Tuesday 20th February 2007. Auckland, New Zealand.

Started this morning slightly later than planned as I enjoyed the delightful company of a South African lady over a very leisurely breakfast at Hastings Hall. With my morning paper delivered and breakfast served...I could get used to this way of life!

Auckland Domain is New Zealand's oldest park dating from 1845. It occupies the site of a 50,000 year old crater. A beautiful park it played a vital role in the early history of this city with the now duckponds the site of natural springs that were the cities first freshwater supply.

My destination is Auckland's War Memorial Museum. The Auckland Museum I am to find is one of the best museum's I have encountered anywhere in the world. The present building was built as a memorial to the huge sacrifice New Zealand made in the First World War we are reminded on arrival that they were a wall unto us both by night and by day.

The Auckland Museum was founded in 1852 and it is New Zealand's original treasure house holding the world's finest collection of Maori and Pacific artefacts.

My arrival was just in time to be called by a conch shell to the Maori show. Singing, dancing and of course, the Haka. The Haka was traditionally used as a dance that scared, threatened and intimidated holding your enemies at bay.

This was my first ever experience of Polynesian dancing and it was brilliant. It was great to see the joy on the performers faces as I enjoyed cultural preservation in action.

What is fascinating is how the games and dances were traditionally used as fun ways of teaching the skills of manual dexterity and building upper body strength and flexibility to enhance the essential power of the warrior.

With a wide range of sedimentary and volcanic stone, New Zealand provided an essential ingredient of Maori culture allowing for tool, weapon and ornament making.

There is a lot of Maori belief invested in the power of the wind which should not be so surprising in this part of the world where the power of the wind and its influence on sea and land is felt acutely.

Pacific Islanders learned to navigate for long distances over the open oceans without instruments. Rather they made use of accumulated ancestral knowledge about the winds, tides, wave patterns, cloud formations, bird behaviours and the stars. On voyages of exploration they would sail upwind allowing them the option of a quick downwind return home.

Just as I found when I was in China and also within the Aboriginal and Native American communities I have visited, Maori culture reveres the ancestor.

Many Polynesian peoples trace their descent directly back through their ancestors to Gods. Ancestors are also an important element of the supernatural world along with Gods, ghosts and other spirit beings. Religious rituals are seen as a way of allowing the living to communicate with the spirits, to control their power and seek their help.

In death ghosts and spirits of the recently dead have to be treated very carefully and with respect; being sent on their way to the afterlife ensuring that they do not harm the living. Periods of mourning can traditionally last months or even years for widows.

Charms are worn, carried or deposited in special places to convey and control the powers of the supernatural world. They are used in magic to increase personal wealth, to ensure success in hunting, to protect the wearer from sickness or bad magic and to make the wearer attractive to the opposite sex.

Decoration and ornamentation are also key areas of Maori culture. The traditional tattoo, extremely popular in Samoa is a sign of both identity and cultural allegiance. Just as in Western traditions where protective body armour was painted with shield's and clan emblems and where the Scottish clans wore identifying tartans; so the Maori used temporary body art.

Music, often thought to represent the voice of the ancestors was used both to send signals and to entertain. The roles we find for music, art, marriage, weaponry, traps, animals etc have such similar foundations amongst traditional peoples around the world who would historically be disperate and never have met...there is a thesis somewhere in investigating parallel human developments!!

That other great institution of life, marriage, is seen as an alliance between groups of families rather than the joining of two individuals.

Maori as a language belongs to a widespread Austronesian family of languages originating in South East Asia between five and six thousand years ago.

Maori society is organised in a manner inherited from Polynesian forebears with different tribes descended from a common ancestor. The society is both communal and hierarchical with economic and social activity taking place within the extended family. Although gender roles were defined, members often worked together in settlements and gardens.

Traditionally the Maori, as the aboriginal, had the knowledge and skill to make all that was needed for food, clothing and shelter. Young men, just as in aboriginal communities, would be initiated into the secrets of special male knowledge about their ancestors and community rituals.

The Maori in many ways seem to have been more successful than the aboriginals at integrating ways of life and new materials with local culture.

Christianity for example was popular even before the European arrival as local people with experience of Christianity had begun converting their own communities. Further to this in the early days of European contact, Pacific Islanders often preceeded or travelled with the European missionaries. Christian symbols were also adopted into traditional artefacts (in ways similar to those I have seen in South America and China) as an expression of new Christian identity.

Of course after the treaty with Britain, English law was in force and the Maori came to be taught in mission schools where reading and writing were the key components of a drive for literacy. Many today argue over the differing interpretations of the British and the Maori regarding the Treaty of Waitangi and the perceived imposition of colonial dominance. However, even before official colonisation English was being introduced as a language with a Maori and grammar dictionary prepared by the missionary Thomas Kendall printed in London in 1820.

There are so many similarities in inter island culture and these would have had their foundations in trading. However contact also brought conflict. Such skirmishes though tended to be small scale ambushes and rarely large set piece battles.

The role of the Haka, the most sacred of the Maori dances, was to clear warriors mentally, physically and emotionally as well as being a pre battle scare tactic to subdue the opponent. More than just a demonstration of strength, the hitting of the skin was believed to strengthen the skin before battle.

In the traditional Maori way of life war was a prestige occupation in which men proved skill, leadership and courage. Honour could be satisfied when a single victim fell to a wronged party or whole groups might be decimated after bloody fighting.

Much of the strategy of war was based on the attack and defence of the Pa. Fortified Pa were skilfully designed earthworks and stockade defences where tribes gathered for protection when threatened by enemies. The fortified Pa are very similar to fortified hill forts like Maiden Castle near Dorchester and the later castles that were built across Britain in terms of their strategic approach to defence.

In the early nineteenth century old scores amongst Maori tribes were to be settled with the aid of guns that were obtained from the Pakeha leading to the inter-tribal Musket Wars. Later these new weapons were employed by the tribes that were fighting the Pakeha in defence of Maori land and independence.

European settlement actually meant that by 1860 the Maori were outnumbered in their own land and internal disputes were to lead to further losses of land and culture and impoverishment of the people. However there were also new opportunities. Potatoes, turnips, squash, maize and beans were well suited to New Zealand's climate and soon found their way into Maori gardens. Christianity was adapted, new weapons allowed old ambitions to be pursued, mission schools encouraged the skills of reading and writing, the sealing and whaling industries grew and with increased trade commercial opportunities grew.

Despite all this history ancient arts were maintained and developed in both traditional and new ways. Today Maori arts are a visible and strong symbol of identity and pride.

In recent years there has been a strong resurgence in Maori culture particularly amongst the indigenous peoples themselves. The fact that the Maori are the driving force can be set in stark contrast to the less successful aboriginal resurgence in Australia which tends to have been driven by a small core of indigenous people and government financial incentives that all too often are then mis-directed creating social disharmony.

There are many similarities I have found between the Aboriginal, the Native American and the Maori; will all these communities living off the land and developing practical uses for every resource.

The Auckland Museum is the world leader in Maori culture and artefacts and I loved the opportunity to enter (shoes off as a mark of respect) a traditional Maori home. In many ways this building reminded me of a Seneca Longhouse.

In terms of gaining a greater understanding of the Maori way of life I recommend that you read They Called me Te Maari the story of Florence Harsant.

We were all put out of the museum at lunchtime due to a fire alarm. It was more than a bit disorganised but eventually a young man came out waving and moving the crowd away from the building.

The memorial at the top of the main staircase to Auckland's dead is an impressive reminder of this nation's sacrifice in modern warfare. On exploring the war memorial I found this to be one of the most moving memorials I have ever visited with blank panels containing the very thought provoking words...Let These Panels Never Be Filled.

One in four New Zealanders who landed at Gallipoli were slaughtered. In fact in both the first and second world wars New Zealand on a percentage of population basis suffered the greatest losses of any of the allies.

My next stop is an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the British artist Noelle Sandwith who spent a year in Tonga in 1953 warmly embracing life on the island during the reign of Queen Salote.

Noelle Sandwith was born to British parents in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in Surrey. She attended art schools very close to my own old stomping grounds. Firstly in Kingston-upon-Thames (near my home for the last five years in Dorking) and then in Croydon, South London where I lived from 1996-2000.

Her paintings display an idylic and intimate portrait of life in the realm of Queen Salote. Tonga itself is a wide expanse of the South Pacific with 169 islands of which only 36 are inhabited. One of the smallest royal kingdoms in the world, at the time of Noelle's first visit the population was some 51,000 of whom all but 1,200 were pure blood Tongan.

Noelle over her lifetime noted (as I have done in my travels) that progress had spread its tentacles in recent times to her beloved Tonga in a way that meant that islanders today are no longer content with their rare inheritance of the final Polynesian kingdom and the sole survivng feudal monarchy.

Noelle was the only artist ever for whom the Queen sat and a cabinet meeting of nobles had to be convened before permission could be granted.

Contemporary Tongan culture today remains a mix of traditional Polynesian ways with a strong Christian ethic but things are changing.

Auckland museum is one of the best museum's I have ever seen anywhere in the world. You could spend weeks in the outstanding war museums alone, not to mention the huge Maori collection and colonial Auckland exhibits.

I treated myself to afternoon tea at the Langham Hotel where tea is served as it has been in the hotel's parent The Langham Hotel, London since 1865. Tea here is served in the elegance of The Winery and it was nice with excellent service.

Tonight I meet up with Danish Jen whom I last saw in Cairns. We have dinner at Degree in Viaduct Harbour where I enjoy my first DB Export, Auckland's home beer. Our next stop is the Atrium Bar in Sky City where we watch the opening celebrations for Auckland's Chinese New Year programme. Our night continues at The Palace before we meet up with Teun (Jen's friend from Holland) for drinks at The Playhouse.