Friday 23 December A nice day out

There's not much left to do except wait. Waiting for our SSB to come back from Seattle where it's been sent today for repair and waiting for Christmas to come so when Chris and Dave asked if we fancied a run out in the car for sight seeing it was a unanimous 'yes please'.


Last time we were here in Northland we missed the Waitangi Treaty House in Paihia. It's famous as the site where the British government signed the treaty with the Maori chief to make New Zealand a British colony and a sub district of New South Wales in Australia. We drove through Paihia and out to the headland where Europeans first landed on these shores. At the cultural centre there's a carved Maori house, the biggest wooden canoe in the world with seats for 80 oarsmen and walk through the grounds. Three miles along an unpaved road we reached Haruru Falls – a small semi circular fall formed by a fault in the basalt rock – and enjoyed a walk along the river path coming across noisy cormorant nests in the trees. I don't know where I thought cormorants nested but I didn't realise it was in trees on a river bank.
Cultural places ticked off a different taste of tourism; wine, chocolate and fudge tasting. At the first winery owned by ex cruisers from California we also discovered the owners have a passion for collecting Morris Minor cars. They've got 8 with some of the rare old ones with the split screen and all were in excellent condition. We've seen many classic British cars here. Most likely they were shipped in the 50's and 60's when their owners emigrated and the climate is kind for them.
On from the wine where CD found a fine bottle of port for their Christmas treat we continued into Kerikeri and a stop at the heavenly chocolate shop where every visitor can sample the goods while watching the next batches being made in the glass fronted kitchen. A short way up the road to the fudge shop where they were most generous with tastings. I think we must have tried all the 15 flavours once and the crème brulee two or three times. The lady behind the counter had spent time in England and happily chatted with the two Daves' while continuing to cut and offer. I was feeling a supercharged sugar hit after that. One more winery in a pretty setting on the way back. Either their wines were thin on flavour or we'd ruined our palates with the fudge.