Wednesday 6th February was a holiday here in NZ – to celebrate the signing of Waitangi. For those unfamiliar – this was the birth of New Zealand, where Maori tribal leaders and the British crown signed the treaty of Waitangi in 1840,which made the land a British Colony. To this day there is a lot of controversy over this signing, mostly to do with Maori land ownership. Read more on the treaty here, and see my photos of Waitangi here
Captain William Hobson was co-signer of the treaty and representative of the Crown. Later he was invited by the Maori Iwi (tribe) Ngāti Whātua to create a settlement on their land – which later became known as Auckland. I spent Waitangi at the place where he landed – Okahu Bay.
A few music acts and market was put on by the local tangata whenua. The majority of people there were Maori and it felt good to be in a minority for a change.
Tino rangatiratanga – or the adopted Maori flag designed in 1990. This flag is preferred over previous flags by many because of it’s lack of colonial connotations
I keep telling myself to always carry my camera on me. Yet I had left it at work, and didn’t feel like the round trip to get it. Low and behold not only did I have to use my camera phone for the above shots, on the way back I ran into a massive parade of V8 American muscle cars just cruising around Auckland. Chargers, Mustangs, Hot-Rods, Corvettes, Plymouths, Cadillacs all in mint condition. Overload of great photos to be taken but without a decent camera. Then I spotted this beast, even a Dodge Charger paled next to this:
