Ra Rima (5) & May 31

I'll start telling you about my day, we went to the Wellington Zoo!
We had a lot of fun (we is Ulli and me of course)just walking around looking at the animals. It wasn't a very large zoo, but we managed to spend almost 3 hours. I've taken some photo's and later this night I'll try to upload them. Together with the photo's that have never arrived at the site...

We saw tigers, giraffes, baboons, chimpansees, really tiny monkeys (size of a Guineapig) lion like and black and white ones, red panda's (looked like racoon in size and shape), reptiles, the kiwi was sleepig, some ducks, birds and lions...

Well, these lions, they were something. You have probably seen lions mating on Discovery Channel...well these lions went at it right in front of our eyes! It sounds a bit voyeuristic me saying this but it was very awesome and I even took some photo's...:)

and now back to the story of the tour of the North Island.
Day 5 (Ra Rima)

We left Timothy's house about eleven and our destination would be somewhere above Waitangi. In Whangarei we went to go and see the Whangarei Falls, 26 meters high, cascading over a lava thingy. Well, that was easier said than done but after half an hour or so we finally found them. It was very beautiful. The track started at the top of the fall and led down to a picnic table at the bottom. You're probably able to make a mental image: a little pool with the waterfall on one side, a brook flowing away from it, a patch of grass with a picnic table...pretty idyllic. (yes photo available, but you have to wait until I'm back) So we packed our lunch, walked down and enjoyed our lunch and scenery.

After that we drove on to go to Waitangi. Waitangi is one of the most famous places of New Zealand because that is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. The maori thought they got a good deal, but the english conveniently forgot to tell them that the english version (and thus the dominant version) was just a little different than the one in Te Reo Maori...

In Waitangi park there was nothing mentioned about this...However, it was cool to see the place where it all happened. The still have a real copy (real and copy don't really match..) of the actual, original treaty. There is also this incredibly big Waka (canoe) on display which has room for over 100 warriors. And believe me...you don't want to encounter such a war waka...

After our visit to Waitangi we needed a place to sleep, so we drove around looking for a convenient spot. Nothing to be found...so, we just drove into a road outside a little town..We found ourselves surrounded by orchards with lemons! So there we just parked the camper (behind the hedge of a house, so they couldn't see us) and stayed there overnight....

Next episode: Tane Mahuta :)