Wildlife

This is really a page for Eddie and Angus. Hi boys, I am sorry to say that I havn't seen a single New Zealand mammal or reptile yet but I have seen a few birds.
The Kiwi's are more plentiful in the North Island than I had imagined. Of course being nocturnal I havn't seen any, but even the researchers counting their number do so by recording their calls rather than by sightings. I did see some road signs telling drivers to be careful for Kiwis on the road though.
i heard a Morpork at night which is a small owl whose call is just as its name suggests - More Pork More Pork More Pork!
At the hot springs at Rotorua there were a pair of pied stilts working the edge of the hot thermal pools. I cannot think what they found to eat as I am sure no fish could survive in such hot water. I also saw some black swans but they are more common than white ones here.
On the road south from Ruapehue I saw an eagle but am not sure what kind and also two groups of Pukeko's which are large black birds with big red beaks. The Australian Magpie is also around in large numbers, its exactly like our crow but has black and white patches like a magpie.
I was in Te Papa the National Museum of New Zealand, you would REALLY like that place it has some amazing displays. Best of all you would like the Giant Squid. It is 4,2 metres long and weighs about a ton. It was caught by New Zealand Fisherman who brought it back specially for the museum. They had a video camera on board and filmed it being caught. I have bought the DVD and will send it to you by post whenever I can get to a post office. Tomorrow morning I set off early on the ferry to the South Island. It should be a fabulous journey with a chance of seeing dolphins etc, but right now the weather is dreadful so I don't know if I will see anything at all it might be very rough which I wont like at all.
Anyway keep watching my Blog and you will find out in due course.

Pipiriki and Wanganui river

Well apart from a few well timed moments, the rain didn't ease. It just came down in buckets. I got to Pipiriki, a few deserted houses and a lone lost Frenchwoman whose story I still havn't fathomed, was all I saw there. The country to get there was pretty but strange, huge clay cliffs and peaks that must have been the softest rock imaginable.

From Pipiriki the road went through a large bush area following the Wanganui river. Huge tree ferns, tall trees dripping with rain and cloud. The good tar sealed road gave way rather unexpectedly to a very rough gravel road with the worst corrugations imaginable - going in all directions at once. On flat land the best way of dealing with corrugations is speed - just hit the tops and dont go into the troughs, but here with wet clay and gravel on the surface, a water and clay filled ditch on one side, a ravine on the other and the narrow road twisting up and down steep hillsides that clearly wasn't the right option. The few local vehicles I passed were all going at a similar slow speed and they were all chunky 4x4's. Clearly a rented Toyota Corolla with automatic gear shift is not the vehicle of choice in these parts!

Driving for hours through such untouched bush one inevitably fixes on the human anomalies. A sign giving a temporary speed restriction of 30k in a place where more than 10 would be impossible anyway, and an open road limit of 100 km where more than 20 would have been suicidal, and the only cleared paddock in an hour of driving with a hand painted sign declaring No trespassers and Dogs will be shot. In one place lower in the valley and after regaining tarred road a washout was being fixed in the torrential rain . The workmen said I would have to wait about 15 minutes but they had to wake me up 50 minutes later when it was finally passable.

Connie spoke about all the Maori villages and canoes on the river but now there is just one Maori Paa, very friendly inviting visitors in, with just one large old canoe bow on display. It seems the only way of experiencing the river today is on a jet boat offering 30 min to 2 hour 30 min rides. The area will be far less populated now than then. Only the road signs in the softer lower parts of the valley indicating that some kind of settlement exists, I passed Athens, London and Jerusalem!

What this trip did remind me of is how many wild and remote places still exist in New Zealand within quite short distances of towns and major through roads. It is probably just this lack of adequate road networks that keeps them that way. I will happily suffer the bad roads.

As the weather got even worse I decided to head directly to Wellington, stopping at Levin on the way to visit my fathers grave for only the second time. The rain stopped while I was there and resumed again as I left.

Mt Ruapehu

Mt Ngauruhoe

Cabbage tree fern

Smoke ring cloud over the active Mt Ruapehu

Looking out from Mt Ruepehue ski ground

Chalets on volcanic rock ski fields

Travelling down the side of Lake Taupo we stopped, as Connie had done, to collect pumice and other rock samples. At least the pumice is light enough to make it home. We also found a track beside Pumice cliffs to experience the white dust of the road and reflect that she would have travelled this on the box seat of a horse drawn carriage through streams over rocky outcrops and in the full blaze of the sun. We just blessed our air conditioned car.

Tokaanu, a simple spa with free bush walk was indeed the wonder that Connie described. Our walkway protected us from the deep clear boiling water pools just feet away, and the ominous plopping sounds from tiny mud pools completely hidden in the roots of the vegetation. To have ventured in here without well marked paths would have been nightmare stuff. Indeed one of Connie's fellow travellers did put a foot through the fragile crust.

On 'M's' very good advice we booked into the Skotel on the slopes Mt Ruepehu. this is dual purpose tiny resort, skiing in winter walking in summer. sandwiched between the perfectly formed Mt Ngauruhoe and the still active Mt Ruepehu which we watched putting up smoke signals yesterday. Last night a full moon over Ngauruhoe was an inspiring sight, tonight the heavens opened and we have nil visibility. Nothing by halves here.

(Actually writing this a day later, Maureen has just made contact from Auckland and wonders if the strange red night haze to the west on the night of the full moon was actually caused by the dreadful Melbourne fires which we now know had broken out that day. Even more strangely, writing in 1887 Connie tells of the dark skies over New Zealand caused by smoke from Australian bush fires)

Before 'M' left on the bus back to Auckland we managed an early morning 2 hour walk to Silica falls up through the bush and back over the high hillside where the plant life was unbelievably diverse. Scotland has something to answer for here though as some enterprising fellow introduced both Ling heather and game to these parts last century. The game failed to survive but the heather is actively spreading over all the hills. Thankfully the mountain daisies are still surviving in abundance and a type of white moss in large clumps that 'M" referred to as vegetable sheep.

With my background in textile and dye research I much appreciated "M's' knowledge about the useful plants we passed on the subtropical bush of the lower slopes. For example the sculptural Cabbage tree leaves were used for weaving a Maori warrior's cloak then dyed black for night time camouflage . Some trees wore broad metal bands to stop the possums from reaching the rare mountain mistletoe. We drove up the Bruce Road to the skiing resort set in and on the jagged boulder fields of volcanic outpouring. In this season it is hard to imagine the depth of snow that must fall to make this into safe ski-ing. Its like an imaginary moonscape in summer.

As a postscript, if anyone is coming this way, do make a point of stopping at the National Parks Station cafe which we discovered this lunchtime . Why Oh Why can't we have simple cafes for travelers with this level of food and friendly service.

The next stage of my journey takes me to Wanganui via the Wanganui river gorge which Connie went up by boat as far as Pipiriki . Lets hope the rain eases.

Geothermals

Connie said how difficult she found it to put some experiences into words, and I agree. So I will let the pictures show some of the visual impact of the geothermal region. But they cannot let you smell the pungent sulphur fumes or feel the heat or imagine the horror of even the thought of falling through the shaky crusts.

Nature comes packaged for tourists here, but we have seen it at different levels. There is the full on paid-for experience of the 'geyser blow' with the land around shaped into terraces to seat about 600 tourists at a time. The manipulated 'blow' comes promptly at 10.15 every day, rather than the unpredictable natural occurance every 36 hours or so - they throw in a soap like substance to break the surface tension of the water below and make the geyser erupt on cue - together with a 'geezer' with amplification adding his own witty introduction to the 'show'.

While the major geothermal attractions are highly organised , each feature with its own scary name, other smaller ones with less beautiful or dramatic attractions are more laid back but still have their cafes and shops and add on carving or weaving experiences, then there are the free spaces with safety walkways but no hype. No prizes for guessing which we appreciated most.

The 'cultural experience' is everywhere, supposedly giving the tourists what they want. As a lecturer of traditional Maori culture, 'M' is constantly horrified and frustrated at the incorrect information being churned out as 'authentic'. Frankly it is no worse than any other country - Scotland for a start- and it had started even in Connie's day. She spent many days buying Maori carving clearly on sale for tourists although it would have been genuine and traditional work , not 'made in Thailand' as apparently is some of the awful stuff we saw on sale today. In her diary Connie remarks ' We are in great hopes that a Maori dance will be got up tomorrow night for the benefit of the tourists.' She wouldn't have to look far for such an event tonight.

But looking beyond its packaging, the geothermal activity in this area is really beyond belief and can certainly give you nightmares if you care to dwell on what is beneath our feet

Auckland to Taupo

The traditional Waahi Paa and the power station built later.

Brick caravan by Peter Lange Hamilton Art Gallery

Left Auckland at 7 am to avoid the hoards of cars heading out of the cities and into the country and coast to celebrate the Waitangi Holiday weekend. Maybe it wasnt as busy as usual anyway but we certainly had a pleasant drive south toward Taupo, the countryside was fresh and beautiful and not at all burnt up from the recent - and ongoing - heat. They don't have any wind farms - yet - and although there are some pylons around the land it is still largely clutter free - haven't even noticed any phone masts but I guess they must be here somewhere.

This holiday celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 an agreement to a partnership of Governance between the British and Maori people. But it was the Governors insistence on flying the Union Jack without the United Tribes flag that ultimately led to the five year Heke's war. There is still a legacy from this today as on Waitangi day two Union Jack's still fly on the Harbour Bridge. The new Prime Minister John Key says he has no problem flying the Maori flag but now the Maori people must agree on whether they will fly their United Tribes or Tino Rangatiratanga flag, they didn't reach agreement in time for this year so we still drove past 2 Union flags on the bridge.

We stopped at Huntly a small township where Connie visited a Maori Paa just one day before a major tribal royal Tangi funeral gathering, and we eventually located the Paa she described now dwarfed by a massive power station. Power was another issue for Maoris as British engineers diverted water from one tribal area depleting their sacred source, directly into the tribal waters of another tribe on the Waikato river.

Further down the road we passed the Taupiri burial ground where the Latest Maori Queen was buried 2 years back . Her body was brought up the river by a double canoe and then taken up the hill for burial. But this royal burial like all others at the site must cross the tracks of the main railway line again built without respect for Maori use, directly between the road and the hill.

Stopping at Hamilton to see the Art Gallery and Museum we saw an excellent Maori exhibition about the Paokai network of gatherings in support of the Royal inheritance involving the new current King . Although royal inheritance stays within one family, the tribal elders can choose which member of the extended family will succeed. Some other exhibitions seems like a waste of a very good space - kind of small town thinking, but the best was 'Waiclay' a national ceramics exhibition. Peter Lange's brick caravan on the street was fun.

We havn't seen much of the crowds who are here in Taupo, we guess they are all at the drag races or national Reggae festival in Roturua.

Auckland

Aotearoa Land of the long white cloud

Maureen at the Museum carved meeting house

Arriving yesterday, a couple of hours late but feeling good, I picked up a hire car and found myself battling right across Auckland at rush hour to stay with artist Maureen Lander at Devonport. Some of you will remember Maureen from her visit to PVAF ( Perthshire Visual Arts Forum) in 2007. Until her retirement last year she taught Maori material culture at Auckland University so she was the perfect guide to take me to the Maori displays at Auckland Museum today (Thursday 5^th) Connie recorded her visit to the Museum in 1897 , probably in the old building , recalling the magnificent 80ft carved wooden canoe capable of holding a thousand rowers and all carved from a single tree, and the splendid Maori house carved all over, which both looked just as fantastic to me today – and Connie remarked then ’ how differently one looks at these things when one has really made the acquaintance with the people who made them’. Maureen’s Maori perspective and knowledge certainly drew my eye to many things I would otherwise have missed.

When they were in New Zealand Connie and Margaret made a collection of ‘Kits’ a specific style of Maori basket made with New Zealand flax, and co-incidentally – and I am not short of those – Maureen has a collection and has made kits as an artform using all manner of contemporary fibres and materials. She co-wrote a book about Kits and I was able to purchase a copy from the Museum Bookshop this afternoon. Crossing the harbour by ferry today I really wished I had at least a week here as there are so many places to visit and explore, and all this blue sky and sunshine takes time to adapt to.

Flight Path

Leaving Glasgow airport

Sunrise over Australia

Well here I am in my little airborne bubble like a battery hen being fed and watered at regular intervals, with the lights turned off and on in ways designed to fool the body clock into submission. From leaving Glasgow airport in heavy snow to arriving in Auckland, hopefully in sunshine, is a journey time of about 30 hours. When Connie travelled in 1897 she came by steam ship and regretted the speed at which she covered the distance saying that she felt the earth was forever dwarfed and the ocean a mere pond – but then she was an inveterate sailor.

In 1961 my first journey to NZ on the Dutch ship ‘Oranje’ took about 6 weeks. Flying was very uncommon then and sea trips usually took between 5 and 7 weeks depending on the route and number of ports visited. On that occasion we went through the Suez canal, well I actually got off at one end and made a hair-raising bus trip down to Cairo, rejoining the boat at the other end of the canal. I do recall being abruptly woken up in the middle of the night and deep in the desert, by armed soldiers boading the bus and prodding us all awake with rifles and demanding aggressively to see our passports. Even the driver had no idea what was happening. All became clear when we reached Cairo and realised that President Nasser was making a street parade and hundreds of thousands of people were descending on the city. Infact, to get to our hotel, the driver had to crawl the bus through the narrow lanes of the ‘ city of the dead’ because it was the only place without any ‘living’ souls.

The man sitting next to me here on this Emirate flight lives in Kirkaldy but works in northern Australia and makes this trip every month. Some work commute. Changed times .

In the notes I wrote on that sea journey I noted my lack of ‘awe’ after seeing dolphins running in the bow wave of the ship. I was excited and fascinated but noted that because I had seen it on TV several times I couldn’t have the level of awe that earlier travellers would have experienced. This is interesting because I had first seen TV only 9 years earlier when an uncle had hired one for the Queen’s Coronation and it was several years after that before we had one at home. So even that small exposure had totally changed the nature of travel for me.

Right now there are atolls below in the Indian Ocean with storm clouds ahead and I have my laptop balanced on my knee!