Month: September 2023

Sapa is a former colonial retreat located in the country’s far north. The town is surrounded by towering mountains, including Mt Fansipan (elevation 3147m). Ethnic minority groups have lived in and around Sapa for centuries, cultivating terraced rice fields, growing traditional medicines, and crafting exquisite and colourful costumes and jewellery.  

With our experienced guiding staff, we glimpse into the lives of the various ethnic groups. En route, we learn about the indigo clothes dying process and the ingenious bamboo irrigation systems of the Black Hmong or Dao minorities. We follow several trekking routes passing grazing water buffalo and see ethnic handicrafts produced using age-old techniques. Based at a family homestay, we can undertake a community project to help benefit the local community, who have significantly fewer opportunities living in remote areas. 

Watch our short video clip to immerse yourself in the best of what Sapa has to offer. Enjoy the journey. 

Ready to plan your next trip? Be in touch to discuss your school’s future travel program to Asia or New Zealand. 

Hanoi’s Old Quarter (Pho Co Ha Noi) is steeped in history and tradition. Located in the city centre of Hanoi, the Old Quarter was the key residential and commercial area where manufacturing took place to service the Thang Long Imperial Citadel in the 11th century. Today it still maintains its distinctive atmosphere of a time long since passed. 

The unique feature of the Old Quarter is its 36 streets dedicated to one specific trade or guild. Artisans from villages around the city used to gather in one area of their guild to sell their wares to merchants. The crafts or guilds of each area gave the names to the streets of the Quarter so that most streets names start with hàng (“wares”), for instance Hàng Mam Street (fish sauce street), Hàng Ma Street (fake money street) and Hàng Non-Street (hat street). 

One of the best ways to explore the Old Quarter is on a pedal-powered rickshaw (xich-lo). Sitting in the front of the single-seated rickshaw, the passenger slowly meanders through the Quarter, watching the production of crafts and traders selling their wares. The 36 streets are incredibly compact, and competition for space and customers is at the heart of its atmosphere. Throughout the journey, the passenger passes traditional architecture, ancient temples, and streets that change their name every hundred metres. The erratic traffic flow and seeming lack of road rules are almost unbelievable to watch and be amongst!  

On many levels, navigating these streets is educational. It’s incredible to see how people use confined areas creatively. Products are offered for sale from storefronts and along retaining walls. Bright colours and lights attract attention, and motorbike parks take over pedestrian walkways. Buildings are long and narrow to minimise taxes based on shop front widths. From a social aspect, the residents of the Old Quarter have little concept of privacy. They seem to switch off from the frenetic noise and activity around them, and yet they can push for a sale, spot a potential customer, and calmly face the reality that everyone else on their street is selling the same goods. 

Be immersed in the Old Quarter atmosphere by watching our short video clip. Enjoy the ride.

Ready to plan your next trip? Be in touch to discuss your school’s future travel program to Asia or New Zealand. 

Year 10 student Saxon Taranto, from a school in Melbourne, recently took part in a two-week educational tour of Vietnam that included several service-focused projects. During the tour, we interviewed Saxon asking for his thoughts and reflections. Saxon revealed how life-changing his experiences in Vietnam were and how his outlook on life has changed significantly. 

Watch the video below to see and hear what Saxon has to say in his own words, and see a selection of photos taken of Saxon’s group in action throughout Vietnam. 

Ready to plan your next trip? Be in touch to discuss your school’s future travel program to Asia or New Zealand. 

Just as whaling was a significant early industry in Australian waters, so it was as New Zealand’s first formal commercial industry. In the early years of New Zealand’s European settlement, 1810s-1820s, the whaling industry was a wild and unruly yet profitable business for hardy seamen and those wanting to see the world or escape life at home. European and Australian sailors headed to New Zealand’s coast in search of employment with ship-based whaling crews. One of these whalers was an ex-convict, John Guard. Guard proceeded to play a pioneering role in New Zealand’s whaling industry and New Zealand’s early settler history overall. His remarkable story is rarely known beyond New Zealand today. Some of the more significant events that John Guard (1792-1857) and his Australian ‘wife’, Elizabeth Guard (1814-1870), were involved in are recounted below. 

John Guard was born in England in 1792. Convicted for stealing a quilt in 1813 at the age of 21, he was sentenced to transportation and 7 years hard labour, becoming one of 162,000 convicts whose punishment was exile from British shores to the convict settlements in Australia. After an initial 18 months on board the Newgate hulk, located on the River Thames, Guard boarded the Indefatigable, a square-rigged three-mast ship along with 200 other convicts chained below decks. Conditions were dire on the sea journey of several months to Australia. Fleas, lice, vermin, a pitiful lack of food and diseases were common on convict voyages. 

Guard disembarked at Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) on 25 April 1815, where he was to begin five years of hard labour as part of a convict gang. He soon found himself assigned to Windsor, 50 kilometres north-west of Sydney. Wearing the distinctive yellow and dark grey convict uniform, he broke rocks, felled trees and hoisted timber in weather extremes six days a week. He was released from incarceration in 1820. 

Upon release, Guard weighed up his employment options. Instead of heading into farming and land development (convicts were usually offered 20-50 acres of land upon their release), he tried sealing onboard vessels based at Port Jackson. When ships visited Port Jackson in the 1790s and early 1800s, they often anchored near present-day Circular Quay. The Third Fleet, which arrived in 1791, included five ships that began whaling as soon as their convict passengers had disembarked. Britannia, from the Third Fleet, was the first to harpoon a whale that year.  Consequently, at the time of Guard’s release, Port Jackson was the home to many seamen, including sealers and whalers, as well as ex-convicts free settlers and traders.  Through such intermingling, many ex-convicts went on to try their hand at sealing and whaling. 

From Port Jackson, ships sailed the waters of Australia and on to New Zealand, hunting seals and whales. American, New Zealand and French whaling ships also often traded their products through Sydney exporters to reduce Britain’s heavy taxes on imports from foreign countries. New Zealand was also a magnet for British convicts escaping Australia. Sometimes convicts would stow away on trans-Tasman whaling and sealing ships. After arriving in New Zealand, the convicts would often ‘marry’ Maori women, open grog shops for visiting sailors, join shore stations to process whale products, or join other ships sailing to further destinations. 

By 1823, as a seaman of whaling vessels, John Guard, by now known in maritime circles as Captain Jacky Guard, began trading with the Māori and plied the seas between Sydney and Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Early in 1827, while on one of his regular trading voyages, Guard and crew were caught in a storm and pushed south toward cliffs at the top of the South Island. Luckily an uninhabited beach provided shelter from the storm – Te Awaiti Bay on Arapaoa Island in the Tory Channel of the Marlborough Sounds. Guard sighted a pair of baleen whales (southern right whales). This discovery suggested to him the possibility of establishing a whaling station close to the Cook Strait, the stretch of water that separates the North Island from the South Island, as a whale migration route, thus, rich hunting ground. The southern right whale passed through the Cook Strait between April and September each year and was slow-moving and, therefore, ‘right’ to harpoon. 

Within two years, Guard brought a whaling crew from Sydney and established New Zealand’s first land-based whaling station at Te Awaiti Bay in the Tory Channel. Rather than having to hunt the whales from his ship, he set up a shore-based operation, rowing out to kill the whales and then tow them to shore for processing. This whaling station was very likely the first European settlement on the South Island of New Zealand. Te Awaiti Bay proved an ideal location for whaling because it was sheltered from the open sea, had sufficient fresh water and flat land, and was a perfect site from which to head out into Cook Strait. Humpback, right whales and sperm whales frequently travelled between the migration routes and feeding grounds around New Zealand’s coastline and the waters close to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. 

In 1829, the Waterloo, skippered by Guard, accidentally discovered a second ideal location for whaling. Once again sheltering from a storm, the Waterloo anchored overnight in Port Underwood (Te Whanganui), part of Cloudy Bay. While sheltering in a small bay, Guard’s crew saw several whales and calves, and he decided to open a second whaling station here. Guard commuted between his two whaling stations for several years and eventually sold the Te Awaiti station in the Tory Chanel in favour of Kakapo Bay in Port Underwood. 

Yet, his ship, the Waterloo, was used to transport flax, whale oil and seal skins to Sydney several times per year, returning with supplies and other goods to trade. In February 1830, Guard delivered 2,300 litres of whale oil to his former home of Sydney Harbour, being the first time whale oil had been exported from New Zealand. While in Sydney, he partnered with 15-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Parker from a local ex-convict family with whom Guard was friendly.  

In November 1830, Guard and Betty left Australia for Te Awaiti Bay in the Tory Channel of the Marlborough Sounds to live at Guard’s whaling station. This move made Betty very likely the first woman of European descent to settle on the South Island. In 1831, she gave birth to a boy at Te Awaiti Bay named John Guard (Jnr). Sometime before 1833, the Guards moved permanently to Kakapo Bay in Port Underwood to hunt southern right whales and humpback whales. Betty gave birth to her first daughter, Louisa Guard, in November 1833. Both children likely were the first boy and girl of European descent to be born on the South Island. Guard around this time purchased the exclusive rights to Kakapo Bay from the Māori Chief Te Rauparaha and Te Rangiheata, paying for the rights with goods and gifts that likely included tobacco, bolts of cloth, axe heads, cooking pots, and blankets. Kakapo Bay now became commonly known as Guards Bay. 

On 29 April 1834, the Guards were returning from Sydney aboard the barque Harriet when it was driven ashore in a gale off the Taranaki coast of New Zealand’s North Island. John, Betty and their children were taken hostage by a Māori community. Betty narrowly escaped death when a tomahawk blow to her head was deflected by the large tortoise-shell comb she wore in her hair. Teeth from the comb were lodged in her head as a result. John Guard negotiated his release on a promise to return with a ransom payment. He then returned to Sydney where, he notified the New South Wales authorities and the Executive Council as to the plight of his family in New Zealand.  

In late September 1834, Guard returned from Sydney to New Zealand with a military rescue party. This included the man-of-war HMS Alligator, captained by Robert Lambert, and the colonial schooner Isabella, led by captain Johnson, carrying a detachment of 25 men from the 50th Regiment and 40 other rank-and-file soldiers. They negotiated and fought for the Guard party’s release and then continued fighting after securing the release. These were the first British troops to come into armed combat with Māori on New Zealand soil. 

The Harriet Affair, as the incident came to be known, caused intense controversy. While the Sydney press said everybody in New South Wales from Governor Richard Bourke to Captain Robert Lambert “are entitled to the highest praise”, James Busby, the official British Resident in New Zealand, called it “frontier chaos”. 

In 1836, the Guard family returned to live at Kakapo Bay (Guards Bay) at Port Underwood. During the whaling season that year, the industry’s peak, Port Underwood had six shore-whaling stations, 80 boats and employed 500 men on the boats; generally escaped convicts, ex-convicts, pirates and adventurers from America, France and Africa. The men drank hard liquor. Around this time, Betty gave birth to three more children: Thomas in 1835, Charles in 1836 and Amelia in 1840.  

Guard’s whaling enterprise at Kakapo Bay (Guards Bay) employed Māori sailors and shore-based workers. Guard also traded with the local Māori and supplied them with sought-after items, including blankets, clothing, tobacco and metal tools. Guard became a key mediator between Europeans and Māori in the region, including the powerful Māori chief Te Rauparaha of the Ngati Toa tribe. Visiting British dignitaries would usually stay at Guard’s house and go through him to speak with chiefs of local iwi (tribes). 

Guard’s local knowledge, mediation skills and close association with the Māori led to him becoming part of a significant event in New Zealand’s history. He met the British delegation and Māori chiefs that signed a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi on 17 June 1840, at Port Underwood, Cloudy Bay. 

Earlier in the year, Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson, having left Australia aboard the HMS Herald with a guard, a party of civil servants, and three troopers of the New South Wales mounted police, sailed to the North Island of New Zealand, with the explicit aim of obtained sovereignty over New Zealand for the British Government. The day after his arrival, Hobson read two proclamations, the first extending the jurisdiction of New South Wales over New Zealand with his appointment as Lieutenant-Governor, and the second, halting further land purchases. Over the following days, the Treaty of Waitangi was drafted in English, then translated into Māori, and signed by Lieutenant-Governor Hobson and 40 Māori chiefs at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, on 6 February 1840.   

This controversial Treaty, which was more of an agreement than a treaty, gave the British the right to establish a Government of New Zealand, consider Māori land rights, and give the Māori the rights of British subjects. Effectively in the eyes of the British, the Māori were ceding sovereignty to the Crown. The Treaty was initially signed by 40 Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. Eight copies of the Treaty were then created and taken around the country to be signed by other Māori chiefs over the coming months. The last signature was obtained on 3 September 1840. Over 500 signatures were obtained on the Māori translated document, while only 39 signatures were obtained on the English version. A key discrepancy between the English and Māori versions of the Treaty was the translation of the word ‘sovereignty’. The English version of the Treaty states that the Māori cede ‘sovereignty’, while the Māori version states ‘kawanatanga’, the right of governance. Sovereignty had no direct equivalent in the context of Māori society. Nevertheless, British sovereignty over the country was proclaimed by Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson on 21 May 1840. The British government ratified his proclamations in October 1840. The controversial Treaty is seen as New Zealand’s founding document. 

After the initial signing of the Treaty at Waitangi on 6 February, more Māori signatures were still being sought. On 16 June 1840, HMS Herald arrived in Port Underwood with Major Thomas Bunbury (on behalf of Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson), Joseph Nias (Captain), William Stewart (Pilot) and Edward Williams (interpreter) on board, bringing one of the eight copies of the Treaty of Waitangi for the South Island chiefs to sign.  Bunbury first went ashore at Guards Bay, where he recorded meeting John Guard. However, no signatures were immediately obtained at Guards Bay. On 17 June, the signing of the Treaty took place onboard the HMS Herald, where nine chiefs’ signatures were collected.  

After the chiefs signed the treaty sheet, Major Thomas Bunbury decided he had collected enough signatures, and that ceding was complete. The officers and marines of the Herald then landed at the Māori pa on the island of Horahora Kakahu, a short distance from Kakapo Bay (Guards Bay). Here the Union Jack was raised, and Bunbury proclaimed sovereignty over the South Island of New Zealand on behalf of the British Government. Cheers from the onlookers followed a 21-gun royal salute. This event was witnessed by five American, one French, and one German ship, as well as whaling vessels in the bay at the time.  

Bunbury’s copy of the Treaty, containing the nine Māori signatures obtained at Port Underwood and, two days later Te Rauparaha’s signature on Mana Island, ended up with a total of 27 signatures by the end of June. This copy of the Treaty, hosted and facilitated in part by John Guard, became known as The Herald-Bunbury copy of the Treaty – Sheet 7 (some sources refer to it as Sheet 8). 

After the HMS Herald left the shores of Port Underwood, the Guards continued living and whaling in Kakapo Bay (Guards Bay).  Betty gave birth to two more children: Emma in 1842, and Helen in 1847. Sometime before 1848, John Guard retired from whaling, and the family fished, farmed cattle, goats, pigs and grew fruit to sell. Betty gave birth to her last two children, twins Edward and Susan, in 1850. John Guard died in 1857, aged 65 years old. Betty, having given birth to eight children, and having lived a tough life as a female settler, passed away in 1870 at the age of 56, thus ending the Guards story. 

Close to the road today, running through Kakapo Bay in Port Underwood, sits a Whalers Memorial historical marker, one of the Guard’s old whaling tripots and an old cannon. This spot signifies the site of the first land-based whaling station established in Port Underwood. Forty metres behind the Whalers Memorial, on a slightly elevated area at the base of a hill, lies the Guard family cemetery where John and Betty Guard and sixteen other family members rest (as of 2023). The headstones all face towards the water’s edge of Kakapo Bay, where whales once roamed, whaling vessels once moored, the HMS Herald once visited, and where one can see Horahora Kakahu Island, close to the spot where the Herald-Bunbury copy of the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. 

John and Betty Guard’s life stories are remarkable. They are stories that encompass convict transportation from England to New South Wales, sealing in Port Jackson, early pioneer whaling in New Zealand, kidnap and ransom, negotiations and other dealings with Māori tribes and chiefs, being involved in the first British/Māori battle in New Zealand, meeting British officials for the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and Betty’s giving birth to eight children in a tough environment enduring many hardships. Theirs are also stories of Australia’s and New Zealand’s shared and often intertwined early settler society histories. 

Hundreds of descendants of the above peoples live around New Zealand today, some of whom still own land and live in Kakapo Bay and the adjoining bay. Items formerly belonging to John and Betty Guard are held in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington). The Guards’ history is known to some in Marlborough, especially a few historians and passionate staff at the Marlborough Museum, The Edwin Fox Ship & Visitor Centre and the Picton Heritage and Whaling Museum. However, the Guards’ story in full is little known across the Tasman Sea, until now. 

A specialised history and heritage tour can be arranged by Edventure Travel to Marlborough that incorporates many significant sites and vestiges of the early settler New Zealand days with an astounding number of direct links or significant similarities to Australia’s early settler history. The tour can include visiting the Guards’ whaling stations at Te Awaiti Bay in the Tory Channel and Kakapo Bay in Port Underwood. It can also include visiting the Edwin Fox Ship & Visitor Centre, which houses the world’s only surviving convict transport to Australia (Swan River Colony, 1858). Visits to the Marlborough Museum and Picton Heritage and Whaling Museum reveal more links to early Australian settler histories. Additionally, a trip out to historic Canvastown and the Wakamarina River 1860s goldfields site would reveal the stories of Australian gold miners chasing their fortunes and the infamous ‘Maungatapu Murders’ involving the Kelly-Burgess Kelly Gang of Australian bush rangers. The itinerary can include a memorable boat cruise to Ship Cove (Meretoto) in the Marlborough Sounds, the site where Captain James Cook anchored five times. He spent nearly three months replenishing stocks during his three voyages circumnavigating New Zealand and Australia between 1769-1777 on the Endeavour, Resolution (and Adventure), and Resolution (and Discovery). 

 An Edventure Travel tour can explore two other world-class museums. One is the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, full of national treasures, including the impressive WWI ANZAC exhibition titled ‘The Scale of Our War’. The other is Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim, with its massive WWI section containing aircraft, rare personal items and a display of the crash site of the Red Baron who was shot down behind Australian lines. The WWII section contains relics and aircraft from the Battle of Britain, where 135 New Zealand and 32 Australian crew fought in the skies against the Germans in 1940. Most of the rare WWI aircraft and items in this museum have been loaned by Sir Peter Jackson the famous movie director who has a passion for history.  

Contact us to discuss a tour that includes facets of Australia’s interesting history – in Marlborough, New Zealand! 

Please enjoy the extensive series of photos revealing Marlborough’s historic sites. Many of these photos were taken by our Director, Billy Penfold, while researching the region in 2022 and 2023.

Books
Grady,D. (1978). Guards of the Sea. Whitcoulls Publishers
McNab,R. (1913). The Old Whaling Days. Golden Press
Orange,C.(2017). Te Tiriti O Waitangi – The Treaty of Waitangi 1840. Bridget Williams Books
Reed.A.H & Reed. A.C. (1951) Captain Cook in New Zealand. The Journals of Captain James Cook. Reed.A.H & Reed. A.C.
Reed.A.H & Reed. A.C. (1969) Captain Cook in Australia. The Journals of Captain James Cook. Reed.A.H & Reed. A.C.
Wilson,D.(2018). Whaler by Providence, Patrick Norton in the Marlborough Sounds. River Press

Websites
Indefatigable voyage to New South Wales, Australia in 1814 with 201 passengers.
The Convicts’ Colony.
Start of whaling.
Sydney’s Whaling Fleet.
John Guard.
The Guard Family of Kakapo Bay.
Te Whanganui – Port Underwood Heritage Trail – Port Underwood, Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Cloudy Bay, 17 June 1840 – Treaty Signing Locations.
Hearld Bunbury treaty copy.

Special Thanks
Narelle Guard. Kakapo Bay, Marlborough New Zealand (interviews and guiding)
Dr. Rosalie Triolo. Melbourne, Australia (consulting and editing)
Stephanie Moore – Picton Heritage & Whaling Museum. Marlborough, New Zealand (reference suggestions and maps)
Beachcomber Cruises. Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand (guiding and chartered boat to Te Awaiti Bay, Fishermans Bay, Ship Cove, and Motuara Island)

The largest city in Vietnam with a population of over nine million, Ho Chi Minh City offers a plethora of interesting sites and attractions. Bustling Chinatown reveals the merchant nature of the ethnic Chinese who have traded here for over 300 years. The city centre reveals its French colonial past with beautifully restored colonial-era buildings, including the city Post Office and Nore Dame Cathedral. One must not overlook the Vietnam War-era historic sites and museums – the Reunification Palace from where South Vietnam ran its war effort, to the confronting War Remnants Museum, revealing the horrors of war from a local perspective.  

Ho Chi Minh City is also the gateway to many attractions in the south of the country, the Cu Chi Tunnels, Long Tan Cross Memorial, and the breadbasket of the country – the Mekong Delta. 

Enjoy our short video revealing the city’s essence, the hive of activity, and its people. 

Ready to plan your next trip? Get in touch to discuss your school’s future travel program to Asia or New Zealand.