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With all my sorting and packing finished, I headed out of Auckland the next morning, Tuesday, stopping at a post office on my way out of town to mail the boxes – some going to Sydney and others heading back home to Bellingham. Then I spent the next few days exploring the Northland. There are some pretty amazing places in this area north of Auckland, including the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga, and I wished I had more time to see it.
As I was heading north, I wasn't sure if I wanted to drive all the way up to Cape Reinga on the northernmost tip of New Zealand, especially since the last 20 miles of the drive were on a dirt road, which my car wasn't insured on. However, since I had driven to the southernmost tip at Bluff four weeks earlier, I figured I better make it up to Cape Reinga, as well. I'm glad I did, too, because Cape Reinga is one of the most spectacular places in the entire country. Standing by the lighthouse there, you really feel like you're at the end of the world.
On my drive back to Auckland that afternoon, I dropped by the town of Waitangi, one of the oldest European settlements in New Zealand. As luck would have it, this was February 6, also known as Waitangi Day, which is New Zealand's national holiday and similar to the 4th of July in the U.S. As I discovered, being in Waitangi on Waitangi Day is a bit like being in Philadelphia on Independence Day, or in Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day.
I've already touched on the Maori situation in New Zealand, but I'll fill in some of the details here. On February 6, 1840, the English and the natives, the Maoris, signed a treaty in Waitangi bringing the Maoris under the protection of the English. By signing the treaty, the Maoris didn't give up any land, but they did allow English agents to act as intermediaries to buy land from the Maoris and then sell it to English colonists – not at all like the massive and unrestrained land-grabs that took place in North America between the American settlers and Native Americans.
In general, the relationship between the Maoris and the whites in New Zealand was (and is) much smoother than the situation in America between whites and Native Americans. One of the things I've been impressed with here in New Zealand is how much better the native tribes co-exist with the white culture compared to how Native Americans have been treated in the U.S. The Maori influence is very strong throughout New Zealand and Maoris are treated much more as equals here than Native Americans are in the U.S. And that's a good thing, as Martha Stewart might say.
After driving over 500 kilometers (300 miles) that day on narrow, winding roads out to Cape Reinga and down to Waitangi, my one-hour drive to the Auckland airport the next morning was downright leisurely. I filled up the Corolla's petrol tank and dropped the car off with Sigit at Easy Rental, who was happy to see me (and his car) back in one piece. After we had a nice chat, Sigit drove me out to the airport, where I said goodbye to him and bade farewell to my trusty Corolla, which had carried me 8,000 kilometers around New Zealand these past two months without a lick of trouble.
Sigit's a good guy and he runs a efficient car rental company. If you want to rent a mid-1990s car in New Zealand for a few weeks or a few months at a much better rate than you'll get from Hertz or Avis, I heartily recommend contacting him.
Above left: Check out this license plate in Whangarei: "Dels V8." Hey Del, that's a nice V-8. Above center: Heading up to Cape Reinga, near the end of Highway 1. Above right: The lighthouse at Cape Reinga, on a beautiful, windy afternoon.
Above left: Looking west from Cape Reinga, the northernmost point in New Zealand. That's the westernmost point of New Zealand off in the distance. Above right: The signpost at Cape Reinga, and as far north as you can go in New Zealand. I've now been to the northernmost and southernmost points of the country. Oddly, this is important to a geographer like me – or to an odd geographer like me, I should say.
Above left: Cable Bay near Kaitaia. Above center: I visited the Bay of Islands and Waitangi on Waitangi Day, New Zealand's national day. There were LOTS of people here, including New Zealand's very capable Prime Minister, Helen Clarke. Above right: Filling up my Corolla in Auckland, just before I flew to Sydney. My faithful friend had carried me over 5,000 miles to all parts of New Zealand without any problems.
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