Waitangi Treaty Grounds

Thursday I was going back down in direction of Auckland the original plan said something about staying two nights in Paihia and two nights in Whangerei. Sufficient to say that I did not like the perspective of staying in either town.

When I reached Paihia it was cloudy again and 9:30am. I went to the I-Site and asked when the next bus is leaving for Whangerei. A few minutes after one o'clock. The only really interesting thing for me to do here would have been swimming with dolphins and visiting the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

Swimming with dolphins was a no go. It was simply to cold and they want to have something around 70 euros for the fun. And I am thinking about the really expensive Australia the whole time. I will probably miss this. But there will be always a next time if I ever come back to NZ.

I went for the half hour walk up to Waitangi and to the treaty grounds. Here I received my next shock. 20 NZD entry fee for non residents. Sometimes I really think that all over the world this kind of stuff needs to be free.
It reminds me of my last visit to Scotland where the people of the Wallace Monument told me, that they are not part of Historic Scotland. HS is a combined entry card for all participating attractions like the castles in Stirling and Edinburgh.

Back to Waitangi:

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I still think that the maoris have been shortchanged in the contract. But while being on the treaty grounds I came to the conclusion that there was not much choice about it. At least the ongoing fighting would have cost them everything in the long run.

I gave my two day entry pass to the first backpacker/campervan I encountered.

After a final look an Paihia I went to grab some lunch and waited for the coach to Whangerei.

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In Whangerei I got the impression of an annoying little town. The weather was cloudy and the hostel was to far out of town. I decided to stay the night and having a look if I could take a coach the next day back to Auckland.

That is what I finally did. The next day it was raining in Whangerei and I thought, in that case I can go back to Auckland early and start planning for Australia.

My last appointment is next week, when I will visit Tim. After getting my Backpack back. I will do some shopping and preparing Australia. Before I will fly back to Brisbane on my birthday.