These are photos of Oihi Bay - an empty beach, but full of history!
During my research trip to Waitangi, I visited a lot of the sites mentioned in the book. Some of these were places I'd been to before, but some were completely new to me.
One of these discoveries was Oihi (or Hohi) Bay. When we reached the carpark (after a long winding drive) we weren't even sure where the track went. Marsden Cross is visible if you know where to look, but we couldn't see it at first.
But then we found the track, and the Cross, and Oihi Bay - such a beautiful spot, and nobody there except us!
Oihi Bay is where Samuel Marsden conducted his Christmas Day sermon in December 1814. You can read more about it on pg 11 of my Waitangi Day book.
This is a photograph of the stained glass window in St Mary's Church,
Lydney, Gloucestershire, England. The reason behind the New Zealand-themed window (that's the Franz Josef Glacier in the background) is all to do with Lord Bledisloe.
It was Lord Bledisloe who bought the house (once owned by James Busby) and surrounding land at Waitangi and gifted it to the nation in 1934. If it wasn't for his generous gift, we might not have the Treaty House today. (You can read more about him on pg 21 of my Waitangi Day book - and did you know that he donated the Bledisloe Cup as well?)
Lord Bledisloe was a very popular Governor General, for a number of reasons, and he and Lady Bledisloe felt a special link to New Zealand for the rest of their lives. When they returned to England, Lord Bledisloe donated this window to his local parish church.
This was one of the images that took a while to track down, and in the end it arrived too late to go in the book, but I still like it!
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| credit: Nick Fenby |
This has been one of the hardest pieces of writing I have ever done, and one that has challenged me both personally and professionally.
There were days when we were still tracking down images and it felt highly unlikely that we would ever meet the printing deadlines, but thanks to the wonderful publishing team at New Holland, here is my new book, just in time for this year's Waitangi Day.
