An historic birthday

Whatever we do for future birthdays, there probably won't be one quite like this. As planned, we took the ferry across Bay of Islands to a special place in New Zealand's history, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

Our first good decision was signing up for a guided tour; our small group (an Australian couple, a Scotsman and ourselves) was guided by a young Maori, keen to fill in the context of the treaty and give a balanced account of its consequences.

Out of that context emerges another good guy. The British bigwig who arrived in to sign the treaty and get things named after him was Captain William Hobson, but much of the groundwork was laid by James Busby, the 'British Resident' sent in 1833 to restore order and create harmonious relations with the local Maori. Despite his integrity and talents - or perhaps because of them - he enjoyed pitiful support from his masters. Nonetheless he gained the respect of the Maori chiefs, achieved his goals and established a level of trust which made the eventual treaty possible. So James Busby is added to our list of 'should be more appreciated'.

By the way, if any of our new Kiwi friends is reading this and wants to improve my (undoubtedly superficial) account, please feel free to.

Over the past few days we've splashed out on some great gourmet dinners: steak, vension and seafood, enjoyed with fine wines, first-class service and wonderful views. Not tonight. Barb's reward for having a birthday, whether she likes it or not, is another of Stew's spaghetti dinners in the motorhome. To be fair, let's give proper credit to my cooking. It's only one basic dish, but of course each version has subtle variations - some of them intentional. Barb here - Stew's spaghetti is great any day, but on my birthday, the best!

An all-day sailing tour tomorrow, visiting some the Bay's famous secluded islands and maybe some more dolphins. Report on dinner, dolphins and other 'd's tomorrow.

PS. It is also the bicentennial anniversary of Lincoln's birth - a great article in Time this week about him and how current his views on the economy are today. Well worth the read.