herons, Mallards, Ring-necked Pheasants, New Zealand Kingfishers, Skylarks, Blackbirds,SongThrush, House Sparrows, and the Common Myna.

For JAFFAS south of the Bombay Hills is another world. They are set as a natural barrier against all uncool, unworthy and plainly shite.

!@@color(blue):Saturday 5 November@@\n\n@@background-color:black;color:white;Despite the poor weather the crowds that gathered at the TrustsStadium had a fantastic night.@@ The main attraction was undoubtably the fireworks display but the earlier events impressed, especailly the energetic Kelston Boys High School Hip Hop group, the enigmatic Rutherford High School Kapa Haka Group and the exciting mock rescue and flyby of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.\n\nOther entertainmant on show can only be described as bizarre, the local police dog handlers put on a camp exihibiton of dog neo-obedience, which ending with sawn-off shotgun totting villian being chased and caught by two large Alsatians, this all unfolded to the theme from Rocky and a Chemical Brothers track. On the track we witnessed two running races, a 5,000 Qualifier for Kate ~McIllroy, who \ncouldn't be pushed on by the crowd to enter a Commonwealth games qualifying time and an attempt at a sub four-minute mile that also failed to meet it's target. The athletles were gamely accompanied by the Waitakere Trusts Brass Band\n\nThe significance of Guy Fawkes night may have been lost on many of those that turned out in the rain but is a clear example of the colonial legacy that stilll has a hold on Kiwi culture. The date of November 5th is an important one in New zealands colonial past. Yet it isn't Guy Fawkes that modern Kiwis should be remembering but instead the inhabitants of Parihaka and the story told in TheInvasionOfParihaka.

30 minutes south of ~Whangarei are the fine white sand beaches of the Bream Bay Coast. Out in the Bay sit the wildlife sanctuarys the of Hen and Chicken Islands. The majsesty of the bay is ofset by the presence of New Zealands only oil refinery, Marsden Point, at it's northern end. The curious can visit, for free, their visitors' centre complete working scale model and be dazzled by the 20 minute light and sound show. How many make this tour is a mystery.

The end or is that the start of highway 1. You can't go any further unless you bring a boat with you.\n\nThe lighthouse at Cape Reinga has a 10 metre tower consructed of concrete and stands 165m above sea level.The lens was shipped from England to be used in the nearby Motuopao Island lighthouse in 1879 but was moved to the Cape Reinga lighthouse when it was built in 1941. It was the last staffed lighthouse to be built in New Zealand.\n\nThe location is a mystical one, a place central in Maori lore, but be careful. Arrive at the wrong time and you may sink under the weight of tourbus visitors. Try to take in the scale of the place, forget it, get out of the way of the ten-minute photo opportunity. \n\n[img[The lighthouse at Cape Reinga|http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/775/capereinga2a1ky.jpg][link]]\n\n\nAs the coaches fill again and depart, taking the whistle stop tourers on to the next carefully chosen iconic New Zealand location. Cape Reinga becomes quiet, the winds whip across and the few visitors who remain gaze out in wonder the meeting point of two great seas. The Tasmin Sea and the Pacific Ocean.\n\nThe nearest campoing is provided by the Department of Conservation at the stunning bay of [[Tapotupotu]].\n

Two elegantly restored New Zealand railway carriages are the main dining area or there is a terrace overlooking the duck pond. The choice is yours. The cafe claims to serve up great coffee and they certainly do. The food also apears to be excellent and will be trying this classic from the menu when I return, eggs benedict with spinich,and it will not long before we make that journey again.\n\nCheck out of there menu at their site http://www.carriagescafe.co.nz/index.php\n\nAfter Kumeu, our northward travels would be off into country that was way on beyond the fringes of Auckland and start to take in the changing rural scene and towns that before were only places on a map. Keep on northward.

Rare for Lopdell House to employ security, but they were there to protect the valuable exhibits during the presentation of these paintings from ~McCahons' Titirangi years.\n\nFeatured at this exhibition included his largest piece of work, displayed as intended by the artist in the four walls of one room, The Wake. Here ~McCahon developed the words from a John Caselberg poem into a huge 16 panel painting.\n\nOther works included [[Kauri]], Kauri Trees, I Am, [[Titirangi]], Elias Triptych and the Northland Tytptych.\n\nThe exhibition coincided with the opening of the [[house]] the ~McCahon family lived in at [[French Bay]] to the public.

The second brightest comet seen since in 1935, its' 30 million km tail trailing, Comet ~McNaught was a spectacular display. First spotted by Australian astronomer, Robert ~McNaught, in August 2006, it has continued its journey past the sun and was now hurtling outwards and now was 190 million miles from Earth.\n\nIt had been making headline news for a couple of weeks. Overcast nights and blocked slightlines and a lack of celestial knowledge had scupper our chances of catching these marvel, then will camping at [[Mountain Valley]], our chance came. Intitally the full had our total attention, then quicker than a shooting star I remember that the comet sould be visible from the south-west, out and round the tent I ran, and yes there it was in cosmic glory. Tail and all, visible as it raced away from earth on its' own great adventure.

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Close to paradise, gentle waters lap onto this near perfect beach. The stills waters of the bay are inviting for all. Out of season the beach is guest only to a few families and the odd dog walker.

The Corban's were amongst the first wine-makers in the Auckland region, their old estate has now become an area for artists to work and with an ArtsCentre showing contemporary work.

This 220ha domain is one of [[Auckland]]'s most striking landscapes.\n\nWonderful sights to explore include:\n*Stardome Observatory.\n*Huia Lodge built in 1903, now home to the park visitor's centre.\n*Acacia Lodge, Auckland oldest wooden lodge, once home to Sir John Logan Campball. Who was buried at the summit of Maungakiekie.\n*evidence of Maori occupation, including terracing, food stores and defensive ditches.

The preamble to the English treaty reads as follows\n\nHER MAJESTY VICTORIA Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland regarding with Her Royal Favour the Native Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and anxious to protect their just Rights and Property and to secure to them the enjoyment of Peace and Good Order has deemed it necessary in consequence of the great number of Her Majesty's Subjects who have already settled in New Zealand and the rapid extension of Emigration both from Europe and Australia which is still in progress to constitute and appoint a functionary properly authorised to treat with the Aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty's Sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands - Her Majesty therefore being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government with a view to avert the evil consequences which must result from the absence of the necessary Laws and Institutions alike to the native population and to Her subjects has been graciously pleased to empower and to authorise me William Hobson a Captain in Her Majesty's Royal Navy Consul and ~Lieutenant-Governor of such parts of New Zealand as may be or hereafter shall be ceded to her Majesty to invite the confederated and independent Chiefs of New Zealand to concur in the following Articles and Conditions.\n\nA visit to the official government site will give a traditional balanced view of the Treaty. http://www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz/. But caution, the crown is deft at given both sides, ensuring justice is not an act it has yet mastered.

[[Welcome]] HelloThere

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According to Maori Legend, Taipa was the original landing place of Kupe, the great Polynesian navigator who discovered 'Ao-tea-roa', the land of the 'Long White Cloud'.\n\nCenturies later, in 1769, a Yorkshireman, Captain James Cook, looked in on this expanse of water, declared it "Doubtless a Bay" and continued his circumnavigation of New Zealand. Within days, another explorer, the Frenchman de Surville, anchored on the western side of the bay for a number of weeks... who knows what history could have been written had these two great explorers met!\n\nA popular beach is CoopersBeach and the fishing village of [[Mangonui]],sitting on it's own little harbour, is a popular destination for visitors. The nearest camping is found at [[Hihi]]

What is it? I just love going to the edge, to the end of the road, to where there is no where else but the prospect of returning over old ground when you realise that the limits have been reached.\n\nThe road ends at the foot of the hill that shoulders the lighthouse and where many come to see the dawn of a new day on our small planet.

Easter Holiday\n\nAn integral part of the the northern European spring are the easter symbols of eggs and bunnnies, after all the feast of Easter gets its name from Eastre, the Anglo-saxon goddess of dawn and fertility. Here in the southern hemisphere such emblems of rejuvenation and birth seem out of place as the signs of autumm are all around. Yet the europeans influences are difficult to drop and hold tightly the minds and actions of modern Kiwis.\n\nWhat we found during our free days included the nearby attractions, those of the big city and further a field to the coromandel peninsular. Click to discover more, [[Titirangi]], BlockHouseBay, [[Devonport]], IceSkating, and ThePinnacles.

Is this the waterfall to find fairies? Only if you know where to you.\n\nA leisurely hour work, takes you to the top of the falls, the tumlbling, splashing water rushes over the many levels, filling plunge pools as it falls. Majestic [[Kauri]] proudly stand tall on the edge of the falls. Missed by the loggers, they give a timeless feel to this enchanting part of the Ranges.\n\nThe walk down the falls is many over boards and steps ease the decent. Making it accessible to most, not only the adventureous.\n\nWe visted on New Years' Eve 2006.

When quized on their fears of a potential disaster hitting the city, nearly two-thirds said they are concerned that a disaster may occur.\n\nWhile half of those answering the ARC's telephone poll, believe their will be an earhquake or volcanic eruption in their life time. \n\nBut they must like it here. That, or they believe it will only happen when they are out of town. Of course it may be they just wouldn't want to live after their beloved city collapses into a large crack or goes up in smoke.

A lovely beach a short walk from [[Titirangi]], Pothutakowa trees offer shade and the local coast guard and yacht club have facilities here.\n\nOn the road a small [[house]], were Colin McCahon lived with his family, has been opened to the public.

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The tropical house, containing a fennery garden, was completed in 1930 but as it became run down, because of labour shortages during WWII, it was eventually closed. It was refurnished in 1993 and reopened the following year.

There can be few places that had such a dubious startin life, its' first residents not having a great deal of life in them and only making the journey out west because the cemetery on Grafton/Symonds Streets was by then overcrowed.\n\n[[Waikumete]] Cemetery opened in March 1886. The local area had been known as Waikomiti, but this name was not favoured, since one translation into English means 'stinkhole' or worse. It is felt that the local maori objected to a scared place being given such a tite. \n\nThe poor quality of the land and the sites proximity to the ~Helensville-Auckland [[railway]] led to its choice as a ideal place to bury the cities' dead. Many of the earliest bodies and entourages would have been brought to the Waikomiti station, later renamed Glen Eden, on the regular sunday train. The funeral carriages had white crossses on them.\n\nA live population was slowe to settle, and only after the 2nd World War did any real population and commercial development begin. In 1922 the named Glen Eden was adopted, and it incorporated the district of Glendene, Kelston and Oratia.\n\nToday the area has shook off its negative deadbeat start in life and has a vibrant population, two health food shops, a number of cafes, a rough-at-the-edges shopping mall, a fentastic new library and a theatre, and an ubiqutous RSA.\n\nThe towns champion is the mayor of Waitakere City BobHarvey. A local resident, who, like a French president looks favourable on his roots.

Glowworms are the larval stage in the life of an insect called the fungus gnat. Although they are most spectacular in caves, glowworms are also quite common outside - they can be found wherever conditions are damp, food is in good supply and there is an overhanging wall. The scientific name of the New Zealand species is Arachnocampa luminosa. Similar glowworms can be found in the south-east of Australia.\n\nThe New Zealand glowworm is one of many creatures that naturally produce light (bioluminescence). The light is the result of a chemical reaction that involves several components: LUCIFERIN, a waste product; LUCIFERASE, the enzyme that acts upon luciferin; ATP, adenosine triphosphate, the energy molecule; and oxygen. These combined form an electronically excited product capable of emitting a blue-green light.\n\nThe light is used to attract insects, brought into the cave in the rivers, which the glowworm catches and eats. If a glowworm is hungry its light will shine a little brighter and is even more effective. When the female glowworm reaches the adult stage the light is used to attract males for mating.\n\n''Life Cycle''\n\nFour stages are involved in the life cycle of the glowworm; the egg changes to larva, then to pupa, and finally to the adult fly (which lays more eggs). The entire cycle takes 10-11 months to complete, most of which is spent in the larval stage.\n\n''Eggs''\n\nThe eggs are laid by the adult, and hatch into larvae about three weeks later. They are creamy-brown balls, less than a millimetre across, and are sticky enough to hang onto walls, overhangs and cave ceilings.\n\n''Larvae''\n\nThe larva is the most familiar form of the fungus gnat. Starting a few millimetres long, it slowly grows to the shape and size of a matchstick - after which it is ready to grow into a pupa. The larva stage is usually 6-9 months, depending on the availability of food. However, the glowworm can survive for long periods without eating.\n\nBecause the other stages don't feed, the larva must store enough energy to nourish the later stages of the life cycle (and the eggs of the next generation if it is a female). The glowworm displays a bright blue-green light throughout the larval stage to attract its food.\n\n''Pupae''\n\nThe pupal stage is like the cocoon stage of a moth's life, as the simple body of the larva is changed into the complex adult. The larva first rearranges its sticky threads into a circular protecting barrier, then hangs in the middle of the circle and encases itself in a pupal "skin". A little less than two weeks later it emerges as an adult gnat.\n\n''Adults''\n\nThe adult fungus gnat wriggles out of the pupal skin and spends its first few hours drying, until it is able to fly. It has no mouth, cannot feed, and therefore lives only a few days. During this time mating takes place. Soon after mating the female starts laying her eggs, usually in several clumps of 40-50. As they are laid one at a time, the egglaying can take a whole day, after which the female dies.\n\n''Feeding''\n\nThe larva is the only stage of the life cycle at which the species eats - as an adult it has no mouth. To feed, the glowworm hangs down dozens of sticky threads which are used to trap any insects which fly towards the light. When an insect is caught in the threads, the glowworm senses the vibrations and hauls in its victim - at the same time chemicals in the thread paralyze the insect. When the thread has been pulled up the glowworm bites the insect and kills it, then either sucks out the juices or eats the entire body.\n\nGlowworm prey include midges, mayflies and caddis flies. In caves these insects breed on the mud banks beside streams, or fly in accidentally. Adult glowworms are occasionally caught and eaten as well.

Until 2006 this position is held by Dame Silvia Cartwright, who is New Zealand's 18th ~Governor-General. She apparently does a lot of charity work. She has a sweet little house that goes with the job in Wellington. It is quite modest and is made of wood.\n\nThis title now belongs to another brown-noser with a distinguished pedigree, Anand Satyanand. \n\nSee her web-site for more such rubbish.\n\nhttp://www.gg.govt.nz/

Not one of these portraits, crafted out of scrapings from a paint pallette, are of actual people.\n\n[img[welcome to New Zealand Wiki|http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3840/markwhytezn4.jpg][link]]\n\nThey are composed from the fragments of Mark Whyte's recollected facial features, seen on masse they create an absorbing juxtaposition. Contrasting diversity and similarity. Look for yourself, you might be included, or at least a shirt of yours or are those ears familiar.

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<<gradient vert #ffffff #9999ff #bbbbff #9999ff #bbbbff #bbbbff #bbbbff #9999ff #8888ff>>text-align:centre;font-size:14pt;line-height:130%;\nWelcome to ~NewZealandWiki. The idea is to build a wiki of significant discoveries of NZ life and our travels through this land. \n\nInside this wiki I'll put down my thoughts on what I observe, ideas I come across and cultural differences that strike me. As I have been in New Zealand for a short while, I have come to realise that getting to know this country is like getting to know a person. With time you slowly realise that, despite first impressions, they are far from normal.\n\nGet started here by clicking a tiddler from - \nMainFeatures\nHelloThereNewFeatures\nOldTiddlers\n[[Oddities]] \nor NewZealand.\n@@font-size:9pt;@@\n>>\n

@@font-size:18;Check the new features, \n\n[[Road to the East Cape]]\nEasterTime, \n[[Matariki]]\n[[Wildlife]] \n[[Waitomo]]\n[[Rotorua]] @@

If Waitakere has a centre, then this is it. The local council nearly got their way recently, and renamed the newly refurbished Henderson train station Waitakere Central, thankfully they put a halt to this silly sugestion.\n\nThey had to been content with moving their administration into downtown Henderson, that may benefit from this move and the other draws, like the new central library and Unitec offering university course from their new Waitakere campus. Otherwise, Henderson may still suffer from being little more, than a poorly served town with drab Mall and a 2 Dollar-shop high street. Yet it has a charm that may grow with an influx of new poeple and ideas. It's certainly cruel to call it Horrenderson, but you just might.\n\nTo celebrate the opening of the new council offices, on September 2nd 2006, the council organised what they promised to be the greatest [[parade]] ever seen in Waitakere city. \n\nYou could spend some time exploring the CorbansEstate, where you will find the ArtsCentre, studio space and you can walk along the banks of the Opanuku stream.

The walks take approximately an hour and an half and are divided into:\n\nDownTown - around the historic waterfront and original forshore.\nMidTown - early commercial buildings and a snap shot of development in the early colonial period.\nUpTown - the entertainment and cultural aspects of the city

The camp site at Hihi is a stones throw from the waters edge and sits on a gentle incline. The higher camp pitches afford excellent views of the bay.

The view of Hokianga Harbour from Omapere Hill is both surprising and breathtaking. Massive sand dunes stand solid and unmoveable against the terrible onslaught of pounding seas. The dunes rise up from the harbour entrance like miniature mountain ranges, painted a brilliant golden hue by the sunlight.\n\nToday, many iwi (Maori tribes) trace their ancestry back to the legendary explorer Kupe who, with his crew, voyaged deep into the Southern Ocean. Northland iwi claim the first landfall of Kupe's waka 'Matawhourua' was on the shores of the Hokianga Harbour. And so it is believed that Northland gave birth to what is today New Zealand.

Fantastic!\n\nI skipped round in my first half-marathon in under two hours, well, one hour 58 minutes and 30 seconds to be exact.\n\nIt pleased me to finish and filled me with cheer to find I came in at 276 out 454 in the 40-45 yeared male grade, overall coming placed 2550 out of total of 6411 entrants in the half-marathon. \n\nHere is a copy of my [[blog]] that I keep during training.\n\n

The earliest known European setlres at Huia were the Kigour's who arrived in 1842. They would have lived along side the Te Kawerau a Maki, the main tribal group or iwi in the Waitakere region, who made made Huia their home since the eary 1600's when Maki and his people arrived from Kawhia.\n\n[img[Hinges Bay, Huia|http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8752/huia0gk.jpg][link]]\n\nThe Kigour's would have arrived in a land of plenty, the moari knew Huia as "He toka Tamure ki te moana, he kai hua ki uta" or "A rock in the sea where snapper abound, a tree where birds a sprear on the land", all resources would have been harvested in a seasonal cycle. The forest provided wood,food, fruits, medicines, weaving material, dyes and birds. While the sea was a source of shellfish, seaweed, seabirds, seals and occasional stranded whales and fish, especially sharks.\n\nWe visited Huia on the QueensBirthday. \n\nAround from the main bay, is HingesBay, the KaramaturaValley and the HuiaSettlersMuseum.

This unique land has been shaped by shifting land masses, volcanism, glaciation and erosion. To be continued

Friedrich Hundertwasser was born in Vienna, Austria, on 15 December 1928. Half jewish he survived the Nazi's and then the Allied bombing of his home city.\n\nHe went on to travel widely and exhibit his art across the world, he primarily saw himself as an architect and also held strong views on ecology.\n\n[img[http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.data.image.h/h964948b.jpg]]\n\nHe was a great sailor and took his boat "Regentag" across the world's oceans.\n\nAs an architect he expressed his philosophy and humanity through his work. He believed that we all three skins, our own skin, our clothes and the buildings we live in. As an artist he designed stamps and was awarded a gold medal and a prize for most attractive stamp in 1984, for his 1.2 Sfr stamp designed for the UN. Read his views on the [[stamp]] here.\n\nHe died of heart faiure, crossing the Pacific, on board the Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. In accordance with his wishes he was buried naked under a Tulip Tree, without a coffin, on his land in northern New Zealand.\nHe had been granted the right to do this after a request to a New Zealand Minister.\n\n<<<\nI Close my eyes halfway just as when I conceive paintings and I see the houses Dunkelbunt instead of ugly cream colour and green meadows on all roofs instead of concrete.\n\nI am looking forward to becoming Humus myself buried naked without a coffin under a tree on my land in Aotearoa.\nHundertwasser, 1979\n<<<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxBes7uzwxw\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJQpsa5oww

[img[Kai Iwi|http://communities.co.nz/KaiIwiLakes/pics/Kai%20Iwi%20Lakes%203.jpg]]\nThe Kai Iwi Lakes are basin type dune lakes formed in consolidated sand of late Pleistocene geological origin. They were formed by the accumulation of rainwater in depressions of sand underlain by relatively impermeable ironstone pans. Dune lakes are one of nine major lake types found in New Zealand and are the predominant type found along the west coast of the North Island.\n\nPine Beach's facilities include cold showers, washbasins, toilets, fresh running water and gas BBQ's. It accommodates up to 500 campers.

The largest natural harbour in the world. A bold claim. Apparently true but you might want to check the Guinness Book of Records. I'll take it on merits. It is a magnificent site.

A utility town, a service centre, call what you want. Kaitaia hasn't got a great deal to offer but it certainly is a great place to pick up provisions and think about how far you have come. It is only another 120km on the Far North Road to the end of New Zealand.

A unique place tha can not fail to inspire. Rolling surf crash onto the black sparkling sands, bush clad cliffs rise sharply to enclose the beach.\n\n[img[Karekare Beach|http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/2793/firstpictures028a3pq.jpg][link]]\n\nThis beach was used as a back drop to the internationally sucessful film ThePiano.

Rain welcomed us to Katikati. We dodged the downpour, sheltering under the shop overhangs, taking in the artistical told history of the town, by the [[murals]] on every available wall.\n<<<\n'Katikati possesses many special attractions. It is a level plateau about 20 miles in length, bounded on the one side by the Tauranga harbour; on the west It is sheltered by forest clad hills, of which, to my personal knowledge, a good proportion is auriferous, is admirably adapted for fruit growing, and especially oranges and lemons. In summer time the sea breeze starts at about 9 am, the wind veering to the west in the evening, contributing to the salubrity of the district. We enjoy all the amenities of civilisation, including those of religion and education by a happy hospitable community.'\n<<<\nThis may sound a little like a tourist blurb, and in a way it was, written by the man many consider to be the founder of Katikati, George Vesey Stewart, and delivered at his farewell address at Martray on July 2 1919. He went on to say:\n<<<\n'The work of special settlement inaugurated in 1874, in which I first entered from a love for adventure, was actuated by an honest desire to better the condition of my fellow man. I feel , from my personal knowledge, I have in many cases succeeded in effecting this. My earnest hope and belief is that the present prosperity of Katikati and her people will continue.'\n<<<\nGeorge Vesey Stewart founded Katikati after having first visited New Zealand. He decided Katikati was the ideal site, and in 1875 brought out from Ireland the first party of 238 settlers on the ship Carisbrook Castle. Over a period of some 44 years Vesey Stewart held many public positions including that of the first elected Mayor of Tauranga. George Vesey Stewart died in 1920, aged 87.\n\nWhile many of the groves of citrus described by Vesey Stewart have made way for other horticultural enterprises, Katikati itself remains a special town which continues to encourage a diversity of people and lifestyle pursuits, and which prospers still, continuing to be a 'happy hospitable community'.\n\n \n

The giant Kauri is a kind of primitive pine that belongs to the ancient Araucariaceae Family of trees that were prolific before dinosaurs and the Gondawana super-continent broke up. In far northern New Zealand swamps, kauri trees were discovered preserved under water that grew 30-50,000 years ago. \n\nThe Southern Kauri (Agathis australis) is found only in New Zealand's northern tropical rain forest, where they grow to immense size. They rival California's giant redwoods. Early settlers who saw their massive columns of smooth, white trunks, and elegant tracery of high canopy likened them to Gothic cathedrals. The largest individuals alive today are more than 2,000 years old. The LifeoftheKauri is along an interesting story\n\nBefore Europeans arrived, Kauri Forest covered 4 million acres of New Zealand's North Island. When Captain Cook saw the forests in 1769, he wrote, "The banks of the river were completely clothed with the finest timber my eyes have ever seen..." His excitement attracted European timber men, who brought wholesale destruction to the ancient and majestic kauris. In 150 years, they shrunk to barely 18,420 acres.\n\nLate in the 20th century, people began to appreciate Kauri Forests once more. Today, several refuges protect the remaining giants for posterity. In Waipoua Forest, visitors can walk among trees that have grown for 2,000 years to see the best-known gigantic specimen of all: TaneMahuta—"The Lord of the Forest"—the tallest standing Kauri Tree.

Toilet Break, this could be most the stylist and interesting visit to the toilet you could imagine.\n\nIt says much for the esteem in which Friedrich [[Hundertwasser]] held his adopted town of Kawakawa that the internationally renowned architect and ecologist agreed to a request to design the public toilets for the town's main street.\n\nThe Kawakawa toilet block with its ceramic columns, garden roof and curving , colourful exuberance has put the Northland town on teh international tourist route, and travellers from all around the world pay homage to the mann and his unique architectural talent. A few even take a pee.\n\nThe use of local labour and skills was encouraged by Hunderwasser. Tiles used in the project were made by students from schools in Kawakawa, bricks came from local buildings and windows in the block were constructed using old bottles from the district.

Historical, picturesque, a tourist trap, just keep driving, it was a cliche of all that colonial New Zealand offers.

Thr start of the walk to the falls is at the end of Glen Esk road, where the PihaSawMill used to be situated. The mill was opened by Dr. Frederick Rayner in 1910 and was later bought by the railways department who needed timber for building railway cariages. Around 14 super feet of timber was extracted and milled at Piha, enough to build 2,300 average homes. In 1921 the mill was closed. there were no more big trees left in the area. Such was the destructive nature behind the expliotation of New Zealand's resources.

[img[Samuel Parnell|http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/Labour/Parna.jpg]]\nThe first Labour Day in New Zealand was celebrated on 28 October 1890, when several thousand trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres. Government employees were given the day off to attend. It celebrated the struggle for an eight-hour working day, a right that New Zealand workers had been among the first in the world to claim, when in 1840 the carpenter Samuel Parnell had won an eight-hour day in Wellington.

The wind-blown seed of a kauri lands on bare ground, mossy forest floor or an ancient tree stump. In the shelter of the forest, it establishes in its characteristic seedling form. Decades later, it emerges through the forest (or manuka) canopy as a cone-shaped tree called a ricker. 100 or so years later, it develops a spreading crown which continues to expand for the next 500 years or more.\n\nAs the kauri ages, its trunk steadily increases in girth. It may live 1000 years or more - on good sites, exceptional specimens can live for more than 3000 years. Old age is a slow process for a kauri. While limbs break off in storms, and the centre of the tree hollows out, the tree's trunk continues to expand. Inevitably the time comes when the tree dies, or falls in a cyclone. This creates the habitat for a new generation of kauri. The gap in the canopy provides sunlight, and decaying tree remains provide a long-term supply of nutrients for the young kauri.\n\n[img[kauri|http://www.waipoua.org.nz/images/chris_kauri%20Darby&Joan.jpg]]\n\nKauri is a tree of the forest. Exposed kauri - for example on a forest edge or roadside, like these shown here flanking State Highway 12 - easily suffer weather or root damage. The left-hand tree in the picture is dying - eventually leading to the loss of a notable view, but also an opportunity to widen the road.

Lion Rock was know as Te Piha to the Te Kawerau a Maki who used to live on the rock's steep slopes. Today Te Kawerau a Maki still have strong siritual ties live the surrounding land and have inherited the role of Kaitiaki (guardians) from their tupuna (ancestors). Today a Pou, blessed by the iwi, guards the rock.\n\n[img[The Pou below the summit of Lion Rock|http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/96/imgp0204a7yf.jpg][link]]\n\nIt is only a short climb to the Pou (carving) on the lion's shoulders but it is a steep one. You start by clambering over the rough shaped steps that form the tail, ascend the track along his back and finally rest upon his majestic shoulders. The final ascent to the top is now closed off due to erosion and slips. \n\nLion rock is the remains of a small volcano core eroded over many centuries.

Built as hotel in the 1930s, in a spanish architecual style, it had room for 60 guests. Who could entertain themselves either in the hotels' glamorous ballroom, listen to the piped music in their rooms or relax in the roof-top garden, with its observation platform. What they couldn't do was get an alcoholic drink, the hotel in dry west Auckland failed to get a licence and was ruined by a lack of booze. Thristy guests are rarely happy guests.\n\nSo the hotel was converted, by the local educaion board, into a school for the blind in 1942 and was once visited by Hellen keller. Somehow they managed to squeeze in 80 boarders.\n\nFurther change came in 1960 when the building became a teacher training college, and it was then that it adopted the name of Lopdell House, after it's first Principle Frank Lopdell.\n\nThe present use as an arts and cultural centre came about when it was brought by the local council in 1983. It is a flourishing centre and holds exciting and accessable exhibtion of both internationally renowned and local artists. \n\nExhibition\n\n[[Colin McCahon]] featuring important works from his major series 1953-59

The museum of TAT, this sprawling and bizarre collection of exhibitions is more than just a collection of tat. At times, it does feel that without rhyme or reason, every item of interest that couldn't be housed in the cities other museums had found a home at MOTAT. \n\nYet, while many items are strange, most are lovely restored vechicles of years gone by, there are early settlers buildings and a run of 1920s shops to examine, simple, hands-on exhibits, let enquiring minds test scientific theories and lovely restored trams run between the two sites.\n\n[img[lovely restored tram|http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5893/traman1.jpg][link]]\n\nOfficially the museum is known as the Museum of Transport and Technology.\n\nDuring our visit, a touring, 3-D cinema was showcasing the latest in this kind of video. Elaborate, computer generated animations leapt from the sreeens to wow visiters, the effect was further enhanced by the adaption of the films to show a the images in a 360 degree aspect. As you walked around a series of screens set in a circle you where allowed a full incompassing set of images. So you could see all aspect of the scene before you.\n\nThe films with the biggest 3-D wow-factor were a school of fish that swan towards you and then darted off screen, a bubbling mass that you felt you should have been able to reach out and pop. The mains feaures showed a dinossaur-age clash and a Mars landing probe discovering the surface of the red planet.

@@font-size:18;These are the current main features. They contain plenty on what are the major parts of our daily life.\n\n[[Road to the East Cape]]\n[[Auckland]]\n[[Marathon]]\nTwinCoastDiscoveryHighway\n[[Piha]]\n

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Famous for it's fish shop that sits out over the harbour on stilts. With a bar also, this is another reason to stop and sample their fresh fried delights. A cold beer and hot crisp chips, how better to end the day?\n\nThe town is one of the earliest european settlements of the area and their are of plenty historical buildings still standing in this town to give a flavour of how life was here in the days of whalers and the first settlers. \n\nHere we had one of the greatest thrills of our travels through Northland. As we pulled up to get chips, there was a flurry of activity quayside, in the water was a large pod of dolphins and they treated everyone to a display of playful swimming and diving. A real delight and a memory to treasure.\n\n

On the northern banks to the Manukau lies the settlement of [[Huia]].

Below is an excert of a speech given by Moana Jackson addressing the Human Rights Speakers Forum on the Foreshore & Seabed Bill in Wellington (11 May 2004).\n\nWhen we left Salisbury Cathedral that day, it had started to rain as it often seems to do in England. And as we waited for the train back to London we took shelter in an old Victorian house which is built across the close from the Cathedral. It was actually a museum for the Middlesex regiment. A regiment which has its origins over 600 years ago, and although not a great fan of military museums we wandered around as we killed time, and found that the museum was laid out as a sort of catalogue regimental history and so you walked through the centuries of the battle honours and glory of that particular regiment. Now when we reached the 19th century, there was a whole huge display of the battle honours of that regiment it achieved in imposing the colonial will of the British government. And in one corner of that vast display was a little glass case recording the exploits of that museum of that regiment, containing what it called the savage warlike Maori race. And it seemed to me that in that stereotypical but deliberately constructed image of indigenous peoples as warrior races, and the glorifying of the military exploits of the colonial empire so close to the Magna Carta that is enshrined as one of the hall marks of the great liberal English tradition, there was this strange dissonance, there was this strange misplacement of values. \n\nBecause while on the one hand the Magna Carta guaranteed to protect the ancient liberties and free customs of English people in their lands and waters, the museum of that regiment showed how they sought to destroy those same ancient liberties and freedoms for indigenous peoples in other parts of the world. And it seems to me that what we confront in the current foreshore and seabed issue is a government and all political parties except with the possible exception of the Greens, determined to deny what little of those ancient liberties and free customs Maori have left. That all of those things which encapsulated the enjoyment of life as a Mokopuna of Iwi and which would be guaranteed in the Treaty of Waitangi, has as we know, been whittled away since 1840. And that the whenua upon which we once proudly stood and confidently exercised authority in relation to, has been taken away. And taken away of course, in the name of the Colonisers law, a law enforced for a long time directly through the power of the military and such regiments as that honoured in the museum at Salisbury. And for every colonial taking there was a colonial law, either passed before the fact, or passed after the fact to justify something that had already been done. And so the 1863 Museum Settlements Act was a ‘before the fact’ piece of legislation allowing for the Raupatu or the confiscation of vast areas of land in Waikato, Taranaki, and the Bay of Plenty.\n\nThe 1894 Validation of Invalid Land Sales Act however, was a post-factor-after-the-fact law to justify those confiscations, those takings of land which under pakeha law (under the common law) may not have been taken validly. And because questions had arisen where all of the land taken from our people had in fact been done according to pakeha law, that strangely named piece of legislation was passed. And from that moment on in 1894, every bit of Maori land that had been taken whether in breach of the Treaty or not, whether validly or invalidly according to the common law, was deemed to be legitimate. And so all of the confiscations of everything that we held precious, in which we sought to preserve in the Treaty of Waitangi was legally taken away.\n\n[img[moana|http://www.thenext.org.nz/site_images/break_1.gif]]\n\nThe full speech can be found at http://www.hrc.co.nz/hrc/worddocs/HRSPKRS%20FORUM%20-%20Moana%20Jackson%20Speech%20re%20FSB%2011%20May%2004.doc

This year I have entered the Auckland half-marathon and are trying to raise funds for the New Zealand Heart foundation at the same time. I have set a target of NZ$500 and hope to reach that target soon with the support of friends and family. See my web-blog for further details www.heartracer.org.nz/~SteveGibbs/\n\nAuckland [[marathonoddities]]\n[[How well did I do?]]\n

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What is Matariki?\n\nMatariki is a small but distinctive star cluster whose appearance in the north eastern pre-dawn sky in late May, early June marks the start of a new phase of life.\n\nAlthough there are tribal differences regarding the timing, celebrations most often begin at the next new moon after Matariki has risen. As with similar ‘moveable feasts’ in the western calendar, such as Easter, the exact timing varies from year to year but usually occurs during the month of June.\n\nIn ancient times Matariki arrived at the end of the harvest and was therefore a time of plenty for our ancestors. The kumara and other root foods had been gathered. The migration of fish such as moki and korokoro also made Matariki a time of bountiful catches. Visitors were often showered with gifts of specially preserved eel, birds and other delicacies. Matariki was a time to share and present offerings to others.\n\nMatariki can be translated in two ways – Mata Riki (Tiny eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God). Either way the eyes are thought to watch over the land and its people. \n\nFor more information visit http://www.matariki.net.nz/

Introducing the "Meeting houses of Ngati Porou O Te Tai Rawhiti" in his book of that name, David Simmons, tells the tales of the settlement of the Eastern Cape by the decendents of the [[Horouta]] canoe. \n\nHis book looks at the histort of the meeting houses, the development of these houses, touching on the styles of carving and their continuing use as central to daily life.

Home of a famous [[gannet]] colony

I can't think of many reasons to visit New Lynn, changing buses there is tiresome, shopping has little to offer but for many it is their local hub. Glad it ain't mine.\n\nI can recomend the NewHavenMotel

"What distinguishes New Zealand's history from that of other human societies is that it has been played out in a more intensive manner, and at a more accelerated pace, than almost anywhere else on Earth. For this reason, their course and consequence have interest and relevance for human history as a whole." wrote Micheal King in the The Penguin History of New zealand.\n\nOf course New Zealand was the name given to these islands by European settlers, the Maori name is Aotearoa. This has long thought to translate as "the land of the long white cloud" but recently it has been discovered that in fact the correct translation is "the land of the wrong white crowd."\n\nFor more on HumanSettlement click here

//The follow information is an extract from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. ~McLintock that was published in 1966.//\n<<<\nNinety Mile Beach is on the western coast of the North Auckland Peninsula. It is terminated by rocky volcanic headlands, Scott Point to the north and Reef Point to the south. Between the two points is a beautiful arching beach of white sand facing the Tasman Sea. The origin of the name is uncertain, for the beach measures only 55 miles. It can be used as a motorway at low tide and, provided the sudden watercourses which seam the sand are crossed slowly and proximity to the waves avoided, the surface can be used with confidence. The beach is backed throughout its length by a belt of sand dunes up to 4 miles in width and up to 469 ft in height above sea level. The sandhills are highest in the north and gradually decrease in height to the south, where they are about 200 ft. In the far south they are fixed by lupins and marram grass, but for the rest they are moving and bare, except for a few isolated patches of scrub.\n<<

Guess what? Image if you could come up with a more discriptive name for the more northerly of ~NZs two main islands, the lower, that is southerly one, is known locally as the [[South Island]]. There is an east island but that is known as Australia.

The long finger of Northland stretches approximately 350km from the [[Auckland]] isthmus to New Zealands final accesible conclusion at CapeReinga. It's snaing eastern coastline is studded with innumerable sandy bays and rocky headlands. On the west coast, an endless sandy sweep is only broken by the [[Hokiannga]] and [[Kaipara]] harbours.\n\nThe rolling interior is a patchworkof farmand paddocks, with some extensive areas of mature forest, including the famous [[kauri]] gaints of the WaipouaForest.\n\nA long history of human occupation, both Maori and Pakeha, has contributed to a colourful history, with many cultural artifacts to expolre.\n\nThe region provides a magnificant mix of forest, coastal and historical walks, which explore this often remote, primeval and undiscovered landscape.\n\nTo explore this fantastic region we took the TwinCoastDiscoveryHighway, a circular, touring route that lets you access all the region has to offer by way of a scenic, relaxing drive.

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This is the place for stuff that can't be filed elsewhere. Like the NZ PollTax. Or the Austrian architect, Friedrich [[Hundertwasser]], who made NZ home for a while

!@@color(blue):13th December 2005@@\n\nThe play-group's X-mas party invited all the animals from Old ~MacDonalds Farm to join them for some festive fun.\n\nThe animals came in their special van, when the ramp was dropped, out trotted, Muffin the horse, Princess the goat, two farm dogs, Batlamb the lamb and a calf. It was fantastic. The children all got a chance to feed the little kids and piglets with a bottle. The hungry youngster guzzled at the milk until it was all gone. Other favourite to come out were Russell Crow a cockrel and his mate.\n\nInside the van to delight all were an older goat, rats, an assortment of fowl, piglets, a guinea pig, rabbit, more lambs. There was plenty of food mix so even the youngest of party-goers could feed the animals until they were full. Even the piglets had their fill.\n\nIt was a fun time and the delight on the childrens faces showed what a sucessful visit it was from Old ~MacDonald and her animals.

@@font-size:18;Here are some of the older tiddlers, still worth a browse if you have not seen them before or even if you have, OldMacDonaldsFarm, BonFireNight, LabourDay, PihaLabourDayMarket and PihaSurfSession.@@

Known to the Maori as Maungakiekie, One Tree Hill sits elegantly inside the lush rural parkland of CornwallPark, to reach the peak you can drive but it is better climb the green slopes in the company of the resident cows and sheep.\n\nThe peak, 196m high, gives fine views of the city and both the [[Manukau]] and the [[Waitemata]] harbours. The peaks name refers to a totara tree that stoof on the summit until it was cut down in the 1900s and replace by a Radiata pine that itself was famously felled in a political protest.

In the early summer of 1955, A lone bottle-nose dolphin swam into the Hokianga Harbour in the far North of New Zealand and adopted the people of Opononi as her family. Known as Opo, she became a favourite, first of the local community, then of its holiday-making visitors, and finally of the whole nation.\n\nShe reacted well with most everyone she came in contact, and especially with thirteen-year old Jill Baker, whose parents ran the nearby tearooms. Opo and the girl formed a very strong bond; Opo would tow Jill around the bay, and the girl would teach her tricks. Opo was especially careful and gentle when she was around small children. She loved children but seemed to know how fragile they were.\n\nVery few local Maori played with Opo. They believed Opo was a taniwha, a messenger sent by Kupe back to to his point of departure for Hawaiki. Dolphins have also figured in Western mythology, from the time of the Greek gods, as creatures friendly to humans. So in Opononi, Polynesian and European mythology came together to form a fabric that was a uniquely New Zealand one. But Opo's visitation didn't bring together Maori and Pakeha cultures. It didn't even bring Pakeha together. Instead the coming of Opo released contradictory forces that are perhaps in all New Zealand communities but which are rarely seen so openly: loyalty and envy; gentleness and viciousness; trust and scepticism; generosity and avarice.\n\nAs thousands of visitors started to arrive at Opononi, she put on a show for them at the beach there almost every day, making some people scared for her safety: they thought such extreme interaction with humans would harm her. In response, the government passed a law limiting human interaction with her. But not everyone welcomed this law. Fishermen blamed Opo for their empty nets, others saw the law, which protected all dolphins in the Hokianga harbour, as a threat to the supremacy of man over nature.\n\nThe day after the law was passed, Opo was found dead. During the night, a fisherman had blown her up with gelignite. The whole nation was devastated. The local community gave her a public funeral, and erected a statue of her in remembrance of her loving spirit.\n\nBibliography:\nEric and Elizabeth ~Lee-Johnson, Opo, The Hokianga Dolphin, David Ling Auckland 1994\n\n@@font-size:14;Opo the Friendly Dolphin@@\n\nHe's Opo the friendy dolphin\nHe's friendly as can be\nIf you should want to learn to swim\nYou couldn't do better than learn from him\nHe’ll very soon get you into trim\nAnd he's giving instruction free\nDown at good old Opononi by the sea\n\nDad has to leave his golfing\n coz the family all agree\nSea air is good for everyone\n and Janet and John should get some sun\nAnd much more fun than a hole in one\n is a game of ball with me \nDown at good old Opononi by the sea\n\nThere never was such a dolphin \n in the whole of the Tasman Sea \nAcross the waves he likes to shoot \n you never saw a fish that looked so cute\nAnd he never wears a bathing suit\n not even a bee kee nee\nAnd he lives at Opononi by the sea\n\nCrombie Murdoch, 1956

This seaside resort lies on the southern shore of the lovely Hokianga Harbour, just a few kilometres from Omapere. The settlement gained national fame in the 1950s when it was visited by a friendly dolphin. Named Opo after the village, the dolphin loved playing to the crowds and let children ride on its back. A memorial to [[Opo]] is on the shore opposite the Opononi pub.\n\nYou can get hot chips from the local take-away, a tip you all, Hot chips are so called to differentiate them from potato chips, you know the sort that come in a foil packet. When ordering Hot chips you can ask for them by the dollar amount. so you might ask for six dollars worth rather than three lots of chips.\n\n

A wild east feel about this town, colonial architecture, predominately Maori, guitar player outside a cafe to attract punters and attractive carvings.\n\nDespite a fierce start to the town, battles berween the locals and [[pakeha]] led to the building of a military garrison and after the conflict the vanquished had thier land stolen from them, the town grew steadyly.

Off east. Well south first, the brackish SH1 out of [[Auckland]], whose deary monotomy is broken by the wildflowers, that colour the roadside. Leaving behind the chaos and noise of the city, the road swiftly enters the rolling BombayHills.\n\nOver and then eastward, pushing on towards the Pacific coast. Our first days drive was to be a long one. We intended to get a many kilometres under the hood before the afternoon. We refreshed ourselves at [[Paeroa]], dodged the rain and marvelled at the murals in [[Katikati]], we rounded Tauranga and the Mount. Soon we got our first glimpse of the surf, pounding the golden beaches, of the pacific. The road runs as straight and true as the coast and soon we found ourselves rolling into AwakeriHotSprings. During the evening with took a short trip into [[Whakatane]]\n\nSecond day, moving on to the EastCape, following the SH35, the lonely twisting highway that links isolated settlements and fabulous bays. Before heading up the western shore of the cape we called into [[Opotiki]], then onto Cape proper. \n\nAt [[Torere]] we paused to marvel at the carving uptside the local school, then crossed the mighty [[Motu]] River, before passing the beautifully carved [[Otuwhare Marae]] at Omaio. We had to wait for our family, who had followed us after food shopping, in [[Te Kaha]]. We them close behind, we were off again and soon chewed up the kms, resting at Rankokore to investigate the local church and the foreshore. Ahead of us Whangaparaoa lay shrouded in low cloud, the road cut in land and climbed persistently, through the heavily forested area before [[Hicks Bay]]. Here the road again reaches out to sea, climbing and dipping to the lonely bays. Eventually you come to [[Te Araroa]], last settlement of note before the road narrows and the tarmac gives way to dust and gravel. Slowly the road takes you to the end of the east. Where tomorrow meets today.\n\nWe stayed for two nights at the East Cape, lodging at an old homestead, in the shadow of the hill, on which sits the lighthouse.\n\nOut on the fourth day of our eastern sojourn we drove back to Te Araroa. Lovers of honey need to call into the [[factory shop]] on the edge of town.\n\nThe cuts south across the most eastern part of New Zealand towards the town of [[Tikitiki]]. The largest town since Opotiki, is [[Routoria]], to reach the centre means a slight detour of the main road.\n\nContinuing on the SH35, the road twists, climbs and winds past the majestic peak of [[Mount Hikurangi]]. Delivering the travellers to Te Puia Springs, [[Tokomaru Bay]], [[Tolaga Bay]], and finally slipping past the inviting free camping at Wainui Bay and to [[Gisborne]].\n\nAfter spending the night at Gisborne, we followed the 35 to its' end. It meets up with SH2 and there ends over 330 kms of one of the countries most appealing, fascinating, unpredictable journeys, the East Cape road, SH35.\n\nThe pacific coast Highway has a few tricks left, before [[Wairoa]], its kicks out, and heads up into the [[Urewera National Park]]. The final settlement of [[Frasertown]] is left behind, the road slowly, grinding gravel for the final 20kms, finds it way to [[Lake Waikaremoana]]. The exquiste jewel of the East.\n\nOur two nights beside the lake recharged our energy and revitalised our mood. The road down feels quicker, and breaking alongside the [[Wairoa River]] before heading south towards Napier. The next leg of the journey, with [[Auckland]] our goal, was to take the ThermalExplorer, northward.

The home of a true Kiwi classic, well not quite, although the birthplace of L&P, this popular beverage is no longer made here. Corporate minds at Coca Cola ditched the "World famous in New Zealand" town and moved production to Auckland.\n\nCheck out the 7 metre tall replica L&p bottle, skillfully crafted out of concrete pipes and painted brown. \n\nThe town, with a population of only 3,300, was first formed as a service town for the [[Coromandel]] goldmines.

Known as the Jewel of the Bay of Islands. This settlement was this scene of early missionary work - colonisational often seems to start with an introduction to the good book. New zealands first church was build here with reeds, its stone replacement, the Church of St Paul is still in use for worship.\n\nThe beauty of the bay is unquestionable, yet modern Paihia has little old charm and relies on being a centre for exploring the bay on the regular cruises that leave the quay or attracts those who are drawn to [[Waitangi]] to discover the Treaty Grounds.\n\nHighlights of our visit were top tips from an employee of Fullers Ferries. He advised that entertain kids cheaply we should take a ferry to [[Russell]] and also take a drink in the [[35DegreeResturant]].\n\n

Paparoa is a Maori name that means "long, flat rock". Papa: flat; roa: long\n\n[img[Paparoa|http://www.paparoanz.com/pics/landing%20021.jpg]]\n\nThis quaint little village was one of the major shipping and boat-building centres of the Kaipara in the days when sailing boats plied the Kaipara Harbour. Today everything is far more relaxed, with several cafes and a village green that’s ideal for picnics. We broke our journey here, Billie and Ben made the most of the playground while Paula checked out the local shops.

The 15 km journey off Scenic Drive is a twisting and testing trip that comes with it's reward. As you approach the coast you are afforded tantalising glimses of the sea but nothing prepares you for the vista that greets Piha's visitors. As you sweep a tight right-hand bend you reach the "look-out" and are treated to a stunning view of the beach, valley and LionRock below.\n\n[img[View of Lion Rock and Piha|http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3509/lionrockpihaa9tf.jpg][link]]\n\nThe beaches at Piha are immensely popular for surfing and events like the PihaSurfSession add to it's international reputation as a top surfing location. The sea has a notorious reputation and is a dangerous place to swim because of rips and holes.\n\nA number of walks in Piha explore hidden treats, favourites are LionRock, WhitesBeach, TasmanLookout, and KiteKiteFalls.\n\n\nFor us Piha has been a an amazing place to live and will never be forgotten. Yet what is it that has made Piha so [[memorable]]. click and discover.

!@@color(blue):24th October 2005@@\n\nHeld annually the [[Piha]] LabourDay Market, draws large crowds in and around BarnettHall, North Piha, to shop for trinketts, second hand clothes, homemade chutnies, bone carvings and other curious items. The pre-school and playgroup, raise funds, by providing refreshments. A constant queue of punters have to wait patiently to get their hands on the excellent selection of sweet and savoury pastries, sandwiches, wraps and drinks.\n\nThe sensational weather of 2005 ensured a bumper crowd.

\n!@@color(blue):Saturday 22 October 2005@@\n\nHot off the ASP world tour, international [[surfing]] legends Andy Irons, Sunny Garcia, Mark Occhilupo and Joel Parkinson will visited our shores to take on four of New Zealand's best, Daniel Kereopa, Maz & Jay Quinn and Bobby Hansen.\n----\nThe the big day: competition for the Surf Session title. ~MCs Slave & Otis kicked off the day’s entertainment at [[Piha]] from 11am, with the competition itself starting at midday. Round one finished around 2pm, while band Kora entertained the crowd. Then on to round two, the Tag Team event starting at 2.30pm and running through to 3.30pm.\n\nSo make sure you come and support our local boys, because it's New Zealand vs the Rest of the World – and on the line is a unique trophy surfboard, designed by Aaron Kereopa. Prize giving and the exclusive signing sessions wraps up the day, so make sure you dust off your surfboard and get it signed by one of the surfers!!\n\n----\nThe event brought a large crowd out on south piha beach who were thrilled by the surf antics of the international stars and the New Zealand boys. The event was broken into two parts. Round One was a series of four heats with surfers being judged on their individual scores, and Round two being a tag team event. The individual scores in Round One were totalled to give a New Zealand vs. the World score, the result of which was a draw. Early in Round One Andy Irons treated the capacity crowd to the awesome sight of an aerial manoeuvre to score 9.8. Local Piha icon and commentator Indian Nick told the crowd he was about to faint at Irons’ wave.\n\nIn the second round Andy Irons cemented the victory for his team and proved his status as the power surfer of the group nailing the highest wave of the round scoring a 9.0 out of a possible 10\n\n[img[Surf rider|http://www.surf.co.nz/news/images/DSC_6425.jpg]]\n\nCars were turned away about from 2pm when parking at the West Coast beach reached its limit. There was even a rumour that people were parking at nearby Karekare Beach, some 10 kilometres away and walking in.\n\nHowever the New Zealand team was not to be eclipsed each surfer held his own and performed credibly throughout the competition. New Zealand’s youngest competitor in the event, Morehu Roberts was brought into the event at the last moment to replace an injured Jay Quinn said “I was absolutely stoked when I was told I was in the event my heart was beating so fast” Morehu returned from competing in the World Junior Championships where he finished 7th overall, the highest place ever gained by a New Zealander.\n\nAt the prize giving after the competition, surf legend Sunny Garcia said he was amazed with the hospitality the world team had received since arriving in New Zealand. “We don’t even get treated this way on the ASP World Tour!,” said Sunny. He went on to say that with the crowd’s support he was sure the New Zealand surfers could go a long way internationally.\n\nCurrent World Champion Andy Irons said it had been the most generous crowd he’s ever surfed in front of and that he’s looking forward to definitely returning to New Zealand in the future.

The gradient macro allows you to use gradients in your TiddlyWikis without resorting to the use of images. You can pick any number of colors and also select whether the gradient will move vertically or horizontally.\n\n!Code\nThe generic usage looks like:\n{{{\n<<gradient vert/horiz colors>>text>>\n}}}\n\nTwo examples:\n{{{\n<<gradient vert #ffff00 #0000ff #000000 #00ffff>>color:white;text-align:center;four colors vertically>>\n<<gradient horiz #0000ff #000000 #00ffff>>color:white;text-align:center;three colors horizontally>>\n}}}\n\n!Execution\n<<gradient vert #ffff00 #0000ff #000000 #00ffff>>color:white;text-align:center;four colors vertically>>\n<<gradient horiz #0000ff #000000 #00ffff>>color:white;text-align:center;three colors horizontally>>\n\n!Heading1\n!!Subheading1\n!!!Subsubheading1\n\n[img[alternate text|filename or URL][link]]\n\n\n*Entry One\n**Sub-entry A\n***Sub-sub-entry i\n***Sub-sub-entry ii\n**Sub-entry B\n*Entry Two\n*Entry Three\n\n<<<\nQuoted text.\n<<<\n\nTiddlyWiki supports all kinds of formatting options:\n*You can create ''Bold'' text by enclosing it in pairs of single quotes:\n{{{\n''bold text''\n}}}\n\n*You can create ==Strikethrough== text by enclosing it in pairs of equal signs:\n{{{\n==strikethrough text==\n}}}\n\n*You can __Underline__ text by enclosing it in pairs of underscores:\n{{{\n__underlined text__\n}}}\n\n*You can create //Italic// text by enclosing it in pairs of forward slashes:\n{{{\n//italic text//\n}}}\n\n*You can create ^^superscript^^ text by enclosing it in pairs of carets:\n{{{\n^^superscript text^^\n}}}\n\n*You can create ~~subscript~~ text by enclosing it in pairs of tildes:\n{{{\n~~subscript text~~\n}}}\n\n*You can @@highlight text@@ by enclosing it in pairs of at-signs.\n{{{\n@@highlighted text@@\n}}}\n\n*You can also change many other CSS attributes by adding arguments to the highlight command. For example, you can change the text color to @@color:red;red@@ or give it a background-color of @@background-color:#0000FF;color:white;blue@@.\n{{{\n@@CSS attributes separated by semicolons;text@@\n}}}\n\nYou can find out more about CSS from the excellent [[w3schools tutorial|http://w3schools.com/css/default.asp]].\n\n*Finally, you can add new CSS classes to the Tiddlywiki so that you can style a number of items with the same CSS formatting. Simply add the new class to the StyleSheet [[ShadowTiddler|ShadowTiddlers]], such as:\n{{{\n.moveover{\nmargin-left:120px;\n}\n}}}\nThen, when you want to use that CSS class, use the following formatting:\n{{{\n{{classname{text to be formatted}}}\n}}}\n{{moveover{So, for example, this paragraph has been formatted using the moveover CSS class.}}}\n\n\n

This sorry legacy of ~NZs history eventually prompted the Prime Minister Helen Clark to apologise the countries Chinese community. Introduced in 1881, it was the governments attempt to control immigration from China by the imposition of a ten pound tax on entry. It toughen this barrier to enter, if from China, this tax was lifted to 100 pounds in 1896, about $15,000 today or the equivilent to six years pay of a Chinese migrant. The tax split families and rreinforced rascist attitdes.\n\nAs part of the apology, a $5 million trust fund was started to promote the history, culture and language of the Chinese in New Zealand. As Barry Wah Lee, whose grandfather opened a shop in Auckland 102 years ago, sees it "we're Aucklanders, rather than just Chinese."

Totally distintive, large red feet on the end of red legs, a bright blue chest with a black back and head, a bold red beak and shield between their eyes, with a flick of it's tail it shows off a white rear. Found through out NZ, it is common in wetter areas and is even found in built up areas and suburban ponds.\n\nIt can run quick but is a reluctant flier, yet when airborn can manage long distances, even if it looks ungamely, those long legs dangle as it clumsily makes it's way.\n\nUnusually, it often lives in communities, but sometimes they mate as pairs, nesting from August to January, they form grass and reed nests, each female laying a single egg and incubation is shared by several birds.

This the public holiday, when New Zealand remembers it's colonial links with Great Britain and reaffirms it's inability to move forward as a confident pacific island. No, the Queens' Birthday is celebrated, though mutely, here. Protector of the Maori, distant monarch, a figurehead. Dead beat.\n\nThe Queen's official reprensentative in New Zealand is the Governor General, Strange in a democrtic state that such a role exists, this person holds a degree of personal discretion in respect of agreeing to holsd a general election, appointing or dismissing a primre minister and even decide to assent to legisation.\n\n"By convention, the Governor-General is, in general, bound to act on the advice of Ministers who have the support of the House of Representatives. It is the duty of Ministers to keep the ~Governor-General informed about government business. As well as having the right to be informed, the ~Governor-General may also encourage, warn and offer suggestions to Ministers." This is taken from the Governors website. Don't you just love the word "warn" in there. I can hear the conversation now, "Sorry, Helen, I've got a warn you, go careful, there are people out there how just wouldn't like that." No wonder they call her the Governor.

Filling the airways on the west coast. Fine tunes, some of the craziest surf-heads, quirkey shows and just good vibes. In a one station town, it is worth having an excellent show-stopper.

To cross the Hokianga harbour you must board the Kohu Ra Tuarua, the ferry that plies the fifteen miute crossing from Rawane to Kohukohu. Carrying 24 vechicles and their passengers over the tranquil waters

Gettting ready for the next road trip, taking the PacificCoastHighway east from [[Auckland]], sweeping around the EastCape and down to Napier. Heading home on the ThermalExplorer, passing over the foot-hills of the Kaweka range to [[Taupo]] and [[Rotorua]], ending back in Auckland.\n\nIn am eager to see examples of MeetingHouses as we cover the eastern coastal area, north of [[Gisborne]].

The town was once discribed by Charles Darwin as "The Hell hole of the Pacific", due to it's lawlessnesss and reputation for debuacary in the early days of European settlement. Today it is gentile and borgoise. Littering is serious crime and rarely seen.\n\nKororareka was it's original name. It's adopted name was given in honour of a 19th centuary Secretary for the Colonies, Lord John Russell.\n\nThe ferry crossing is magnificent, glistening water, wooded isles dot the bay and alls sorts of water craft are sharing the waves, on this trip we saw a large crise ship, old schnors, yachts and the super fast dolphins chasers.

Best thing to come out of [[Auckland]]. Then it is probably the best thing to come out of many a NZ town or city. This is the number one road. Running from the tip of the [[North Island]] to the tip of the [[South Island]]. Long road.

@@font-size:20;color(#0063dc):locations, discoveries, culture, life and much more@@

@@font-size:48;color(#ff0084)://New Zealand//@@

http://au.goecites.com/newzealandwiki

Yes the Baggie bird is found through out NZ, introduced in 1860s from Europe, it is common in gardens, parks, orchards and farmland.

Generally perceived as the most awesome, the prettier, the more exhilirating, containing the highest number of must see parts of New Zealand, the Mainland as southerners call their home is high on tourists reasons for coming to these parts of the world. I have yet to see what the fuss is about and may never be bothered enough to go for myself.

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Tane Mahuta is New Zealand's tallest [[Kauri]] Tree, growing in Waipoua Forest on the northern end of North Island. Its massive smooth, gray-white trunk rises 59 feet before a branch appears. The gigantic specimen is a remanent of the tremendous ancient subtropical rain forest that once grew there, a survivor of 200 years of intensive logging. By counting rings from felled trees of similar circumference, Tane Mahuta is believed to be 2,100 years old.\n\n\n[img[Tane Mahuta|http://www.northlandnz.com/images/inpage/tane_mahuta.jpg]]\n\nIt was only a short walk to see this majestic tree down a easy trail, so it gets a horde of vistors throughout the year. Around the tree is a boardwalk to protect the trees shallow and fragile roots.\n\nIn Maori legend, Tane is the son of Ranginui (sky father) and papatuanuku (earth mother) and he seperated them, using his almighty strengh and created light, air and space. This means Tane is seen as the giver of life and all creatures his progeny.\n\nTane Mahuta is probably in the later middle-age of life but will outlive us and many generation that follow. His awe and wonder will continue to command respect from all that see him.\n\nOver 15% of all the recorded species in the Waipora Forest live as an empire in the upper branches, where a hanging garden of bird dropping and plant humus creates an ideal environment for many plants to grow.

Three kilometres south of Cape Reinga is Tapotupotu Bay with 45 camping sites, water, toilets and cold showers. The beach is clean and sandy, stretching between two high hills with a tidal stream suitable for canoes and dinghies at it's eastern end.\n[img[Tapotupotu|http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/2564/totwikitp3.jpg]]\n\nThe advice to campers is that the water needs to be steralised or boiled for 10 minutes. Sadly we didn't have enough water with us to last us a nights camping and we had to decide against staying overnight. We dad stay for a picnic and explore the prestine beach and the stream. On the banks of the stream I observed a Heron.\n\nWe had to head south to WaitikiLanding campsite for the night.

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Another humbling tree, ranked number two in the Kauri pecking order, with a girth of 16.41m and and a height of 29.87m. The short 25 minute walk from the carpark means he receives less visiors than Tane Mahuta, but he probably feels better for that. Te Matua Ngahere translates as "Father of the forest".

Thanks for taking some time to cast an eye over this wiki. Hope it entertained and informed you. Come back some other time.\n\nSteve.

The Bay of Islands region has the finest maritime park in New Zealand with the 144 Islands and secluded bays. The Bay has an abundance of marine life, including the big marlin, whales, penguins, dolphins, gannets and many other species.\n\nThe maritime and historic park is the original cradle of European civilization and has fine examples of Maori culture.\n

The events that took place in and around Parihaka late in the nineteenth century have long been legendary. As artist Tony Fornison inscribed on one of his artworks, Taranaki, your past goes way back. We need to look back to the Taranaki land wars of the 1860s to understand the origins of Parihaka, a town which was founded during those traumatic times of land confiscation and dispossession. By the 1870s it had become the largest Maori village in the country. Then in 1881 it was the scene of one of the most lamentable infringements of civil rights ever witnessed in this country.\n\nThe event that has dominated the history of Parihaka is the invasion of the settlement on 5 November 1881 by 1,500 militia and armed members of the constabulary. This invasion was the result of a stand-off between the colonial government - with its land-usurping agencies - and the Maori people from many different tribes who were living at the settlement. As historian Hazel Riseborough writes: "Parihaka had become a haven for the dispossessed and disillusioned from the length and breadth of the coast, and as far away as North Auckland, the King Country, Wairarapa and the Chatham Islands."\n\n[img["Sketches of Te Whiti and Tohu George" Sherriff, (1881)|http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7249/phecard033yx.jpg][link]]\n\n\nThe inhabitants of Parihaka were led by two figures, Te Whiti O Rongomai (of Taranaki and Te Atiawa descent) and Tohu Kakahi (of Taranaki and Ngati Ruanui descent). Both men were committed to non-violence, drawing on ancestral Maori as well as Christian teachings. The leadership the two offered was both spiritual and political. While the colonial interests sought to portray them as fanatics, both men believed in the possibility of a bi-cultural New Zealand, so long as Maori ownership of their lands was respected.\n\nIn 1879, European encroachments on Maori land which had been confiscated in the 1860s but not previously occupied by Europeans threatened the Parihaka settlement. Te Whiti ordered his followers to go out and plough the fields that were being confiscated. Of Te Whiti, historian Hazel Riseborough writes: "He acted calmly and with restraint in the face of what government ministers often described privately as deliberate goading ... All he wanted was to be allowed to remain at peace on his ancestral land." The year 1879 became known in the annals of Parihaka history as "the year of the plough". When arrested, the men put up no resistance, following Te Whiti's instructions: "Go, put your hands to the plough, look not back. If any come with guns and swords, be not afraid. If they smite you, smite not in return. If they rend you, be not discouraged - another will take up the good work."\n\n[img["Expulsion from Paradise" Hariata Ropata Tangahoe (2000)|http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/6927/phecard024hc.jpg][link]]\n\nThe following year, another phase in the non-violent campaign began. This time, men from Parihaka - "that headquarters of fanaticism and disaffection", as the Native Minister John Bryce called it - erected fences across land and roads, ignoring surveyors, road-builders and constabulary. Further arrests were made and legislation was passed in Parliament enabling the Government to hold the protesters without trial. By September 1880, around 150 fencers had been shipped from Taranaki to the South Island, where they were put to work building roads around Otago Harbour and elsewhere. Many of them never returned. Meanwhile, the Taranaki settlers continued to survey the land, breaking down fences on a daily basis only to find them rebuilt a matter of hours later.\n\nOn the morning of 5 November 1881, the invasion force entered Parihaka. More than 2,000 villagers sat quietly on the marae as a group of singing children greeted the army. The Riot Act was read and one hour later Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested and led away. The village itself was demolished in the following months, crops were destroyed and livestock killed. People from other tribal regions were also forced to leave the province.\n\nIt wasn't until March 1883 that Tohu and Te Whiti were allowed to return. Between that time and the deaths of the two leaders in 1907, Parihaka was rebuilt. Amongst elaborate European-styled buildings, there were a bank and a number of modern shops including a butchery and a bakery. However, there was insufficient surrounding land to enable the settlement to become fully self supporting.\n\nTe Whiti and Tohu were acutely interested in technological developments in the European world and introduced a number of these to Parihaka. In 1902 O. T. J. Alpers observed "a system of water-supply and the installation of electric light [which] has brought Te Whiti's pa in line with the most advanced ideas of municipal improvement".\n\nThe settlement diminished in size after the deaths of Tohu and Te Whiti, but in the past three decades it has consolidated and continues to grow in both the number of its permanent residents and the extraordinary number of visitors to the pa - among them trade unionists, artists, writers, historians and others.

Ada (Holly Hunter), mute since birth, her nine year old daughter (Anna Paquin), and her piano arrive to an arranged marriage in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand. Of all her belongings her husband refuses to transport the piano and it is left behind on the beach. Unable to bear it’s certain destruction, Ada strikes a bargain with an illiterate tattooed neighbour (Hervey Keitel). She may earn her piano back if she allows him to do certain things while she play’s – one black key for every lesson.\n\nThe arrangement draws all three deeper and deeper into a complex emotional, sexual bond remarkable for its naïve passion and frightening disregard for limits.

If you follow the Kauri trail up the Kauaeranga Valley, you will pass many interesting relics of the kauri logging industry, traverse swingbridges, climb the packhorse steps and finally sidle a ridge that will take you to the pinnacles Hut.\n\n[img[The views from the path as you near the Hut|http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6247/imgp1274a9fm.jpg][link]]\n\nThe Pinnacles Hut is the largest DoC hut in New zealand and sleeps 80 on long bunkbeds, the only other facilities it offers are cold water showers, solar lighting, and gas cookers. Mind bring your own pots and pans and be prepared to boil water to drink for at least three.\n\nSo why drag yourself all this way for such sparten conditions, well, to be honest unless you enjoy this sort outdoor experience, the roughing it with total strangers, then check into a motel near Thames. But if it is for you then haul yourself up there. It is unique.\n\nThis clip was filmed near the end of the walk back down to the Valley, the tracks are mock-up of the tramline that was built to extract the kauri from the area.\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M6ohYFLdJk\n\nA little story from the logging days that should serve as a warning any boss considering sacking an employee, is the tale of Racecourse Jack. After being sacked from a logging gang, in 1888, Jack sought revenge and duly set fire to the cutover bush. The result was, sadly a large of forest destroyed and three of the Billygoat Basin's dams where destroyred. Watch your back, if Racecourse Jack is given the sack!

The journey home always feels different, expectations have changed, time contrasts, you have narrowed choices, experiences impact and leave you with new expressions of need.\n\nSo we are heading home, with an arduous leg of the trip made over the hills and headlands south of [[Gisborne]], we made a sharp right and made our way towards [[Mountain Valley]]. It had been a hard day and rewarded ourselves with coffee and ice creams at ???. Before swiftly making the last few kilometres into our favouite camp of the trip.\n\nTwo nights nights in the isolated splendour of MV, camped above the Mohotu River, it was a refreshing break and when we set of for [[Rotorua]] we were all ready for the fun and delights of one of New Zealands fun towns. They cater for tourists with a mix of thermal wonders, kitch, exhilarating actities and [[Maori]] cultural events.\n\nTo get there we passed down to Taupo, here we briefly viewed the aqua action at ???? and braved the heat at the [[Craters of the moon]]. Finally we trundelled off to Rotorua and the camp ground at the [[Blue Lake]].

Titirangi is out west but is not typically [[westie]], this commuinty sits on higher ground. It's monthly market gives an idea of the mentally to be found here, it embraces local arts, organics, fine foods, the nartural environment and is slighty quirky. The [[market]] is held on the last Sunday of each month except December.\n\n The Maori name for this area is often translated as "fringe of heaven" or "next to heaven", this then begs the question where is the heaven they speak of, it certainly isn't GlenEden or NewLynn, but the Waitakereranges are probably good candidates.\n\nThis settlement is on the TwinCoastDiscoveryHighway as it heads out of the last of the West Auckland suburbs and heads up into the ranges. Straddling a ridge that divides the isthmus between the [[Waitemata]] and the [[Manukau]] this community attracts visitor and local, who can stop by at the villages' [[trendy cafes]], browse at the library or fill themselves on art at the LopdellHouse gallery.

\n[img[final point of highway 1|http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9436/wikitag1yx1.jpg][link]]Out of [[Auckland]] the Twin Coast Discovery highway takes in the vastly different west and east coasts of NorthLand, we picked up the Highway at the end of Piha Road, and headed north on Highway 16. Our Journey took in many fasacinating and beautiful places, as will explore this region we discover some of the regions highlights. This tour will not be exhaustive and will only take in the places and items of interest that we had time to unearth.\n\nSo heading north on 16 the highway skirts the WaitakereRanges and then dips through the foothills, in Kumeu a great place to stop is the CarriagesCafe, refreshed take the road on past Helensville and continue through the spectacular landscapes on the fringes of the KaiparaHarbour. At Wellsford you join Highway 1, shortly the route cuts back west and you join Highway 12. [[Paparoa]] is a quant place to break off, the road then levels off as the great floods plains expand out in front and soon you will find Dargaville, an old port on the banks of the Kaihu River. \n\nThe contours change as you continue towards the great ancient forests. On the shores of the KaiIwiLakes are picturesque camping grounds. The magificent WaipouaForest contains New Zealands largest remaining tracts of [[Kauri]] forest. The road twist through the forest, passing fine towering Kauris, and finally you make a final climb before being greeting with one of the regions finest vistas, the stunningly beautiful entrance to the HokiangaHarbour and it's giant sand dunes. Passing on through [[Opononi]], the route north crossing the harbour by ferry at [[Rawene]] and pushes on towards [[Ahipara]], the start of NinetyMileBeach, at [[Kaitaia]] you pick up Highway 1 again and then it is the final stretch on the Far North Road. The road ends abruptly at CapeReinga. Then it is the same way back.\n\nOnce you have travelled back towards Kiataia, take the Highway 10 out towards the eastern side of Northland and it's fine expansive bays, DoubtlessBay, TheBayofIslands, BreamBay and the gems of small towns that tells tales of both Maori and European settlement, [[Mangonui]], [[Kerikeri]], [[Paihia]] and [[Russell]]. Highway 1 will then return you back to Auckland after passing [[Whangerei]]. An interesting toilet break can be had in [[Kawakawa]]

@@background-color:black;color:white;.Finding your way around this site really couldn't be easier.@@ \n\nAs you move the cursor around you will notice that any of the blue text you cross over will turn pink. These are the links to items contained on this site. Click on one and see where it takes you. Then click on another and find out more about this fascinating country. Please remember that this a work-in progress and if you return later hopefuly there will be more for you to discover.\n\nUnderneath each section you will find a tag (or not in many cases), this tag will show if there are similar related items that may be of interest.\n\nOn the right of the screen there links to Timeline, All, Tags and More. They are a pretty useful ways of finding your way around every thing.\n\nAt times you will find links to "~YouTube", the great guys at "~YouTube" allow the hosting of video clips, so click and see a piece of film linked to the tiddler.\n\n(Please note that this site works best in Firefox. It will also work almost as well in Internet Explorer and Safari. It may not work properly in Opera. Firefox is free, and well worth downloading if you haven't already.)

With the city cemetery at Grafton/Symonds st. full, Auckland city council had to seek a new area to develop a cemetery, out west on the recently laid railway was an ideal spot.\n\nBack in 1886, the first burial took place, that of a 14 month old child named Florence Lena Bell, since then many thousands, the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, have found their final resting place out west.\n\nSome of the most notable stories relate to many of teh characters who contributed to the development of Auckland and it's environs.\n\nThe oldest bones in the cemetery are belived to belong to Thomas Nell. Buried in 1887, at a ripe age of 97, she would have entered this world during the start of the French revolution.\n\nAmong the first to be interred were two men hanged for murder, John Caffery and Henry Penn. In prison mythology, they would have been buried standing-up so that their spirits could never rest.\n\nDonBuck, real name Francisco Rodriguez Figueria, the notorious rogue from Maderia, was buried here in 1917.\n\nDown Gum Tree Gulley is an area where paupers were buried in unmarked graves. Near-by this area is a memorial to the victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic, extra trains would bring out the dead and volunteer grave diggers could dig the holes fast enough.

Waipoua Forest is one of the best examples of kauri forest in New Zealand. It is famous for having the two largest living kauris (TaneMahuta and TeMatuaNgahere), which are easily accessible. Associated with the neighbouring Waima and Mataraua Forests it is also the largest remaining tract of native forest in Northland. The Waipoua Sanctuary was created in 1952 to protect 9105 hectares (22,762 acres) of unlogged forest, after one of New Zealand's earliest conservation controversies. \n\nThe forest has the largest population of North Island brown kiwi in Northland, and a small population of kokako in the high plateau country.\n\nThe drive on State Highway 12 provides a good introduction to the beauty of the forest. It winds through magnificient stands of tall kauri, rimu and northern rata, and offers extensive views in a few places. Good walking tracks give easy access to the most spectacular attractions of the forest: the giant trees Tane Mahuta, Te Matua Ngahere and Yakas. A few tramping tracks and routes are also available for those who wish to venture deeper into the forest, especially in the high plateau and ranges.

One of those places that only exists in the minds of polititians, being their invention, they feel the need to push the idea of the city as a real place, that people respond to and love. The reality, loyality is given to the old boroughs, to the real spaces where people live and love. NewLynn, GlenEden, [[Massey]], [[Titirangi]], [[Henderson]] or maybe out on the west coast beaches. Real places. Some with soul. Others more asshole. But always home to someone. Waitakere City is home only to the wild dreams of bureaucats and crazed policy makers.

Waitakere Ranges Regional Park is a unique and magiacal place, it has over 16,000 hectares of native rainforest and a network of 250km of walking and tramping tracks that provide access to beaches, breathtaking views, spectacular rocky ouycrops, streams, waterfalls and farms overlooking wild west coast.\n\nThe Waitakere Ranges are rich in history. Te Kawerau a Maki occupied land from [[Whatipu]] to [[Muriwai]], and have close ties with the land today. Ngati Whatua occupied land at Muriwai and also have close ties today.\n\nThe arrival of Europeans from the 1830s onwards meant huge changes. Thousands of native trees were logged and land was cleared for farming.\n\nIn his book "The Waitakere Ballards" JT Diamond wrote of the Ranges and the people who made them home,\n<<<\nIn the 1800s, the Waitakere Ranges were a safe haven for deserters from the army and the navy and some criminals on the run. Work could be obtained in the gangs felling trees and building the earth driving dams back in the bush and even in the timber mills in the southern part of the ranges, for it was a simple matter to dodge dectection by the police who at infrequent intervals journed into the ranges in search of desserters. Anyway there was a very efficient, speedy system of passing on the information when the police were on their way so a wanted man had plenty of time to 'go bush'\n\nThe waitakere Ranges was the cupboard where Auckland hid it's skeletons, where rouges and vagabonds shared the rugged hill country and the secluded coastal valleys with bushnmen and hardy pioneer families.\n<<<\n\nFor more on the Ranges and what they offer, check out \nAratakiVistorCentre, CascadeFalls,\n[[Piha]], [[Anawhata]]\n[[Huia]] or KiteKiteFalls\nFairyFalls

Waitangi Treaty Grounds gardens is a New Zealand Garden's Trust "Garden of National Significance". The garden surrounding the Waitangi Treaty House is set in an extensive park-like reserve. It is home to a rose that is reputedly the first rose to be planted in New Zealand. An English Oak, Camphor Laurel, figs, totaras and Norfolk Island pine, planted around 1836 grow beside indigenous species, including cabbage trees and pohutukawa. Two large rose-red Camellia trees, Middlemist Red and C.japonica, planted in 1833, grow alongside the native bush track to the Treaty House. A boardwalk leads through the mangrove forest to the Haruru Falls waterfall.\n\nThe Treaty Grounds are part of the 506 hectare (1000 acre) Waitangi National Trust estate, which was gifted to the nation by Lord and Lady Bledisloe in 1932.\n\nTo commemorate the gift of the Bledisloes, Sir Apirana Ngata, with Tau Henare, initiated plans for a carved Maori meeting house to be built on the Treaty Grounds. Te Whare Runanga, named Te Tiriti o Waitangi, was presented to the people of New Zealand on the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on the 6th February 1940.\n\nThe centenary was also celebrated with the launch of the ceremonial waka Ngatokimatawhaorua. The building of the waka was inspired by Te Puea Herangi of Waikato. Housed at Hobson Beach on the estate, Ngatokimatawhaorua is one of the largest ceremonial waka (canoes) in the world. Ngatokimatawhaorua takes part in each Waitangi Day commemoration, requiring a minimum of 76 paddlers to handle it safely on the water.\n\nOf course many visitors come here to learn more of the Treaty of Waitangi. It is without a doubt a central document that lead to the birth of modern day New Zealand and is a unique deal between an indiginous peoples and a European power. How it is interpretated depends on whether it's merits are being put forward by the [[Maori]] or by the [[Crown]].

Filled by the warm gentle waters of the Pacific ocean this side of Auckland takes on a calmer and generaly more relaxed approach.

This is how the owners of the campsite have described their site\n"This eye-catching complex just 19km south of CapeReinga. From the south it is a sealed road all the way. There are level sites: 12 with power, dotted with palms and other shady trees. You can shop for groceries, fill your car with petrol, get a snack or a full meal at the licensed restaurant and enjoy the inviting dining room. The camp kitchen offers basic equipment and fridges, with a small dining area. There is a wood-fired BBQ, complete with a stack of wood nearby. A laundromat service operates, with commercial quality equipment in the vast laundry. Hot showers are limited in number and metered, but smart and clean."\n\nIt was for me a unique place, it had a silence that was eerie, I felt like I had travelled to the an edge, a location, that was at the start and the end of something. The quiet was broken occasionally by a passing car, here the sounds had no distraction to dull their impact. Instead in the darkness you could hear with clarity, the crunch of stones under the tires, the changing revs of the engine, and how the car left you behind at this lonely point on the end of New Zealand.

The journey south took us on roads new, passing through [[Huntley]], cutting across to the coast and [[Kawhia]], home of a Hot Water Beach. The scenic route took past the large Kawhia harbour and up into country, jotted with karst, high above Waitomo.\n\nThis is KingCountry, beautiful, extraordinary, a land of two worlds. Above ground, lush countryside and primeval forest, below ground, limestone caves, that offer ancient formations millions of years old.\n\nOne of the oldest tourist attractions in NZ, not only in actual years but as an option for visitors. Open for over one hundred years, countless eager eyes have ventured underground to see the cave and the unique glowworms.\n\nWe had driven the final leg into Waitomo with rain beating down for many hours, adding to an already torturous road, then the rain quickly ran off and filled the caverns. So our journey on a boat to see the world-famous GlowWorms was cut short. It was still memorable and mesmerising.\n\nSadly, a fire in late 2005, destroyed the old entrance and ou currently enter past a porta-cabin, but once inside the [[caves]] that world is left behind.

[img[welcome to New Zealand Wiki|http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5738/wikitag3ce0.jpg][link]]\n\nUsingThisSite - click here to read how to find your around this wiki.

See [[westie]] instead.

Off the coast you should be able to catch sight of NZ only active island volcano, sadly we didn't. I mention this because this was one reason for taking the short drive into Whakatane. We could have look harder but had to settle for a promanade on the banks of the river. \n\nLike so many Maori named places, evocative tales are behind the name. This is the tale of Whakatane:\n\n<<<\nWhakatane (to act as a man) - This story springs from the 12th Century Great Migration. The women of the Mataatua Waka, left to themselves when the men went ashore for the first time, found a waka (canoe) drifting out to sea again.\n\nThe paddles were tapu to women, but a high-spirited teenager, Wairaka, who was the daughter of Chief Toroa, boldly seized one of the paddles and paddled the waka back to shore. As she did this, she shouted, "Kia Whakatane au i ahau", and her actions saved the women but also coined the name of the town.\n\nA bronze statue of Wairaka stands on a rock at the Whakatane Heads to commemorate this act.\n<<

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White's beach takes it name from the early farmers John and Francis White. It is wedged in between the headland at the far northern end of [[Piha]] and the Fisherman's rock south of [[Anawhata]]. \n\nBob Harvey captures the spirit of White's Beach, when he writes how it “always works curiously on me. It's a series of paradoxes, accessible yet secluded, beautiful yet rugged, intimate and contained yet wild and free.”\n\nIf Harvey's words captures the essence of whites Beach,then Ian Scott's landscape of the beach sum up in acrylic the notion of suburbaism. Scott sets a typical kiwi weatherboard house on a precipitous cliff top overlooking Whites Beach. Commenting on the collision of the suburban world with wilderness that is observed at beach locations around auckland today.

Due to it's unique locations and it relatively late arrival of human life and lead to New Zealands' fascinating variety of species that are not found elsewhere in the world. Flightless birds, lizards that walked amongst dinosaurs, bats and unusual plants.\n\nThis list is not going to be an exhaustive list of the wierd and wonderful, merely my encounters with the Aotearoa's interesting, exotic and the plain odd or outrageous that crosses my path.\n\nWhat about [[Birds]], or [[Insects]], or [[Trees]]

29/10/2006\n\nThe big day finally came around, a six-thirty start, 7500 fellow runners on the start line, only 21kms in front of me, I felt confident but if only I had realised what really lay ahead.\n\nI made a bright brisk start and spent most of the first 5ks weaving and dodging my way through the pack how had taken up positions closer to the start line than I had dared. I learnt later that I had taken over five minutes from the gun to make my way to the start line.\n\nBy 10kms I was beginning to feel the first twinges and hot patches on my feet, but the muscles felt up to the job and I certainly had plenty of puff.\n\nThe highlight was running over the Auckland Harbour bridge, it is a steady climb to the high point and many people drop off the pace at this stage, I kept on my stride and pushed on but I was now starting to hurt. The last five kilometres were difficult and I were feeling every footfall, the whole earth was pounding my knees and hips.\n\nThe pace did drop off but I came in sub-two hours, I had believed it was fare target but was now seeing as a reality. I was chuffed to bits to finish to cross the line. One big question now remains, was that the end or just the beginning? I'll ponder that one for a few days. \n\n23/10/2006\n\nLess than one week to go and I feel like if I ain't ready then I ain't ever going to be ready. Have been keeping up with my little and often approach to training and have managed to keep my eye on the final goal - getting across that finish line while still smiling and having not totally bust a gut. Today my confidence level fluctuates as often as the west Auckland weather and is just as variable. Usually bright, with much promise but occasional grey spells and fear of depression. Bouts of wind not uncommon.\n\nTo be honest I am really looking forward to the event and believe it will be a day that will live with me for a long time. \n\n11/10/2006\n\nTook Monday off, then a short jog on Tuesday and today ran my long run for the week, out for just over an hour. It is all ticking along nicely and I am cautious of picking up a late injury.\n\nI was commended by another runner on my light running style today, at first I felt flattered but then wonder if really "light" was not actually a positive but rather like "lite" cigarettes or mayonnaise and meant something other than it seemed to suggest. Oh I don't know. \n\n8/10/2006\n\nToday was the Waitakere City 11KM fun run and believe it, or not, it was fun - for me!\n\nOut of a field of 475, I came in at number 78, timed at 56:34. I had shaved over nine minutes off last years time and came in with more than a little left to offer. This was a very pleasing performance and with three weeks left to the big race I do feel like the training is paying off. Also the growing amount of sponsorship is adding to my determination to put in the final effort needed and get around the course successfully on the 29th.\n\nSadly I got my first blister today, apart from that all else seems to be working well, so long may it last.\n4/10/2006\n\nDid I complain about the last run out with the Glen Eden Harriers? Sorry, I should have been more grateful. The have pushed me further than I would have managed on my own. Today was grueling, up and down round the step streets of Titirangi.\n\nTotal running time was hour and fifteen, and longest to date. I ended beat and my head throbed with exertion. Yet I had managed to keep up with a group of experienced runners and now feel I am reaching a peak.\n\n2/10/2006\n\nYesterday I managed a short 20 minutes around the block and then picked up a large bag of chips to take home and share. Lard boy.\n\nToday, a hot and sweaty hour of running, with four weeks to go I feel I need to go just that little bit further, ready for a big push and then on the big day I will reap the benefits. I can't believe the changes over the last few weeks, I have always had a fairly good level of fitness but now I feel stronger than I have ever felt, my body has changed and if any one needs to improve their fitness I would recommend it. It can be done. \n\nTomorrow I may feel different and I reserve the right to change my mind.\n\n28/9/2006\n\nSlow, slow, I'm tired today, guess I need to go back motivational therapy, like imagine I've nicked something. Only 20 minutes tonight. \n\n27/9/2006\n\nI haven't made an entry for a few days but have out three of the last four days. \n\nSunday, a day of rest, I took it easy and skipped even the briefest of runs. \n\nMonday, 35 minute jog, light, up and around Glen Eden, one of those important short runs that keep me going in the right direction.\n\nTuesday, we all headed up to the Exhibition Drive path, Ben on his Bike, Paula and Billie walking, me running like a seasoned pro. Well not quite but I did enjoy it. It feels like me little and often approach to training is paying off. Ran for 40 minutes.\n\nSo today, out with the Glen Eden Harriers. It was hard and I feel stretched further than the US Army in Iraq. Two bigs hills, that felt longer than the related downs, and the quick pace have given me a good test. I finished it, so I guess I passed. The official Auckland Marathon website countdown clock is showing 31 days 8 hours and 23 minutes. I'll be there and I feel I will be ready, if my good fortune continues.\n\n23/9/2006 \n\nIf I needed a trainer I wouldn't ask Paula. As I stretched those poor, over worked muscles, I said I,m off to run for an hour and a quarter. "What!" she said "that's too far." So with her encouragement I set off to run for 35 mins instead, which I managed comfortably and got home before everyone else had finished breakfast.\n\nSaving a big run for later. \n\n21/9/2006\n\nTired legs. This is when it gets tough. I managed a 35 minute run and was glad to finish, actually I couldn't run all the way home and stopped about 400m from the house. A real sign of lack of character!\n\nRest day tomorrow and boy do I need it. \n\n20/9/2006\n\nAnother good run. Joined up the Glen Eden Harriers again and they pushed me a bit further than I would have been able to do on my own. It was about 10kms over 55 minutes. Felt flushed and ready to drop by the end. \n\n19/9/2006\n\nTook Monday off, no excuses but I had been working late and then early and felt I deserved to kick back, chill with a beer and a lovely home made curry. Write to me if you want to get the recipe for a lush potato and Cauliflower curry.\n\nSo today, a day off work, I returned to the Exhibition drive track, one of my old runs and a definite fav. It was motivating because I skipped along and finished in a time I wouldn't have managed five weeks ago and still had some left. It is looking promising. \n\n17/9/2006\n\nKeeping it going, went out with everyone to a local beach and from their I did a smart 30 minute run. I had just set off when it started to rain, I carried on and Paula and the kids had to shelter in the car. They apparently played I-spy, it went a bit like this "I spy with my little eye something being with R" Easy really.\n\nLuckily it was a brief shower and they soon got back to the serious business of examining rock pools.\n\nLast night I sneeked a look at some other blogs and one guy that really impressed me was Mike Kilpatrick, only 31 he tipped the scales at 131kg. This big man has taken it on to change his life, check out his blog to see what he has achieved. I hope I see him on the big day. \n\n16/9/2006\n\nSolid run, 55 minutes at a brisk pace, feeling better than ever, cool overcast day, that helped. \n\n14/9/2006\n\nA 30 minute jog tonight. Tired limbs felt heavy after the long run last night, also this is my sixth straight night out and so I am looking forward to tomorrows free day. \n\n13/9/2006\n\nYou may have realised that many of my run outs are solitary affairs. \n\nTonight was very different, I joined up with the local Glen Eden Harriers, and set off with the medium paced pack to pound the dark streets of Glen Eden, Kelston, New Lynn and Titirangi. They maintained a good pace and it was a good stretch for me. The run took 65 minutes and I finished well. Tired but feeling that I still had more in me. Look forward to next Wednesday when they go out again. \n\n10/9/2006\n\nThe wages of sin are… sore legs, nausea, self-doubt, and a breathless crawling finish. With Paula back I haven't been out all week, preferring to stay in drinking wine and catching up. Well that has been done and now I must get back on track, out six nights a week, preparing for the event.\n\nManaged 50 minute run out this afternoon after work, it was warm and wet and I didn't find it easy. \n\n1/9/2006\n\nOfficially the first day of spring, or so Billie told me, I had to wait 'til night time to get out for a run.\n\nWith the kids in bed, a baby sitter in place, I was off. Managed 50 mins, of which about 10 was walking because I did myself in. I misjudged the climb up a hill, it just climbed and climbed and I climbed and then had to stop. After catching my breath I bravely ran down the hill. This run was dedicated to John Oxton who kindly sponsor me. \n\n30/8/2006\n\nKids safely off to school, running shoes on and laced up. A chance to get back on track. The Exhibition drive track to be precise. A good 40 minute run out that is dedicated to Sue Oxton for kindly sponsoring me, Thanks Sue.\n\nThe weather is improving and the faint hint of spring is in the air. \n\n26/8/2006\n\nA good run out, the end of my second full week of training and the hard work appears to be paying off, I managed a full hour and five minutes and felt on top through out. It must have the two days rest that helped.\n\nWill be going easy next week, parenting responsibilities take over as I play Mum as well as Dad.\n\n17/8/2006\n\nA brisk 35 run, dedicated to Letty and Mo, first up to sponsor me, a boy-in-blue in pursuit will be a good visualisation, thanks for the tip.\n\nIt was a warmer evening, thank-fully, and it went well. Days rest tomorrow and back on the road Saturday. \n\n16/8/2006\n\nVery gentle 20 minute jog around the block, again very cold and could have worn a hat and gloves, looking forward to running in the spring.\n \n15/8/2006\n\nStarting to feel the pressure, not really but had a hard workout. A comfortable 15 minutes jogging followed by 20 minutes full out left me panting and glad to sit down to watch at film at home.\n\nIt was a cold night and the streets were quite. Enjoyed this run. \n\n14/8/2006\n\nDay one of training, a very gentle jog for 20 minutes. Just went around a the block. Easy start. \n\n10/8/2006\n\nExhibition drive.\n\nBack to my favourite run and after the trials of Karekare beach it was a fun run out, felt very good and finished feeling better than ever. Ready to start training programme next Monday. \n\n6/8/2006\n\nHard,demanding run in extreme conditions on Karekare beach. It was a howling north-easterly that caused all our troubles, it whipped up the black sand and pounded our bodies. Harsh, harsh running, after this it will be a stroll in the park.\n\nIt should have been a 10k run, but the wind assisted outward leg was a breeze, but I then stumbled back into the bitting wind \n\n27/7/2006\n\nI haven't officially commenced my training regime but I had a warm up run.\n\nI ran a brisk run along the Exhibition Drive track, near Titirangi, I managed to complete the 6.4km distance in 35 minutes. I felt like that was far enough for now so I will need to get into training mode if I will manage the 22kms. The weather was cool and made for a easier run.

30 million years in the making. Undisturbed by man until the last hundred or so years. The Waitomo cave is one of over 400 that have been mapped in the area but this is the most famous.\n\nOur guide for the tour told us how it was her grand-father, Tane Tinorau, who had discovered the caves in 1887. He was accopanied by an English surveyor, Fred Mace.\n\nYou are taken inside and along 250m of stunning undergroung scenery,the cave opens up into what is known as the Catherdral. The acoustic of the cave are fantastic, and each tour party is invited to sing a song, we had to be encouraged but mentioned to do Twinkle twinkle little star some justice. A near by group of Japanesse tourists managed a more melodic song, that filled the cave with a beautiful sound.\n\nAs we left the catherdral we stepped down to the waters edge and waited to board a small raft, the water was by now lapping over the last step and the tours would soon cease. On board, the rafts a pulled along on a system of overhead ropes, the silence is complete and powerful. Slowly, eyes acustom to the total darkness and a sense of wonderment cover the raft and gentle 'oohs' rise to meet the GlowWorms.\n\nThousands of glowworms twinkle, not to delight tourists but to attract bugs to become lunch.

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This annual event attracts over 10,000 people involved at the various distances on offer. These runners are bound to combine to conjure up strange rules,ideas, and facts.\n\nFor many of the entrants a top reason for taking part is the oppotunity to ran over the cties iconic HarbourBridge. But don't think that you can cheat and and only run the bridge without first pounding the 12kms that wind from [[Devonport]] to the bridge. The marathon organisers are out to stop such poor sporting behaviour and use video camera and cheats checkers to keep of the most famous part of the race.\n\nThe race start is on the NorthShore and to get you there there are seven ferry from downtown that can shift 4400 runners in an our and 25 minutes.

Another market held out west is the weekly AvondaleMarket, this event at the racecourse is billed as a Pacific market, but it's flavour is mainly oriental, this doesn't diminish or fade the vibrancy and colour of the market but it does change the impact.

Come to Piha and figure for yourself. Location, people, energy, surf, bush, RadioPiha, that lush black sand, it all adds up and equals more than the sum of the parts. A truely magical place.\n\nGood hot chips, plump, fluffy and always hot. Get them on MarineParade South

\nThe murals of Katikati are an interpretation of the town's history, its people and events. They draw inspiration from the past as they help the town look to the future. From three murals in 1991, the town now features 23. In addition Katikati features a growing collection of other outdoor art. This growth will continue as Katikati ~Open-Air Art and the community, plan more murals, more sculptures, and more festivals.\n\nAmong my favouites that we saw that day are:\n\nThe Guardians ...\n\nNga Kaitiaki. 1999, Mutu Bryan, Tuapiro Marae. \n\nThe two carvings represent the carver's great paternal grandparents. They are Witere Great Grandfather - the carved figure - and Mokomoko Great Grandmother - the traditionally carved panel. The standing figure of Witere is clothed in a kiwi feather cloak. His handlebar moustache was the European fashion of the time. His raised hand represents the Ringatu religion. Mokomoku is represented as a panel carved in the tradition of the Mataatua style. The couple died within a year of each other. Witere died on May 7 1933. His body was taken by boat, horse and sled from Tuapiro to the old cemetery on Bowentown Hill.

Whities.

If this was the biggest, the best, then I wonder what the others had to offer. Billed the people's parade. It certainly had participating groups representing the diverse population of WaitakereCity, Croatians, Dalmatians, Thai, Pacific Islanders, Maori, Chinese, Indian, religious groups, and other cultural groups. The highlights for many would have been the collection of old vechicles that turned out, police cars, fire engines, vintage cars, petrol-head yankee cars, even a collection of american military vechicles. The local police marched behind a Scotish pipe band, they were a uniquely prominently european group. Not many dark faces to be seen in their ranks.\n\nThe crowds were thin. Prehaps the bond that the Councl was so keen to promote has yet to realise in the local population.\n\nAfter the official opening by the PM Helen Clarke, the remaining and fast dewindling crowds were entertained by a Japanese Drumming group, music from the south Pacific Islands and a local high school Kapa Haka group.

<<<\nThe stamp is an important object. Although very small in format, it carries a message. Stamps are a measure of the culture of a country. This tiny, rectangular piece of paper links the hearts of the sender and the receiver. It is a bridge between peoples and nations. The stamp knows no borders. It reaches us even in prisons, asylums and hospitals, and wherever we may be on earth. Stamps should be ambassadors of art and life and not simply soulless proofs of postage paid. The stamp must experience it's destiny. The stamp must once again fulfil it's purpose, which means it must serve on letters. A true stamp must feel the tongue of the sender moistening it's gum. A stamp must be stuck on a letter. A stamp must experience the dark depths of the post box. A stamp must suffer franking. A stamp must sense the hand of the postman handling the letter to the addresse. A stamp which is not mailed on a letter is no stamp. It has never lived, it is a sham. It is like a fish who has never swum. A bird who has never flown. A stamp must have lived as a stamp. The stamp is the only work of art that everyone can own, young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick, educated and ignorant, free or robbed of freedom. This precious piece of art reaches everyone as a gift from afar. A stamp should be a testimony to culture, beauty and the creative spirit of mankind.\n<<

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Very few cities around the world are built on top of an active volcanic field, it just doesn't make good sense, but it the case of Auckland it adds to the unique feel and if you reflect on the nature of the peril it is one of the few things that give the city any edge.\n\nThe city has over 50 volcanic cones, the oldest, like the AucklandDomain and Albert Park, are over 60,000 years old but the most recent to erupt, was the cities iconic Rangitoto.\n\nCheck out the cities five highest volcanic peaks,\n\n*[[Rangitoto]]\n*MtEden\n*OneTreeHill\n*MtHobson\n*MtWellington\n\n\nAre the locals fearful of their firery underbelly? FindOut.\n

The term "westie" has grown in notoriety since NZ One put out it's comic drama "Outrageous Fortunes" feature and lovable rouge family, the West's, who live out west.