HICKS BAY TO OPOTIKI - HAKA & THE HAIRY CHIEF

There's a lot to be said for travelling at this time of year. The days are still lovely and warm and apart from the obvious advantages of cheaper winter rates for accommodation and car hire you quite often get places that are normally buzzing with tourists all to yourself. It's not that the beaches of the East Cape would have been dotted with parasols and pinacoladas at the height of the summer, as tourists are few and far between here, but our footprints were the only ones on these desolate stretches of sand strewn with driftwood and whatever else the Pacific had cared to toss ashore.

Beaches seem to have their own 'signature' seashell and Lottin Point, our first stop on day two round the Cape shimmered with the blues, greens and pinks of paua shells. The paua, or abalone, is polished and carved into beautiful pieces of jewellery and is traditionally used as an inlay for Maori carvings. It is also incorporated into some particularly nasty souvenirs which I can't believe that people buy and cart home with them. Far better to have a single shell from the beach which holds real memories.

I would have been quite happy to have spent my entire five months in NZ at Lottin Point. We drove on an unsealed road through a forest then scraped the bottom of the hire car down a stony track and across a stream bed to reach this small, but perfectly formed bay. Pohutukawa trees fringed the rocky headlands that bound the crescent shaped beach. In December, these trees burst into exotic, vivid red bloom hence their other name of the NZ Christmas tree. The rocky shallows were perfect for snorkelling, the sheltered waters perfect for swimming, the sandy shore perfect for strolling and the pebbly bank perfect for beach-combing. As predicted, we spent far too much time there.

The school gates at Torere were beautiful. The structure was about four metres high and carved with intricate Maori design and inlay. Apparently it is quite a common sight to see the children here practicing the haka on the front lawn but there were no rolling eyes, lolling tongues or chest slapping whilst we were there. Haka is Maori for any form of dance and the chant that preceded a battle or challenged suspicious visitors is a haka taparahi. Each tribe would have had its own haka taparahi and the famous ´Ka Mate, Ka Mate´ haka that we associate with All Blacks rugby matches is the haka of the Ngati Toa tribe and their great warrior chief, Te Rauparaha. His haka is said to have originated from the time when he was fleeing from some of his numerous enemies and another chief hid him in an underground kumara store, where he waited, in the dark, to be found. When the store was opened and the sun shone in, it was not the enemy but the (hairy) local chief telling him that the enemy had gone. Te Rauparaha climbed the ladder out of the store and performed his victorious haka

Ka mate, ka mate It is death, it is death
Ka ora, ka ora It is life, it is life
Tenei te tangata puhuruhuru Behold the hairy man
Nana hei i tiki mai i whatawhitie te ra Who caused the sun to shine
Upane, aupane Abreast, keep abreast
Upane, ka aupane The rank, hold fast
Whiti te ra Into the sunshine

I´ve witnessed a haka from a distance of ten feet and even though I knew that I wasn´t about to be eaten, it sent a chill down my spine.

As we approached Opotiki, we could see White Island out in the Bay of Plenty. You can visit New Zealand´s most active volcano on a boat trip but be prepared to flee at anytime. This is a small island, formed by three volcanic cones that hisses and spouts with steam and hot water from the crater. Safer and cheaper is to visit the live webcam where someone has placed a small pink teddy near the camera. He looked quite lonely but he won´t get cold at night for sure.