Day 37 Waitangi Day, Kai festival, Rabbit Island

Tuesday feb 6th , bank holiday
Waitangi day is a huge deal in NZ. It marks the signing of a treaty between the Maori and the Crown. So we went to a Marae for a welcome ceremony along with everyone else in Nelson,or so it seemed.

Marae, taken day after when it wasn't  obscured by people!

Streams of people were all headed in the same direction and we struggled to find a parking space.  Non Maori are not allowed onto a Marae generally, so to be allowed in is special. As we filed in Maori danced and chanted to welcome us in. Non Maori were sat on one side and Maori on the other. There was a speech in Maori followed by a song from the Maori side, followed by a speech in Maori from our side. Now as our side generally didn't  know Maori when it came to the welcome song we were led through it line by line repeating back what we heard. Next were speeches from various politicians partly in Maori and partly in English all reinforcing the mutual respect and willingness to work together.
It was very hot by now, the welcome had started at 11 and it was noon. We left the speech making by slipping down the side of the Wharenui and into the Kai festival adjoining. This was Nelson's 10th annual Kai festival with food from all sorts of countries and traditions, Maori entertainment, bands, singers. We bought food and wandered through looking at everything before deciding it was a day that was made for the beach.
We headed for the local beach which is listed as one of New Zealand's best beaches but due to the recent weather, warning signs were up that it wasn't  safe to swim due to sewage leaks. On a hot day the whole  point of going to the beach is to swim. We needed a different beach. We swung past our apartment to grab some more stuff and went to Rabbit Island only a 30 minute drive away where an 8km sandy beach was backed by pine trees. Picnic areas were set back on grassy clearings and a number of families were playing ball games. The beach was strewn with all sorts of shells and driftwood and I couldn't resist collecting  some. I would have loved to have brought back some driftwood  too but it was too heavy and big.

We spent the afternoon swimming, reading and watching the teenagers skim boarding along the edge of the water. There was plenty of space, it was gorgeously warm and the sea was perfect.

Around 6 we headed back to airbnb to change for dinner. We walked into Nelson to discover that it truly  was a bank holiday. Almost everything was shut. Only a few restaurants  were open for  business, none of which were on our shortlist of places we wanted to eat at. After walking all around town we settled on Fords. The only room they had was at an outside table, so we donned blankets as a cool wind had sprung up and got chatting to a couple nearby from Lyminton. The food was ok, the prices steep with an extra 10% added for the bank holiday as well. Although we got to move inside for dessert, we ate hurriedly as it wasn't warm enough for the thin summer clothes  we were in. It was a very brisk walk home afterwards!