Treaty of Waitangi Video

I have finished my Treaty of Waitangi video.  I got a lot of the pictures off the internet (cited at the end), but took all of the video, except where noted. Make sure to watch the credits, as they're the best part. You can watch it below in 720p (HD), 480p (normal), or 360p (small).





My video with footage from my trip is not done (I haven't even started), and it may not get finished for a few weeks.

Map

Here is a map I created (from a base map) of our trip. I put (I think) everywhere we spent the night and other important points of interest. Parts of it are a little messy, and the intercoastal roads might not be perfectly geographically correct, but I think it gets the point across. Click on it to see detail.

Home Sweet Haines

Well, I’m finally back in Haines. We rode the ferry back Friday morning and got to Haines about 1:00. I am very glad to be back. My cat, Cyrus, was very happy to see us.

After going on a hike almost every day and spending so much time outside, we have been trying to do the same here. We have been going out on a hike almost every day. The weather here is remarkably sunny and amazingly warm, up in the 40s (4 C). On a hike we went on today it was so hot in the sun that I was walking around in just a T-shirt.

So this is the end of my blog. In the next week or so I hope to make a map of our trip. I also took a lot of video on our trip that wasn’t practical to but on the blog, so I am hoping to make a short video. Check back in a week or two.

I have another blog, just of normal life here in Haines. Compared to this blog, it is probably going to be pretty boring and I may only update it once or twice a week. The link is: ewsjournal.blogspot.com.

I hope you had fun reading about my trip and I didn’t bore you with the details too much.

Juneau

Day 47- March 24^th, 2010

The next day we did a lot of shopping. The ferry didn’t leave till Friday morning, so we were stuck in Juneau for two nights. Since it was spring break, we met a lot of people from Haines who were also shopping. We mostly bought household supplies or clothes, which can be somewhat limited in Haines. Sheeshao met a couple of friends of hers from Haines at the store and instantly started playing.

Later we went with one of Sheeshao’s friends out to the Mendenhall Glacier, which is just a few minutes out of town. We went on a short little hike out to see it. It was surprisingly warm. There was snow near the glacier, but around the rest of town there was next to nothing. I was expecting it to be somewhat wintery, but it felt more like spring. I am sort of sad that I missed half of the winter here, but I guess New Zealand was worth it.

Later that night we met some friends of ours from when we used to live in Juneau. We went out to a Mexican restaurant with them and had fun talking about our trip.

Return trip

   

The next morning we drove to Auckland, dropped off our rental car, and caught out flight. My mom was flying on a separate flight, so she had to wait in the airport for a few hours. On the flight I mostly watched movies. At home I usually don’t watch many mainstream movies, and when I do, it won’t be until a couple of months after it comes out on DVD. I probably should have been working on my research paper, but my excuse was that I was studying American TV culture. I watched Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Red. I also watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was the first of the new Narnia movies that I had seen. Then I watched some interesting TV shows, such as Glee and Two and a Half Men. From these shows, I wasn’t all that impressed with American culture. Because I was watching all of these, I didn’t sleep, so when we got to LA I was a bit tired.

When we got there it was the next day, but it was still Wednesday because we had crossed the date line. We got some more breakfast, in addition to the frittata, bacon, sausage, and fruit salad I had on the plane. Then we waited four hours for our flight to Seattle. We had a six hour layover here, so we went shopping and got some food. My mom would be on the same flight as us for the last leg, and she fly in about two hours before our flight left.

We finally got into Juneau at about 9:30, Alaska Time. It was a 28-hour trip, but it wasn’t nearly as “grueling” as my parents made it out to be. We picked up a rental car from the airport (for about $50 more per day than our NZ car) and drove to Fred Meyer for some dinner and breakfast supplies.

Goat’s Island and Orewa

Day 44- March 22^nd

     

The next morning we went out to the beach to try Snorkeling, but the water was too choppy. Instead we took our time stopping at little stores and emptying out our NZ bank account. We ended up in Orewa at about noon, where we stayed at a self-contained cabin at Pinewoods Motorcamp. The cabin was only $110 NZD a night, but had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a TV, a private bathroom (probably the third one we’ve had on the trip) and a large table and couch.

        

We hung all of our stuff out to dry then walked out to the beach. My parents and sister went swimming while I took pictures. They then swam over to another beach and I walked along the road to meet them. It was a swimming beach with some surfers and swimmers, but otherwise fairly unremarkable. While they continued to swim, I walked back to our cabin and got some work done.

That night we got mostly packed while we watched Whale Rider, a fictional movie that explores the merging of the modern world with traditional culture. We also had a brought a DVD with a couple episodes of the TV series Flipper, which was funny to watch and see the differences in modern and ‘50s television.

Whangarei Shopping and Goat’s Island

Day 43- March 21^st

The next morning it was still raining, so we threw our stuff in the car and left. We stopped at the longest footbridge in the southern hemisphere in Whananaki and walked across it. It appeared to have been built to allow children from one side of the inlet to walk to school on the other side. Then we drove back to Whangarei.

Unfortunately, since it was raining, I was unable to use my camera, so these pictures were taken by my dad with his waterproof camera.

In Whangarei, we stopped at a Farmers (department store) to buy my mom and sister some clothes. Since we live four hours from any other town, and the selection is a bit limited in our town, every time we are in a big city we have to go shopping, no matter what country.

On the way out of the Farmers, we saw a rug store with handmade Turkish Rugs. I didn’t see any that were exactly what I wanted, but my mom and sister both got one (for a total of $400). We stopped at a café for lunch, and I got a BLAT (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato) sandwich with gluten free bread. It was very good and not very expensive.

We then drove down to Leigh where we stayed at a holiday park near Goat’s Island. It was still pouring down rain, so we got a cabin. We were flying out in only two days, so we needed to start packing and drying stuff out. Unfortunately there was no internet at the park, so we would have to go to another holiday park for our last night, as we had to make some reservations for our flight (such as special gluten-free meals).

Otamure

Day 42- March 20^th

We drove back over to the west coast again, stopping in Whangarei on the way. In Whangarei we stopped to see the Whangarei Falls, which is supposedly the most photographed waterfall in NZ. From the number of photographs I took, it certainly seems a reasonable supposition. The path around the waterfall starts on one side of the river, then crosses the river to the otherside, then goes down to the bottom of the falls. Because of this you get to see many different angles of the falls, each worth a photograph.

After looking at the falls, my mom, sister and I walked along the river while my dad drove to the end. The river path was very beautiful and reminded me of Oregon and the pacific northwest. The path ended up at a treetop boardwalk through a Kauri forest. My dad met us there and we walked through  it for a few minutes.

We camped on the coast at a DOC campground at Otamure. It was overcast, but my dad and sister still went swimming. I walked around and took pictures of patterns in the sand, the waves, and a little stream.

That night it started raining. By leaving the door of my tent open, I could keep condensation from forming on the top of my tent as it had on previous nights.Un fortunately it also mean that a bit of rain came in the door, but my tents was long enough that I just scooted to the far end of the tent and didn’t get too wet.

Kauri Forest

Day 41- March 19^th

The next morning my mom and I stopped by the Waitangi Treaty Grounds again. Our admission was good for two days and I wanted to get a few more shots. Afterwards we drove west to Rawene, a small little town art town. Next we stopped at Koutu Boulders, a little beach with a bunch of round boulders. We walked around for a little and took some family pictures.

We went to Omapere point, at the mouth of Hokianga Harbor, next. We went on a short little walk and looked at some beautiful sandstone formations and the sand dunes across the harbor. You could pay to talk about across and go tobogganing on the dunes, but we decided not to.

Next we drove down to the Kauri forest. Kauri trees are a large tree, usually growing between .5 and 2 meters in diameter. Some were even bigger than that. They were cool to see and we stopped for a walk through the forest.

That night we camped at a DOC campground, Trounson, which was right next to a walk through the Kauri forest. There was also a walk you could go on to see kiwis, but it was $25/person and we were all sort of tired. There was a group of families camped next to us that night with what seemed like 15 kids. They all had huge tents with enough room for two or three queen air mattresses. My tent, which weighs about two pounds, seemed tiny in comparison.

Our Alcohol Stove

Bay of Islands Day 2

Day 40- March 18^th

We decided that, since it was $25/person to see the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, my dad and sister would go on a hike while my mom and I went to see the grounds. I had to go to get some footage for the video I will be making of my research paper. I made a few short clips of my standing next to various objects and talking about them, so hopefully some of them will work. Unfortunately I have a very fuzzy and slurred voice and in the videos you can hardly understand me. Sometimes it is painful for me to listen to a recording of my voice. I think I will have to rerecord the audio (with better pronunciation) to match the video.

We saw a giant Waka (ocean going canoe), as well as a few smaller ones. We watched a 20 minute video about the making of the treaty. We also saw the house that British Resident James Busby had lived in 1870 years ago. It was in his lawn that the treaty was discussed and signed in 1840. From there you can see the towns of Russell and Kororareka. There were also some live presentations we could have seen, but they cost just as much as admission and only lasted 30 minutes.

Besides that, there wasn’t a whole lot to see at the grounds, and almost all of the historical information was about the creation of the treaty and not the content. But I think I got some okay videos, so it was worth the money.

Back at our holiday park, my sister went swimming (with a duck) while I did some more work on my paper.