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Birth of New Zealand
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Continuing north we headed to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. We got to the village which has fantastic views of the bay at lunchtime so we rushed on to the Waitangi Reserve to get a Maori guided tour of the place where NZ was born. Our guide was of the line of chiefs and he was a very nice, very intelligent man. He took us us round the grounds showing us a war canoe, a meeting house for all NZ people and the treaty House where the treaty between the English settlers and the Maori was signed. It was a fantastic tour and our guide spent 2 hours with us even though the tour only lasted an hour. We had many questions for him and with his knowledge of pretty much everything we all talked for a long time. At the end it became a bit emotional as the New Zealanders of our group were welcomed home (many of their misconceptions about the Maori and the history of NZ having been shattered) and we were formally welcomed as well.
After this we went back to the village to book our cruise and dolphin swimming in the bay for the next day. We then headed to our camp which was again in front of a waterfall. The park was quite empty but it was very nice with lovely views, a big pool (no time for a swim though) and a happy, relaxed atmosphere. NZ is just a lovely place to be.
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