Saturday, August 18

Saturday, August 18

Josh and I slept in this morning which was good for us and it was a rainy day outside anyway. I made us a breakfast of kiwifruit that we'd bought the day before and cornflakes from the huge box we'd bought the other day. I SUCCESSFULLY MADE PLUNGER COFFEE BY MYSELF!

My coffee success was all because Josh's dad taught me the right way! I brought the breakfast out to the patio for Josh and I to eat outside. It wasn't very long, however, before the little black sand flies were biting our bare feet...back inside the house to finish breakfast.

We decided to spend some time at the Treaty of Waitangi grounds about a 10 minute drive from the apartment. We were able to view a waka (canoe) used to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. We also saw a national marae that doesn't have the name of any one particular Maori tribe because it belongs to everyone...I thought that was a very cool idea. Here are several pictures of the interior of the building:

The flagpole outside the marae marks where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by the Maori and Pakeha (Europeans) on February 6, 1840.

As we left the Treaty of Waitangi grounds, I spotted this curled up silver fern branch. This image is used on a lot of New Zealand stationary/greeting cards so it was cool to notice it out in nature:

We returned to the hotel and I had a can of soup for dinner while Josh finished off the last of the burrito meat. We took it easy and went back to the hot tub...I even got in the freezing cold swimming pool up to my shoulders. ICY!

After the hot tub, Josh and I walked across the street to the beach. We sat on a bench to watch the waves as best we could in the dark. The tide was out and we decided to walk in the waves a bit. I was afraid that a cop would drive by and bother us since we were out at night on the beach and we didn't have our IDs with us. I think I was paranoid from having been pulled over in Palmerston North.

No one bothered us and we were soon back at the apartment where we watched movies before heading to bed. We were scheduled to check out of the apartment the next day by 11. If the weather was nice, we were considering a half day tour on a boat that traveled out into the Bay of Islands area. However, the boat tour departed at 9 am and we do like to maximize our time in a nice place.