Barry and Jodie's Kiwi Adventure A Taranaki Ramble

A Three-Day Bike Trip      Next  Home

We returned to Wellington by driving back up the coast from Christchurch, stopping again in Kaikoura.  We used the Eli and Amelia's remaining days to further explore the city.  We visited Te Papa, the phenomenal NZ national museum; saw Return of the King at the Embassy Theater, a recently renovated movie palace part-owned by LOTR director Peter Jackson where the LOTR films had premiered in Wellington; and tramped around the city.  They left in mid-January.  It was hard to say goodbye to such great young adults and travelling companions!

We wanted no grass to grow under our newly callused feet and broken-in hiking boots.  We drove up to the Taranaki area, about 4 hours northwest of Wellington on the west coast, to do a three-day bike trip around the base of one of the North Island's volcanoes, Mt. Taranaki, or Mt. Egmont, as the European settlers called it. 

We were armed for this outing only with the Lonely Planet  Cycling New Zealand guidebook and a couple of good maps.  We'd intended when arriving to purchase bikes, since both of us are avid riders and we thought our NZ sojourn would be a great opportunity to use them to get around and get a workout.  But once we priced them we paused.  Like many consumer durables here, bikes are more expensive, and the choices somewhat more limited, than in the US.  We shopped a bit, but as we learned more we became less enthusiastic.  Our plan to have touring bikes for the Taranaki trip became less and less likely.  In the end, we got help from a B&B owner in the Taranaki area who said he'd arrange rental bikes for us there.

A Historic Treaty and War

Our long motor drive up to New Plymouth, the main city in the Tarankai region, took us through constantly changing terrain, mostly on 2 lane highway.  The weather was changeable, with rain and wind in Wellington that seemed to abate as we traveled north.  As we approached New Plymouth we got our first glimpse of the mountain, wreathed in clouds and rain in the distance.  We took this as a good trend for the planned trip.  We arrived shortly after at our B&B, which was situated high above the city almost adjacent to a big regional park, with a wonderful terrace view of bush and the sea in the distance.  We sat with another American couple and sampled NZ wine as the sun set and the sky cleared.  Our hosts said the recent few days had been unseasonably windy and rainy, but it was promising to clear and they expected more summer-like weather.  We were fortified by their optimism!

New Plymouth was one of the early European centers of settlement, and its growth into the surrounding area was the proximate cause of what is variously called here the Land Wars, the Taranaki Wars or the Civil War.  Maori and Pakeha battled in 1860, only 20 years after the signing of the historic Treaty of Waitangi. 

New Zealand was the last major land mass "discovered" by Europeans, and the last major area colonised by European settlement.  The islands had been inhabited by Maori, who emigrated to the islands from Polynesia, since around 700 CE.  Europeans first encountered New Zealand when Capt. Abel Tasman, employed by the Dutch East India Company, stumbled on it in December, 1642.  He was cruising the area searching for the "Southern Continent" that savants of the time were sure must exist in order to counter-balance the northern continents that were by then well mapped by Eurpoeans.  His landfall led to the first recorded cultural misunderstanding of New Zealand's history.  Maori paddled out to Tasman's two ships in their waka, or canoes.  They were chanting haka, a traditional challenge, as was the custom among the various iwis, or tribes.  Tasman, hearing the chanting, assumed it was one of greeting and ordered his ships' companies to respond by playing the various instruments on board.  Tasman meant it as a reciprocation of what he assumed was a welcome.  The Maori took it as an acceptance of their challenge.  Click on this haka to hear a present day rendering of such chant.  When they returned the next day they attacked a group of sailors who were about in a ships' dinghy and promptly killed several of the crew.  In accord with their own traditions, they also took them back and ate them in a ritual cannibalism.

Tasman left in disgust, and the Maori were untroubled by Europeans again until Lt. James Cook showed up in 1769.  He had a more successful initial interaction.  This marked the end of the Maori isolation from Europe and the beginning of settlement and colonisation by Europeans, or Pakeha as the Maori called them. 

Early European settlers in NZ included sealers and whalers, starting in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  By 1840, there was a significant enough presence that social disruption and Pakeha lawlessness was becoming a serious concern.  Moreover, the French, who were also exploring the region from their base in Tahiti, were making noises about establishing a colony there.  Maori chiefs, English missionaries and the few British civil authorities present viewed these developments with growing alarm.  Maori were being victimized by fraudulent or contested land "purchases."  There was no effective civil authority to govern Europeans.  And Britain was worried about French aspirations. 

In 1840 Britain authorized a treaty to be signed with the Maori chiefs.  It was drafted hastily, with no clear direction or oversight from Britain, and both an English and Maori version were drafted.  It was circulated, promoted and, in 1840 at Waitangi, signed by a large number of chiefs.  It was then taken throughout both islands and more chiefs, but not all, signed as well.  The English version was to the drafters a clear declaration by the signers that the Queen was recognized as the islands' sovereign; Maori would have the rights of British citizens; only the Crown could buy land from the Maori, if they chose to sell; Maori would retain ownership over customary "treasures," and enjoy continued use and ownership of their land.  The Maori version created a different impression, giving the Queen "governorship" of the islands, but not sovereignty as the Maori chiefs understood it.  In fact, the Maori version seemed to give the Maori continued sovereignty over their own affairs.   A modern view of the 1840 events is that the Maori welcomed the imposition of Crown jurisdiction over the Pakeha settlers and felt they were giving up little authority over their lands, which of course comprised nearly everything.  And since they vastly outnumbered the Pakeha settlers at this time, it's reasonable to ask why they would have submitted to what the English version of the treaty seemed to offer.

Despite the Treaty and its promises, Maori continued to be swindled in land deals and the Crown pursued a steady program of purchasing land and then selling it to a growing wave of settlers organized by the New Zealand Company, formed in Britain to promote and develop colonial settlement in NZ.  As the Pakeha population grew and the terms of what Maori thought the Treaty guaranteed were violated, tensions grew and violence loomed.

The Maori in Taranaki surprised the British Imperial troops and local militias with a sophisticated use of trench warfare (the first time this was ever used as a defensive tactic in European experience) and guerilla tactics.  But in the end they were driven back or had to retreat, and large amounts of land were confiscated in retaliation and given as reward to both Imperial troops and local militias.  But Britain never achieved a clear military "victory" over the Maori, a unique experience for the Empire.

The treaty is NZ's only "founding document", as it lacks a formal constitution. It was a significant improvement over the approach to indigenous people in Australia, who were not recognized as having rights or ownership and were systematically driven off the land. It was generated partly by a growing concern in Britain over treatment of indigenous people, and partly by the circumstances the British found in NZ, with a well-established tribal society on which the thin European settlements depended for land and other supplies, and partly to establish an internationally credible claim to British sovereignty over the islands in the face of possible competing French claims. Unique as it was and improvement that it may have been, the years that followed are rife with broken promises, failure to honor Treaty provisions, increasing Pakeha arrogance and disregard of Maori rights and sovereignty, and steady decline of Maori culture and social strength.

Over time, the conflicting views and understandings of the Treaty have been a source of conflict and dialogue. The role of the Treaty and the nation's obligations to the Maori culture and tribal structures is currently a matter of hot political debate, centered on the beaches and coastal waters. There are some Maori claims that the Treaty guaranteed them continued sovereignty over these lands.  These claims have raised huge issues, and caused the Labor Government to propose a new standard of ownership for the coast. The conservative opposition National Party has used this touchpoint to challenge a now well-established cultural commitment to the Treaty and Maori claims and rights.  

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