Hot tubbing on the beach

Saturday - Kawhia Kai Festival and a hot-water beach

After our trip up North we were only in Hamilton for a couple of days before it was time for us to hit the road again and enjoy some nearby beaches. On Saturday, February 4 we drove an hour to a small town called Kawhia (Calf-ee-ah) to take in some of the Kawhia Kai (food) Festival, or more particularly, a Maori food festival. We went with friends, Landis and Carole (Canada) and John and Shardelle (NZ).

[Poster's note: In Maori, wh = f (a soft f, think of "woof").]

While we were there we enjoyed several seafood fritters (think of an open-face sandwich), one with mussels and another with whitebait. Unfortunately, we did not try any hangi. By the time it was ready, we were already full. Hangi is a traditional way of Maori cooking - dig a hole in the ground and build a fire in it. Once hot, place rocks over the fire. Once they are hot enough, place food (lamb, pork, sweet potatoes (kumara), corn, squash, etc.) on the rocks and cover it with sacks/weaving. Cover the hole over with earth. After a few hours the food is ready - steamed. It sounds good and we want to try hangi before we leave.

Kapahaka with poi (swinging balls that add to the dance)

We also watched some kapahaka (a dance (haka) done in rows in which the dancers also sing). A kapahaka can have both men and women participating. Most of us think of haka as a Maori war dance (like the haka performed by NZ's rugby team, The All Blacks, before their matches). While this is one of their purposes, haka are also used for welcoming, telling stories, etc. During one of the kapahaka, the men did slap their chests and thighs like they do when performing a haka as people outside of NZ would normally see one being done (again, think All Blacks). This haka is not for wimps--when the men were finished they had bright red welts where they had been slapping themselves.

There were also some arts and crafts being sold. Marshall bought a small jade pendant. Jade from NZ is an important part of Maori art/crafts. Marshall loves the colour and had wanted to get his hands on a piece since we arrived.

We enjoyed the festival but were a bit under-whelmed. Karen and I thought the fair would highlight more Maori culture/tradition then it did.

Later that afternoon we drove to Ocean Beach, a black sand beach near Kawhia, to go swimming and enjoy a hot-water beach. There are beaches around NZ where springs of hot water (geothermal) bubble up to the surface. During low tide you can find these springs, dig a hole in the sand, and enjoy a hot tub after (or before) swimming in the refreshing ocean. The deeper you dig, the hotter the water and sand, and you don't have to dig too far before the water becomes uncomfortably hot. We had read about NZ's hot-water beaches before we came and were on our list of must-do's.

We had a really fun afternoon at Ocean Beach. The waves were really powerful and Marshall was continuously setting new personal records for the longest body board run (where a wave pushes him on his board up the beach). Karen and I and our friends had fun diving into and over the waves and I worked on my body-surfing skills (riding a wave with no board). Karen described her personal hot tub experience as heavenly.


Sunday - Raglan Beach

Sunday, February 5, was supposed to be hot and sunny vs. Monday (a holiday), so we decided to take advantage of the weather and let Marshall enjoy another beach day before he started school on Tuesday. While the weather was not quite as hot and sunny as promised, we had a choice afternoon.

Ngarunui Beach near Raglan, NZ

Raglan is a well-known surfing town, both in and outside of NZ, and is only 45 minutes away from Hamilton. Just south of Raglan are a series of beaches, each of which has progressively bigger waves/swells. We went to Ngarunui Beach, which is the most popular beach with families. It has lifeguards and is generally safe for swimming. While we were there the waves were not too big so we didn't see much surfing.--novice or beginning surfers practice at one end of Ngarunui Beach. Marshall wanted bigger waves of course and was somewhat peeved that the swimmers and body boarders were unofficially restricted to the calmer end of the beach while the few surfers that were there got the bigger waves. He could have gone to the surf area but Karen and I were not keen on him getting run over by a surf board. What Karen and I liked about Ngarunui Beach was its warmer water -- 20 C.

One day when the swell is up we want to go back to Raglan so Marshall can enjoy some bigger waves and we can watch some real surfing at Manu Bay (famous amongst surfers for its left hand breaking waves, whatever that means), which is a few kilometres south of Ngarunui Beach.


Monday - Treaty of Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day is celebrated every February 6th in NZ and is a national holiday. It is a day to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between the Maori and the British. There was not a lot going on in Hamilton to mark the day so we just hung out at home, fed the ducks at the University ponds, and recovered from our travels of the week before.

To finish up this posting, a little more about the Treaty of Waitangi. Like treaties in Canada, determining its correct interpretation was and is a matter of contention--the Maori and the government have different ideas of what rights the Treaty gave to each side. The Maori, like Canadian First Nations, were never conquered by the British and the Treaty was entered into with good-will and intentions. Also like in Canada, after the Treaty was signed, Maori lands and resources were taken from them by settlers and the government. The Maori were a bit more "assertive" than Canadian First Nations peoples and a series of land wars were fought in the mid-1800's after the Treaty was signed. The Maori were eventually defeated but a new Treaty was never signed. A lot of this fighting took place in the Waikato region where Hamilton is located.

From my work on and reading of Aboriginal law, I don't think the Maori have more treaty rights than Canadian Aboriginal peoples. However, I do believe they have been slightly more successful in enjoying/enforcing those rights. For example, during the above land war in Waikato the government seized 360,000 hectares of land from the Maori and gave it to British soldiers/settlers. In 1995, the Waikato tribes received $170 million in compensation plus any land still in government control along with an apology from the government (from: Lonely Planet - New Zealand, p. 216). The Maori also enjoy revenues from resources. While Canadian First Nations have also received compensation for loss of treaty lands and receive revenues from resources, it just seems to be now more matter-of-course/fact in NZ vs. Canada. This may be because 1 in 7 New Zealander's (14%) are from the Maori ethnic group, while in Canada only 3.75% of the population is Aboriginal (First Nations, Metis, and Inuit) (from: Census statistics).