Waitangi Day

I'm writing to you from beautiful Hokitika, NZ around 11 PM on Saturday. Hokitika is located on the central west coast of the south island, a port town founded during the gold rush. Today Hokitika is still known for gold but also for nephrite jade/poutini greenstone, jade is a very big deal in this town. We're staying at Teichelmann's B&B in the center of Hokitika. Our host are Frances and Brian both native New Zealanders. We've only met a couple from Nottingham, England so far but will meet the others at breakfast in the morning. Today was another day of extreme driving with over 5 hrs in the car but some beautiful scenery. We made a stop at the swing bridge in Murchison, a small gold mining town. The river valley is situated on a fault line and the area has been hit by at least 6 earthquakes with the last significant quake in the 1960s. The swing bridge is a swaying bridge made of steel and cables suspended over the Buller River and you can pay $5 NZ for the pleasure of walking over the river on a bridge that sways and rocks back and forth. John practically ran across the bridge but I took my sweet time going across...rarely looking down at the rushing river below. After the swing bridge we stopped at another little town for lunch but practically every restaurant was closed today because as I mentioned in yesterday's post today is Waitangi Day. Waitangi day is "celebrated as a national holiday in New Zealand, marking the date, in February 6, 1840 on which the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori Tribes and the British Crown representatives, it is not for all a symbol of joy.Nowadays the Maori, who compose 6 percent of the population of New Zealand, still regard the signing of this agreement as an injustice towards their Maori ancestors." Because it is a national holiday the restaurants that are open are able to collect an extra 20% on all sales. After we checked into Teichelmann's we took a nice long walk on the beach. The beaches here are ful of rocks and driftwood and the sand is a dark grey color.I called Val from the beach and she told me all about the snowstorm that is blanketing the Mid Atlantic. We had a nice dinner at the French restaurant next door but the extra 20% added to the bill in observance of Waitangi day seemed ridiculous.

We learned from our host of the hole in the ozone layer over New Zealand. This explains why John got sunburned despite wearing a hat and sunscreen and why I'm darker than I've been since I don't know when even though I've been using sunscreen and wearing a hat every day. Every child I've seen here has been wearing a hat and the majority of adults. "This year’s hole began developing later than usual, but grew rapidly. There is, however, an ongoing problem for New Zealand. "When the hole dissipates in December, it could mean a period of low ozone during summer," As you know it's summer in New Zealand and feels like August tempatures in the US.