Māori culture

Some of the South Island’s extensive tussock lands are said to have grown from grasses that fell from a cape worn by Tama, who was searching for his stolen wife. As he ran, flax, tussock and other grasses drifted down and grew up in his wake.

—Polly Stupples, New Zealand Geographic

Wanaka (𐀷𐀙𐀏) is the Mycenaean Greek word for king, which is fitting considering Wānaka’s majestic location and its very expensive houses. Perhaps a future hiking blogger will choose Wānaka Wanaka as their moniker.

Visual art

Marian Maguire’s lithographs and etchings (e.g. The Labours of Herakles) are my favorite imaginative combinations of Māori and European (in this case, Greek) motifs.

The most evocative paintings I've seen of hiking-worthy NZ terrain are those by Mike Glover (Facebook), of Canterbury, and Grahame Sydney (Instagram), who is based in the hamlet Cambrians, Central Otago. See my photo of the Hawkdun Range to get an idea of Sydney’s paintings. The film The Power of the Dog also features this scenery.

At least two of my Otago accommodation hosts have been talented artists:

• portraitist Ika Willett

• scenic photographer Michal Karnik (whose postcards you might find in shops).

Reading

A few books I've enjoyed about areas of rural NZ:

• Miners in the Clouds: A Hundred Years of Scheelite Mining at Glenorchy, by Julia Bradshaw.

  • On Bookabach.co.nz, you might find a Glenorchy bach (holiday home) now owned by the boy who can be seen posing with his father, a miner, on the bookcover.

• John and Charles Enys: Castle Hill Runholders, 1864-1891, by Jenny Abrahamson.

Castle Hill is just one of several high-country sheep stations with a coffee-table book like that dedicated to them. I wonder, are these books meant to turn a profit? Or are they vanity projects, like this blog?

Books I've read about NZ in general:

• Māori Myth and Legend, by A.W. Reed. There's probably a more scholarly alternative to this. But what does scholarship add to myth?

• The Penguin History of New Zealand, by Michael King. Not an exciting twentieth century. But no news is usually good news.

• A History of Otago, by Erik Olssen. The region went from boom to backwater. This is probably pleasant, from a hiker's perspective, because it means roads and hiking trails without many people to use them. (Not coincidentally, though, a lot of the rural roads remain unpaved.)

• His Best Stories, by Witi Ihimaera. A selection of short fiction by one of the most widely-read Māori authors.

Here are some magazine articles on NZ’s various types of public land, and their histories.

My favorite secondhand bookshops in NZ

Auckland:

• Hard-to-Find Books (most fun to explore; also, haunted)

• Jason Books

• Bookmark (nice interior decor)

Wellington:

• Pegasus Books (best interior)

• Arty Bees

Christchurch:

• London Street Bookshop, Lyttelton (only bookshop I’ve visited during a hike)

• Steadfast Books

Dunedin:

• Hard-to-Find Books

• Dead Souls

Pioneers, innovators, and rogues of the NZ backcountry: Some anecdotes

One night Tarewai crept back to the Mamoe settlement at Papanui. The people were seated around a fire, passing Tarewai’s patu hand to hand and retelling their deeds in ambushing the Kāi Tahu people [Tarewai’s people] from Pukekura. In the dark, Tarewai joined the circle, keeping his face concealed. When the patu came to him, he brandished it above his head and called: ‘Nāia te toa o Tarewai, kai a ia anō tōna patu!’ Here is the brave Tarewai, reunited with his patu! Before the shocked Mamoe people could react, he sprinted into the bush…

Maru wrapped himself in a sealskin and lolled about on the spit below the pā like a free meal. The Mamoe people came out unarmed to claim their prize. They were ambushed and killed, and the pā burned.

Nic Low, New Zealand Geographic

[Otago Province Superintendent James Macandrew’s financial] speculations had lost him some 40,000. Gaoled for debt, he promptly declared his own house at Carisbrook a gaol and ordered [gaoler Henry] Monson to imprison him there. Monson complied.

Erik Olssen, A History of Otago

[Illiterate Scotsman James] Mackenzie was discovered with 1,000 sheep from Robert and George Rhodes's Levels station, north of Timaru… Unable to tolerate imprisonment, he escaped at least twice, in May and June 1855, neither escape lasting more than three days. After this he was placed in irons and carefully watched… [Pardoned in 1856,] Mackenzie probably returned to Australia, but nothing certain is known of his later life… Mackenzie's exploits won him the admiration of those on the margins of society. Small would-be farmers wanting their own land or resenting the power of large wealthy landowners could identify with him, as could those who did not fit the mould of genteel Canterbury society.

Cathy Marr, Te Ara

James Mackenzie ended up with a big memorial (the grand Mackenzie Basin named for him) and a small one (a statue of him with his sheepdog, Friday, in Fairlie).

William O'Leary, known as Arawata Bill… resigned as ferryman in 1928 [at age 63], and thereafter devoted most of his life to prospecting the river valley from which his nickname derived. It is possible that his long association with the Arawata stemmed from a practical joke. During an early prospecting expedition there, one of his companions pretended to find a nugget he had previously won on the Shotover. O'Leary refused to believe the nugget had been planted, and remained convinced that the Arawata carried heavy gold… [O’Leary] had made no significant gold finds during his lifetime, but, as he admitted to a friend, his prospecting only rationalised his love for the back country.

Alwyn Owen, Te Ara

When Fred Miller, a South Island journalist, was laid off by his newspaper [during the Great Depression], he took his family to Central Otago for three years where he panned for gold (and, for part of that time, housed his wife and children in a cave). The motto he coined as a result of those years was ‘Pain is inevitable, misery is optional. Stick a geranium in your hat and be happy.’

Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand

[Convicted thief George Wilder] had style and he had flair, growing in popularity when it was said he joined his own search party before disappearing into the bush... During his 172 days of freedom, he generated massive public attention, partly for his politeness - he left apology notes and cleaned up the properties he had broken into.

Tom Hunt, Stuff

Wilder is the only North Islander here.

[A man known as ‘Seagull’] was an old friend—a farmer’s son and a practical kind of guy who once, working on track maintenance in Fiordland during the roar, lured a stag to him by imitating its grunts with a chainsaw.

Derek Grzelewski, New Zealand Geographic

[O]ne must assume that only self-willed individuals would choose to live in the community that appears to be so isolated and exposed to harsh winter climes [of the Manuherikia Valley, Central Otago]. And, sure enough, a community spokesman said the dozen or so households of Cambrians held a meeting and collectively decided they did not want to help the Otago Daily Times with its feature on the tiny settlement.

Hamish MacLean, Otago Daily Times

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Television classics

• A Dog’s Show: sheepdog trials (the only NZ TV show I’ve watched a full episode of, so far)

• The Instant Kiwi Attitude: ad promoting the lottery through bungee-jump fishing

• Legend: ad discouraging drunk driving - “‘You know I can’t grab your ghost chips.’”

See also: https://falliblepieces.substack.com/p/all-things-new-zealand.