Weather Problems

A freak storm came through this morning. It was very chilly when I woke up, and the weather was bad enough that the tour to the volcano was canceled. The volcano is an island about 50km off shore, and apparently the ride there is rough to begin with so when a storm comes through the tour has to be canceled because the bay is way too rough to take tourists on.

Ended up just walking around town and resting for most of the day. The town is named for a Maori woman who heroically saved her tribe when they first found the Whakatane beach. The Maori came in a huge canoe called a "waka." After they landed, the tribe piled out of the canoes and the men started exploring the area. Unnoticed, the waka started drifting out to sea as the tide came in, with all of the Maori's food and supplies in it. The women were still around the beach and one, Wairaka, saw the waka drifting away and swam out to it. Undeterred by the taboo on women touching the oars of the waka, Wairaka reportedly shouted out "Ka whakatane au i ah au!" ("I will act as a man") and rowed the waka back to shore, saving the tribe. In her honor a statue of Wairaka was raised at the entrance of the harbor. See statue below.


Also made a trek up to Toi's Pa, where the Maori chief Toi set up his base of operations for the area. The poles in the pictures below are symbolic markers claiming the territory for the Maori tribe. The pa (a pa is just a gathering ground for a tribe) is on top of one of the hills overlooking the city, and from the top you look down on the city and surrounding area for miles in every direction.

View on the way up to Toi's Pa.

Both at the top of Toi's pa.

View of Whakatane harbor.

The hostel I am staying at is called Lloyd's Lodge. Everyone else staying there is German, but they all speak English so the language is not a problem. A bunch of us stayed up tonight and watched the first Lord of the Rings and had ice cream and popcorn. It was really cool because everyone kept pointing out the places they had been to in New Zealand where it was filmed. Planning on watching the second one tomorrow.

The hostel.