From Whangarei to Waitangi

I’m lying flat in bed. My lungs are stinging. Bad cold. My laptop is behaving in solidarity. Apparently caught a nice virus from the diving school on Mana. I sip honey tea and worm my workbench. It’s raining and storming outside all day. I do a bit of work and pin the second couchsurfer and Canadian from Khandahar, Maurice.

I feel better the next day. Not the car at all. I’d left the lights on. Maurice helps with the resuscitation. His car is a Holden Astra, no joke. Viva la globalización! My destination for today is Pahia in the Bay of Islands. This is where today’s New Zealand began with the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Ancient cultural land.

I stop at a mangrove forest. The Bay of Islands lies before me. They are not actually islands, but mountains between river valleys flooded by the sea. 150 islands and thousands of boats in between. The hills are dotted with villas. The first hostel in Pahia is once again having problems with its own laptop. The second lets me access the internet for $10 a day.

It’s a very nice little hostel, nice people: The Mousetrap. View of the bay, a kitchen like a ship’s galley. Cédric, a young Frenchman, comes along on a day trip. We drive to the Waitangi Treaty Ground. This is where the Maoris and the English made peace 170 years ago. There’s hardly anything to see for the $12, every show costs extra. A mean gardener takes the lemon from me that I steal in front of William Hobson’s house.

We drive round the bay, I look for kitesurfing spots. No wind and no space. Doesn’t matter. I’m on my way again, no matter where. Suddenly we’re standing at the 20 metre high Rainbow Waterfall, spitting mandarin seeds into the depths. Yodelling tourists are hiding behind the curtain of water. On the way back, there’s another mission to admire, the oldest stone building in New Zealand at almost 200 years old. Every Kiwi visiting Regensburg should actually start crowing.

In the evening we give the barbecue grill a good fire. After the fourth steak, I’m a bit full. We’ve burnt almost half a kilo of butter for roast potatoes and herb butter. This layer is absolutely impenetrable to any liquid, including beer. I enjoy an immunised evening with nice people and fall into bed far too late again.