Far Northland

We headed as far North as Paihai and decided to stop at this town to check into a hostel for that night dropping our things off and immediately heading back out to make the most of our short time up here. We decided to spend the day up even further North at the 90 mile beach, which is inaccurately named as its only 90km (approximately 56 miles). This seemed to be New Zealands answer to Fraser Island in Australia as the beach was technically a road and regular road rules apply. We seen many 4x4's rallying along the sand but our car wasn't insured to drive on the beach and I'm pretty sure it would have been nowhere near as fun as the Land Cruiser we had on Fraser anyway. The sea looked so calm up here compared to the rest of the coastline we have seen and the beach was empty for the size of it.






















Paihai is right on the doorstep of Waitangi where the treaty of Waitangi was signed for Maoris to accept British colonial rule on the 6th of February 1840. We wrote about this in an earlier post and this day is celebrated each year to commemorate the event. The treaty was signed here due to its closeness to the township of Russell across the bay. After the Treaty of Waitangi was signed Russell became the national capital until Maori chief Hone Heke, disgruntled by recently imposed harbour dues and the loss of his authority, attacked the town, burning it to the ground. Hone Heke was finally defeated in 1846 but Russell never recovered and the capital was shifted to Auckland before being moved again to Wellington.

Today Russell is a tiny little town in the Bay of Islands region that can only be accessed by ferry. It has a great vibe to it and reminded us of Luss back in Loch Lomond (unfortunately without the tablet shop!). We spent a few hours having a walk along the shorefront and around the town where we discovered Christ Church, New Zealands oldest church. It was built in 1835 and one of the donors was Charles Darwin who was making his way around New Zealand and Australia at that time. In the church grounds there are several grave sites dedicated to the sailors from HMS Hazard who were killed during Hone Heke's attack. The church walls also have preserved musket holes in the wooden exterior. The church is open to visitors and we were able to take a look inside.




































Hundertwasser's Toilets:

One of the weirdest stops we had in New Zealand was in the little town of Kawakawa. This town developed as a coal mining town in the 1870s and 1880s. It was here that the first train was used in the North Island.

The town is most famous however for its bizzare public toilets. These were created by the towns adopted son Friedrich Hundertwasser, an architect and ecologist. He was born in Austria in 1928 and moved to New Zealand in the early 1970's before being granted citizenship in 1986.

His artwork was very unique and he was no stranger to rejection. However the town of Kawakawa commisioned him to design and build the public toilets on the main street. The Kawakawa toilet block, with its ceramic collumns, garden roof and curving, colorful, exuberance, has put the town on the international tourist route. During construction the use of local labour and talent was encouraged by Hundertwasser. Tiles used in the project were made by local school students, bricks came from local buildings, and the windows on the block were constructed using old bottles from the district. This was to be his final work as he passed away in 2000 at the age of 71.