At 2:20 in the morning I woke up to this lunar eclipse, where the earth's shadow made the moon "disappear", an ominous omen of the British eclipsing indigenous population.
Māori (commoner) warrior canoe ride, double pontoon canoes--a 5000 yr old tradition of catamarans and navigating by the stars. I enjoyed this Māori owned and operated cultural experience where the local chief explained how the various tribes were perceived as different as different counties in Europe.
We paddled up the Waitangi (Weeping) River with traditional Māori canoe commands after learning about Māori spirituality of the four gods: sky, earth, water and wind and their children. Thankfully, we were aided by a special warrior paddle, Yamaha!
After I visited the most important historic site in New Zealand, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds with the Treaty House through the signing of the Declaration of Independence, He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni, in 1835 and the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840 where the British and Māori people agreed to live together as partners in an independent nation. Of course, the two documents were translated differently--every translation is indeed interpretation and as usual the indigenous people get the short end of the treaty stick by the colonialists!
