Before we left our campsite we took a walk on the beach to look at the early morning surfers. Further on up the coast we stopped at Waipu cove for another stroll on sand and watch even more surfers. However our main destination was in the Bay of Islands which itself is beautiful but it was here where the treaty of Waitingi was signed between the Maori and the Crown in 1840. A flagpole with the original NZ and Union flags are flown beneath the current NZ flag. The original governor's house and a Maori house built 100 years later to represent all the tribes sit opposite each other to signify continuing dialogue as the treaty has had its ups and downs over the years. There is also the worlds largest war canoe which became an HMS when the Queen had a ride in it! After that it was a mad dash North to get to a campsite before it was too dark. This was not helped when coming up to one of the many single track bridges there was another vehicle that had priority about to cross and the van would not go into reverse. Probably the first traffic jam ever but a couple of the oncoming drivers including a copper (gulp) pushed us back enough for people to get through. Of course the reverse worked fine then