Busby Manor

One from my visits to Paihia when we lived in Kerikeri. The Busby Manor resort is on the waterfront overlooking the beach and was named after one of the country's colonialists James Busby who employed by the Governor of New South Wales (Australia) to protect the more well behaved British settlers and traders in the early to mid 1800s. He also assisted William Hobson in drafting the Treaty of Waitangi.

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123 Grafton Road

See that lovely old villa on the left? Located at 123 Grafton Road in Auckland City it was once derelict, falling apart with rotting windows and joinery. Now it is being used by the Falling Apple Charitable Trust who purchased it in 2013 with the intent of promoting culture, art, music, education, health, sustainability and well-being in the community.

The restoration includes help from 250 volunteers both local and from abroad and according to my research the villa was built around 1882. It was owned by a George William Basley and his wife Frances - it is mostly made of Kauri. Originally governor William Hobson purchased the land in 1841 with local chiefs Kawau, Tinana and Reweti Tamaki signing the deed of sale.

Over the years the property was passed between different owners until in 1976 it was sold to Housing NZ where it was used as a boarding house, a drug rehab center and privately rented. In 2011 it was placed in Auckland City Council's heritage list and is now being tastefully restored.

I don't know if you've heard about the fires sweeping through Australia at the moment but apparently 1 of them was started by a 12 year old boy and the rest (over 50 of them) are the result of long dry weather with no rain, please if you can say a prayer for them.

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Okiato Historic Reserve

This place doesn't look like much. A spectacular view over the Bay of Islands, a small fence around a well - what's there to say?

But if you dig deeper there's quite a bit of information about this spot which has been named as NZ's first capital from 1840-1841. The land and buildings that were here were owned by James Clendon who ran a very successful trading station. However when Governor William Hobson arrived here he had to find a site for a government settlement and Okiato was picked.

William Hobson had a surveyor draw up plans for a new town to be developed which was to be named "Russell". The site was never followed through with as intended and the buildings that were left there by James Clendon formed formed the first foundations of the area.

In 1842 William Hobson moved the capital to Auckland leaving the police magistrate at Okiato and in  a few months later the government house and it's offices were destroyed by a fire. This old well is all that remains at this particular spot.

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Maharahia te ra tatangi!

Today is Waitangi Day here in New Zealand. As a nation we celebrate the day the treaty was founded which was an agreement made between representatives of the British Crown and more than 500 chiefs in 1840. This house belonged to James Busby, who co-authored the treaty with William Hobson has been well restored and is on the Heritage NZ list as a category 1 listed building.

The treaty however had different connotations and meanings for both Maori and European back then and from what I've come to know is that many chiefs did not truly understand the ramifications of what they were signing. It was created to be an agreement between both cultures and to bring the country to unity, however many breaches of it by different governments over the years have caused anger and strife - the more I've learned the more I've understood why many people are up in arms over it.