Mauri Culture and the Hole in the Rock!

The next day I was up quite early due to jet lag - thankfully minus the head ache that had been on/off since arriving on Wednesday. Kirsten had already been up and watched the sunrise though - advantage of knowing the area and where to go. We had free hostel breakfast of toast and jam, plus a heavenly filter coffee thanks to clever planning ahead and packing by W+K (you all know who I mean really). ;) We walked into Paihia and explored centre, I bought some postcards and picked up tourist info for myself and parents - to help them discover this beautiful country. We booked ourselves onto the Excitor 90 minutes adventure to the hole in the rock for 2.30pm. We wanted to do it at 4.30pm but there were not enough people - only problem with it being autumn. So we had less time at Waitangi where I discovered Mauri culture at the home of colonial style Treaty House, the Mauri Whare runanga (meeting house - spiritual) and cove of the war canoe or waka. We saw the cultural performance, which was enlightening and entertaining.

On the Excitor boat trip we saw dolphins! It was magnificent to see these mammals swimming around the boat for about 5 minutes before we picked up an extra person at Russell. We then sped on to the Hole in the Rock, taking a look around the cathedral next door first and eyeing up the light house on Cape Brett - no one lives there now (since 1970s) but you can stay in the home if you like remote places! It was incredibly windy and cold travelling at 40 knots, with a dark and broody sky. We only got wet though from the spray and Kirsten caught most of it having swapped seats with me after taking some photos. Talk about ‘Living On A Prayer’, which was playing rather appropriately at the time by Bon Jovi!

We all needed a hot drink to warm up once back on shore - Big Toddle and Gilbert look very cosy here in front of large hot chocolates. I decided to go it alone and book myself on to an Awesome Adventure bus trip to Cape Reinga for the next day - early start 7.15am till late 6pm. Chatting to the lady there we learnt that Only Seafood was the place to go for fish. So that's where we went and I tried oysters and broadbill for the first time all washed down with Pinot Gris by Matakana Estate- yum! I insisted we had desert (sticky toffee pudding) with a bottle of late harvest muscat from Matua Valley = heavenly sweet!