It's the middle of summer but you wouldn't know it as dozens of kaihoe (paddlers) brave the drizzle and blustery winds at Waitangi on what is New Zealand's most historic day.

Ngapuhi factions say PM John Key used his Waitangi Day speech as a platform to prematurely force a historic settlement with Ngapuhi in election year for political gain.

New Kiwi families were welcomed together as citizens at Government House today in the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Governor-General said.

Wet and blustery weather has failed to keep the crowds away from Waitangi with hundreds pouring on to the Treaty Grounds.

New Zealand’s largest iwi is seeking the biggest ever Treaty settlement - $500m to $600m.

Chief Justice Prendergast said that because the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed "between a civilised nation and a group of savages" and had no formal status in domestic law.

Reporter Sarah Illingworth speaks to eight Kiwis from different backgrounds about what the Treaty and our national day mean to them.

Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins take a look back 200 years to the magnificent event which heralded the start of permanent Pakeha settlement.

Take the personalities out of the equation and a National-NZ First Govt would be far less restrictive for National than one relying on the Maori Party, writes Claire Trevett.

There was calm at Waitangi's Te Tii Marae yesterday with some locals going as far to say that things were "pretty tame and chilled".

February 6 is Waitangi Day and, every year, there are arguments about what this day means to New Zealand. There is no one answer.

John Key offered a challenge of his own to protesters at what he said was one of the quietest pre-Waitangi Day visits to Te Tii Marae in many years, despite a pilchard protest.

Those who disrupt the PM's attendance at Te Tii Marae are 'crapping on their own heritage', according to NZ First leader Winston Peters.

Treaty settlements tend to disappear from public view a day after they have been announced. Not so for an imminent settlement with Auckland iwi.

Photos and mementoes of the late Parekura Horomia will be presented at Waitangi today in memory of the politician who never missed Waitangi Day at the historic Treaty grounds.

An initiative to get every child in New Zealand to visit Waitangi before they leave school was launched in Auckland.

Prime Minister John Key says Sir Douglas Graham might have given up his knighthood had the Government not told him he didn't have to.

The possibility of a Parnell park being traded as prime waterfront real estate in a Treaty of Waitangi claim settlement has prompted an outcry from groups.

A new political party which wants to strip Maori of race-based privileges has made mass leaflet drops in Tauranga, Napier, Hastings and Orewa.

A Treaty settlement bill that passed its first reading will hand 15 volcanic cones and four small islands in Auckland back to local Maori.

Editorial: The whole country ought to be celebrating the historic settlement with Tuhoe signed at Parliament last week.

Stripping honours for reasons other than traditional crimes, is a relatively new phenomenon sparked by the global financial crisis, writes Claire Trevett.

Tamati Kruger reckons he has bought the recipe for mana motuhake.

The Crown is over the half-way hump of settling all Treaty of Waitangi claims and could achieve its aim of having all outstanding grievances sorted out by 2014.