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!

Connie's diaries

The diaries of Constance Astley's trip to NZ edited by Jill de Fresnes and published in 1997 by Victoria University Press Wellington New Zealand . The original diaries are now in the Fort William Museum Scotland.
I have known Jill since she was a small child but in recent years her passionate enthusiasm for local history and her knowledge of Constance Astley and her family have informed and inspired me to tackle this project in film.

Departure

Camus ant'allan bay Arisaig Jan 09

Hi welcome to my blog. Not quite sure how this all works but it seems like a good idea. I leave for New Zealand on Monday 2nd arriving in Auckland on 4th. Flying with Emirates via Dubai. The purpose of the trip is to follow the journey of Constance Astley in 1896/7.
After her trip she built the house 'Faire na Scuir' in Arisag which we bought for a song 38 years ago. It leaked like a seive, had mushrooms on the bedroom wall, open drains and hay boxes in the yard. We knew nothing then of its history , of Connie, and its connection with Wm Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement. It still leaks but it's the most people friendly house imaginable. A true testament to the Arts & Crafts ideals.
I lived in New Zealand for 3 years in the early 60's and knew then many of the places Connie had visited with her companion Maragaret Shaen. I am planning to make a film that brings together many of these threads in a visual way rather than as a straight documentary. I plan to update the blog as and where I can get internet access and will add some photos as I go.


speak soon SU