#ahipara

[dilemmaontwolegs]

NO wAY !!!!??!? ko ngāti kurī tōku iwi !!! tribe of the dog!!! my whenua is cape reinga so im also from the naughty north!!!!! aaaghhhh it’s so cool to see a māori f1 fan AND author shhcishdjdb

What a small world! I’m from Ahipara so we are practically neighbours 😂

[paxbe]

i tried to look up some info about 9-1-1 and google came up with a fandom.com wiki page for actual fire stations in new zealand that lists their building addresses and the make/model and number plate of the engines/trucks??

there's other countries on there as well but like why use fandom.com as the host site for this??

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 12, 25th of April, 2024 Research

In Aotearoa, Papatūānuku is the feminine earth

From the text: "Ko wai ahau? Papatūānuku and I" on The Pantograph Punch, 2017…

"Whenua in Aotearoa is feminine and her name is Papatūānuku. She exists in almost every culture and manifests under several pseudonyms. In Bolivia, she is ratified and protected by the constitution. The notion of land as feminine has persisted relentlessly throughout history, hand in hand with a colonial desire to claim and subjugate her. As a child, I saw the sinuous curves, danger and beauty of the whenua as evidence of a living, breathing wāhine.

Her waist, the crevices and valleys between her hips and bosom, were cinched by years of erosion. The flowering and prospering native fauna and flora spoke to her investment in tikanga; the protection of this taonga ensured her health, sustainable growth and fertility. Her diverse environments co-exist; the dehydrated plains of central Otākou, the salty West coast wind, the glare of the Ahipara sun; were all telling of her fragmented self.

Her legs the length of the Waikato River. To speak her name, Papatūānuku, was to taste sea-spray, ochre soil and the shade of a kauri." - Miriama Aoake (Ngaati Maahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Waikato-Tainui): writer, critic and postgraduate student in Māori Studies.

I think it would be disrespectful if my research on the landscape, flowers and fruits in Aotearoa and what is observable in Tāmaki Kakaurua, didn't acknowledgement Māori sciences and tikanga. I am researching these thinkers and writers in order to fill in any gaps.

From the text: "Ko Taupiri te Maunga, Ko Waikato te Awa, Ko Pōtatau te Tangata" Taupiri is the Mountain, Waikato is the River, Pōtatau is the Man…

"Colonial desecration is defined by the erasure of Te Ao Māori, and the establishment of invasive, foreign boundaries that must fall. Māori understanding of Papatūānuku as a living body comes with an understanding of kaitiakitanga, that she exists alongside Māori, personified in the geographic terrain of Aotearoa. To apply Marama Muru-Lanning’s assertions of landmarks as a living being, “[rivers] were just part of the way we lived, not something to be controlled or owned” by Muru-Lanning, Marama. ‘The Analogous Boundaries of Ngaati Mahuta, Waikato-Tainui and Kiingitanga. University of Auckland. Pages 9 - 41.

Papatūānuku, against her will, became subject to settler reconstruction. Lisa Taouma purports European interest in the Pacific and her bountiful land is synonymous with the construction of the dusky maiden stereotype, “naive, untouched and passively inviting of Western penetration.” Papa’s autonomy was stolen from her, defiled, devalued and defaced. She was forcibly fragmented by irreversible colonial boundaries, becoming an unwilling subject of the Crown. The domineering Pākehā hegemony dissolves the importance of the Māori world view within the self to promote a monocultural agenda. Colonial methodology evaporates the visibility of tikanga; manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, kotahitanga, rangatiratanga, mohiotanga, maramatanga, tuakana, kaitiakitanga, atuatanga, wairua and mauri. Resistance is the less desirable, more difficult path to restore the principles of tikanga to reclaim the whenua/body." From ‘Ko wai ahau? Who am I?’." -Miriama Aoake access here: https://www.pantograph-punch.com/posts/papatuanuku-and-i

From the text: Saana Murray — and an awakening for a Pākehā by Kennedy Warne, 2016, E-tangata…

Kennedy Warne, a co-founder and former editor of New Zealand Geographic and the author of Tūhoe: Portrait of a Nation, on how the cultural sleep was rubbed from his eyes.

"It was 1989. New Zealand Geographic, the magazine I co-founded and edited with the publisher, John Woods, was less than a year old. One of our photographers, Arno Gasteiger, had produced a set of evocative images of the Spirits Bay — Cape Reinga area, and I was keen to publish them but didn't have any text to go with the photos. A friend suggested Saana Murray, a poet, an elder of Ngāti Kuri, the tribe of that place, and a keeper of the long-burning fires of her people. I asked how soon she could deliver the text. What she told me I have never forgotten. “I cannot write anything here,” she said. “I will have to go to the land". She said it as if she were stating the obvious. Yet it was the first time I had heard such a thing: that words about the land required the presence of the land. That knowledge was inseparable from its context. For someone steeped in scientific thinking — a mindset in which knowledge is a commodity, endlessly transferable — it was a challenging thought. For a moment, the fabric of my fact-based worldview started to fray, and I caught a glimpse of another country. I‘ve come to learn that this is the country Māori inhabit. In the Māori worldview, context is vital. Knowledge is not disembodied information but part of a living matrix of encounters and relationships, past and present, natural and spiritual. Tūhoe take this sort of experience in their stride, incorporating it into a life narrative that interweaves many ways of knowing. And, really, this is what Saana Murray showed me all those years ago, when she said she had to go to the place where the knowledge belongs." -Kennedy Warne.

Adding to Warne's comments

From the text: Becoming ‘really Pākehā’ by Jen Margaret, 2019…

"The Pākehā nation is an unruly beast. Reflecting on the state of the Pākehā nation is therefore a daunting task that has made me query what the Pākehā nation is, as well as what it might be.

I employ the common usage of Pākehā, which describes the diverse group of people who are white European, particularly of British descent. Our stories prior to arrival in Aotearoa are varied, as are our experiences since arrival. What we have in common is our privilege as beneficiaries of colonisation.

Ani Mikaere (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Porou), a barrister and solicitor and teaches Māori law and philosophy, said:

There is nowhere else in the world that one can be Pākehā. Whether the term remains forever linked to the shameful role of the oppressor or whether it can become a positive source of identity and pride is up to Pākehā themselves. All that is required from them is a leap of faith.

Problematic theories of the inherent superiority of white folk (like the Great Chain of Being), which many Pākehā disavow while holding firmly to patterns of thought which the theories have planted. While often articulated in more subtle ways than in the past, cultural racism — the innate belief that cultures have certain attributes that make some superior to others — is flourishing in Pākehā society.

Within the article, Rebecca Solnit attests that being dominant “means seeing yourself and not seeing others” and how, in this way, privilege limits and obstructs imagination. Winning the colonisation race — the race of cultural dominance — has generated huge imbalance and loss. Māori have been the most devastated, yet Pākehā too have been damaged.

We should teach our colonial history, because we don’t, and this is a huge mistake. You cannot know who you are as a society unless you know your history. Look out across the world and see the extraordinary divisions within societies. Frankly, the rise of white racism is partly because people don’t understand their history. (Jim Bolger)

Pākehā ignorance is coupled with British ways of operating that don’t fit here on Māori land. Re-centring indigenous ideologies is a core dimension of decolonisation.

In the face of climate change and growing inequity, decolonisation is critical to the survival and health not only of indigenous peoples but of us all. "The task of calling things by their true names, of telling the truth to the best of our abilities, of knowing how we got here, of listening particularly to those who have been silenced in the past". (Rebecca Solnit)

[chuckschmalzried]

Baby Dies with High Alcohol Level in Blood. Should Drinking be Off Limits while Breastfeeding?

Baby Dies with High Alcohol Level in Blood. Should Drinking be Off Limits while Breastfeeding? https://theheartysoul.com/should-drinking-be-off-limits-while-breastfeeding/ It’s a parent’s worst nightmare: finding her baby girl motionless in her crib with blood trickling from her nose. This was the fate of two-month-old Sapphire, in Ahipara, New Zealand. The coroner suspects the cause of death was alcohol poisoning via breastmilk ingestion. The toxicology report showed alcohol levels of 308 milligrams per 100 milliliters […] The post Baby Dies with High Alcohol Level in Blood. Should Drinking be Off Limits while Breastfeeding? appeared first on The Hearty Soul. via The Hearty Soul https://theheartysoul.com/ April 01, 2024 at 09:11AM

[kenovele]

Bog’s blog 5

Oufti, une semaine de plus. Je rembobine légèrement par rapport au moment où Kate vous a laissé la semaine passée. Samedi midi, pendant le lunch, Il y avait quelques discussions et tergiversions sur l’organisation de l’après-midi. J’ai accepté d’être bob pour notre partie de pêche. Mon annonce a été accueillie à coup de fortes acclamations, des mains ont été serrées avec enthousiasme et la machine était lancée. La pêche peut se pratique de mille manières et je pense que celle de chez Grant nécessite une description. Après avoir embarqué tous les outils de pêche ont a conduit jusque à la plage et ensuite sur la plage pour quelques kilomètres. La plage qui s’appelle « 90 miles beach » et fait environ 90 km de long. Lorsqu’on s’est suffisamment éloigné de la civilisation, On recule le 4x4 pour le parquer perpendiculairement à la mer. La machine qui va tirer notre ligne dans l’océan est mise à l’eau. Elle a la forme d’une torpie et a une petite hélice pour la propulser. Une bobine déroule progressivement la ligne où on ajoute les crochets munis d’appâts. Une trentaine d’hameçons sont mis à l’eau. Le torpedo s’arrête lorqu’il est à court de batterie et on attend une heure que les poissons mordent à l’hameçon. Je vous rassure qu’on ne se laisse pas mourir de soif. L’agréable est joint à l’utile. Une fois que le frigobox est vide on rembobine la ligne avec un petit moteur électrique. Malheureusement, la pêche a été infructueuse cette fois-ci. Des requins ont arraché une dizaine d’hameçons de la ligne. On en avait attrapé un mais il s’est libéré au moment d’arriver sur la plage. 
On est rentré à la batch (maison de vacance) et on a cuisiné de délicieux burger pour la deuxième fois cette semaine-là. La soirée était arrosée et les retrouvailles ont été dûment célébrées. 
Depuis la batch on a constamment le nez sur l’océan. Toute la journée samedi et dimanche les conditions était incroyable pour le surf. Les fronts d’eau était régulier, glassy et cassait bien. Pris en étau entre l’incapacité de trouver des surfboard et l’appel grandissant de l’océan, j’ai attrapé une bodyboard et je me suis jeté à l’eau. Refaire de l’activité physique me procure énormément de plaisir. Même si ce nétait pas optimal, j’ai quand même fait quelque chose. Ce qui m’a beaucoup fait repenser au jour où je n’ai pas accompagné Pablo quand il est sorti surfé la dernière fois qu’il était là, à Ahipara. Parfois des petits épisodes de vie laissent des traces plus significatives qu’on ne le pense. Snober l’idée d’aller surfer ne me ressemble pas et je me rappels qu’il était chaud avoir un peu de compagnie. Les planches seront là à disposition la prochaine fois que tu passes, Pab. Il n’y aura plus d’opportunité manquée. J’y suis retourné lundi avant notre départ. 


Grant nous a proposé d’utiliser son atelier pour faire un plan 3D de notre tiny house. Les plans ont été dessiné sur le sol à la craie et puis rempli avec tout ce qu’on pouvait trouver pour mieux visualiser l’espace. L’exercice était fort utile parce qu’il nous a permis de faire de judicieuses modifications. Quelques centimètres par ci, quelques centimètres par-là font une énorme différence. On est donc arrivé à un consensus et j’ai pu finaliser les plans cette semaine. Je vais vous les faire parvenir sur le blog. 
Lundi on s’est mis dans les chaussure ou plutôt les bottes en caoutchouc d’un fermier et on s’est baladé dans la ferme en quad. Après avoir déplacé quelques clôtures électriques pour laisser le bétail aller dans les hautes herbes, Grant nous a montré toutes ses plantations et son potager. Il plante au moins un arbre par jour. Tout pousse extraordinairement bien là-bas. Il y a l’embarras du choix pour les légumes et les arbres fruitiers. Le climat est idéal car il fait entre 15 et 25 degrés toute l’année. Grant nous a fait cadeau de ses premières bananes de la saison. 
On a également bénéficié d’un petit cours sur la plantation de Kumara (patate douce de NZ qu’on adore). Grant affirme qu’ils ont été importés d’Amérique du sud par les navigateur Maori. 
Il a aussi investi dans une longue tronçonneuse avec une ossature en métal autour qui permet de faire des planches à base des gros troncs tombé lors des orages. Il y en a pas mal sur la propriété qui n’attendent que ça. Il nous a proposé de faire un mur de notre tiny house avec une essence native de NZ (du Macrocapa). Ce sera sur le seul mur intérieur de la maison entre le salon/cuisine et la salle de bain. Grant va aussi nous aider dans nos recherches pour l’électricité, la plomberie et construire une petite table à base de bois de vieille clôture. On a donc déjà planifié d’y retrourner quelques fois cette année pour travailler sur nos projets. Il sait comment nous amadouer. En tout cas, c’est pas grâce à la pêche qui me fera revenir. Jamie affirme que ça fait trois ans qu’il a pas attrapé un poisson en faisant du « long line fishing ». Pour info, Jamie monte à Ahipara seulement une fois par an. 
On a amorcé le trajet du retour dans l’après-midi après une délicieuse baignade en face de la maison. On a récupéré le reste du bois pour notre tiny sur notre chemin de retour qu’on avait laissé chez un ami des parents. On s’est arrêté pour notre premier fish and chips néo-zélandais avec des saucisses et des squid ring en accompagnement. Le tout était cuit à la friteuse… bien évidement. Un peu de tartare ou d’aioli aurait été le bienvenu pour ajouter une n ième couche de gras. 
 Je suis allé travailler tous les jours avec Mark. J’arrive à court de podcast donc si vous avez des recommandations je suis preneur. Je pense que je vais télécharger celui sur la méditation que Pablo et Vinz ont recommandé. 
 Mardi, Kate et moi étions de sortie pour diner. On continue progressivement les retrouvailles avec ses amis. L’ambiance était bonne et on a bien rigolé.  
Mercredi, Maxime (le fils de Jean-Marc Piron) nous a accompagné au travail pour concrétiser ses recherches de voitures. Il avait trois rendez-vous ce jour-là et était parti pour la journée. Il s’est plutôt bien débrouille pour s’organiser. Il lui manque juste un peu de structure dans ses pensée et résonnements mais il y est arrivé à la fin. Il a acheté une voiture et est maintenant parti à Raglan pour surfer. On le reverra à Noël pour l’aider à tuner sa caisse. Je lui ai dit de réfléchir à ce qu’il voulait faire, d’acheter le matériel et que Jamie lui prêtera les outils en temps voulu. Le soir, Sally a cuisiné un délicieux diner dont je vais vous partager la recette parce que ce serait criminel d’en garder le secret. Apparemment, c’est très facile et les saveurs sont à se taper le cul par terre. J’avais du mal à remonter ma mâchoire pour mastiquer tellement j’étais abasourdi. J’imagine que ce ne sera pas une surprise pour vous si je vous dis que c’est un plat à base de hachis de porc. Le mercredi normalement c’est art night mais on n’est pas descendu dans l’atelier de Jamie cette semaine. J’ai passé une partie de la soirée à dessiner les plans pendant que Kate faisait des cookies et Jamie s’occupait d’une commande pour Floyd’s wood. On passe la plupart de nos soirées à échanger des idées dans la cuisine. 
Jeudi, On était une colloc de jeune parce que les parents sont sortis pour le souper. Maxime était toujours là et Jasper est venu dormir à la maison pour pouvoir démarrer pour le lac le lendemain matin après avoir déposé Jamie à l’aéroport (qui allait voir sa copine à Welli).  La météo nous a crachoté/postillonné dessus tout le weekend. On a donc passé notre temps dans la cuisine, travaillé sur les plans de la tiny, fait une sortie au resto pour l’anniversaire de Sally et lorsque la météo le permettait, construit un potager qui s’arrose tout seul avec Mark. On s’est également baladé dans le bush à la recherche d’essence d’arbre qu’on pourrait bouturer. J’aimerai bien qu’il y ait un « party tree » dans notre futur jardin avec Kate. L’idée vient du seigneur des anneaux (comme beaucoup de mes brillantes idées (empruntées)). Biblon a fêté son 111 anniversaire en dessous du party tree avant de disparaitre. L’arbre occupe une partie importante dans le livre et Peter Jackson a choisi l’endroit du tournage pour la Comtée sur base de cet arbre. Il doit être grand, avec un tronc épais et une canopée qui couvre une large zone. En plantant maintenant, on s’assure d’avoir des arbres relativement grands dans quelques années au cas où on ne trouve pas la pépite. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Le rêve serait d’avoir un endroits paisible entouré de vieux arbres assez espacés pour laisser l’herbe pousser en dessous. Leurs racines livreraient bataille dans les entrailles d’un mur de pierre style écossais. L’un des arbres trônerait fièrement sur les ruines de son adversaire. Un siège hamac se balancerait au gré du vent et un hamac lierait deux arbres comme l’aurait fait un mycélium. Il y aurait de la tension dans les cordes. Quelqu’un s’y reposerait avec une main dans le pantalon. Des fairy light pendraient paresseusement dans l’arbre et projetteraient des lumières multicolores sur son visage. Elles feraient ressortir le sculpte d’un visage façonné par la Chouffe et le cigare cubain. Les oiseaux se feraient entendre en arrière-plan et occasionnellement, un bruit de succion troublerait l’harmonie. Voilà qu’il se réveil en toussant..., il a surement avalé une mouche. J’espère que vous visualisez l’endroit. Aussi non, je vous enverrai une photo au « Bog’s blog 1583 ».

[tumsozluk]

Ahipara's Tom Adams is the new NZ Master Snooker and Billiards Champion

Ahipara’s Tom Adams is the new NZ Master Snooker and Billiards Champion

Ahipara’s Tom Adams was stoked to take out the 2022 Kamo-Northland Masters Snooker Championship at Kamo Club recently. Photo / Supplied When Tom Adams first picked up a pool cue at nine years old, it was love at first shot. In the 1970s and 80s, the Ahipara youth could regularly be found at the Kaitaia Billiard’s Saloon, under the watchful guise of Tony Jujnovich – a mentor and friend. Adams…

[tinytourist]

Look At All Those Chickens (And Sheep)

On Monday morning we drove to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to learn more about New Zealand’s history and the relationship between the aboriginal Māori and the European settlers. The story here is similar to most places where Europeans settled; however, it’s different in the way that Kiwis make a real effort to recognize Māori culture, language, and traditions.

We learned that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 to institute British governance in NZ and establish peace and order. The document was intentionally mistranslated so that while the Māori believed they were just giving the British the right to govern them, the English version said that they were giving up their sovereignty. This treaty has been highly debated since its signing. The story that struck me the most was about Lord Bledisloe, a former governor general of NZ. In 1932, he purchased over 1,000 acres of land surrounding the treaty grounds and gave all of it back to the people, even though it’s prime real estate with a scenic view of the Bay of Islands. We need more government officials like him ASAP.

After finishing walking the grounds, we grabbed lunch to-go at a local fish and chips joint before heading to Waitangi Falls. There was a picnic bench in the parking lot for the waterfall so we decided to eat there. Wrong choice. We were immediately swarmed by chickens. They kept flying up on the table staring at us as we kept shooing them away. This resulted in us scarfing down our food before walking over to the falls where we were able to sit peacefully on top of the waterfall and meditate to the sound of the rushing water.

Once we felt relaxed, we drove a few hours to Ahipara where we checked into our YHA hostel. The hostel was composed of a collection of little cabins surrounded by beautiful flowers and foliage. We were only a few minutes walk to 90 Mile Beach, so we went for a little stroll before dinner. The tide was low and the water was surprisingly warm. We were even lucky enough to find a few abalone (pāua) shells sticking out of the sand on our way off of the beach. 

Back at the hostel, we cooked up a big meal of pesto pasta with veggies and ate our dinner outside with a glass of wine. There was a TV with movies in the common area so Mary and I relaxed after dinner with a viewing of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”.

The next day we made the hour and 45 minute trip up to Cape Reinga which is the northwestern most tip of the North Island. Our intent was to stop along the way at whatever attractions we noticed. That didn’t work out so well as there’s pretty much nothing to see between Ahipara and Cape Reinga. When we arrived, we walked down to the lighthouse, reading signs about the cape the whole way down. We learned that the cape is a sacred place for the Māori people as it is thought to be the point in which spirits jump off and begin their journey into the afterlife. From the cape, we were also able to see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The clash of the different bodies of water is evident from the constant white water and waves forming where they connect.

We ate our lunches at a local camping spot just a 15 minute drive from the cape and then headed back to Ahipara. On the way back we did make one stop for Real Fruit Ice Cream, which we were forced to eat in the car due to rain. Once we were back, we went for a swim at 90 Mile Beach and meditated in the sand.

The next day, we packed up our things and took one last stroll along 90 Mile Beach before making our way to the Waipoua Forest. Along the route, we passed by a cute town called Hokianga. Since we weren’t on any tight timeframe, we stopped to explore. I grabbed a coffee and we meditated on a dock where we saw the occasional fish leaping out of the water. We also stopped in an interesting art gallery where we both bought some artwork and connected with the American store owner. About 5 minutes down the road we ended up getting on a car ferry where we ate our lunches with the windows cracked. Soon enough, we made it to the forest which is filled with kauri trees. We were able to do two walks to see the largest and second largest of these great trees.

After enjoying the nature, we headed to our next Airbnb which was on a farm in Mamaranui. Upon arrival we were greeted by one of our hosts, Dennis, with a beer in hand. Mary and I relaxed until the other host, Julie, arrived to give us a farm tour. She showed us her two adorable babydoll lambs, collection of sheep, goats, and pigs, and let us participate in feeding them dinner. Next, she made us a tasty dinner of homemade pizza and garlic bread, topped off with complementary wine, which we enjoyed on the deck while watching the sunset over the farm.

The next morning, we got to bottle-feed the lambs and have some good chats with Julie and Den. I could not have imagined a better place to end our trip. The next thing we knew, we were back in Auckland for Christmas Eve. Alecia hosted a party at our place and we had a bunch of our expat friends over to celebrate since they were unable to be with their own families. We threw some food on the grill and enjoyed a lively white elephant gift exchange. Alecia even got ornaments for everyone and let us take turns decorating the tree. It was a lovely way to celebrate the holiday.

[temporaryclevertitle]

[bokehstreet]

Pouwhenua or pou whenua (land post), are carved wooden posts used by Māori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand to mark territorial boundaries or places of significance. #ahipara #farnorthnz #life_is_street #urbanandstreets #documentaryphoto #35mmstreetphotography #photooftheday #rawurbanshots #myfujilove #candid📷 #burnmyeye #capturestreets #friendsinbnw #xseriesnz #lensculture #faces.of.streets #streetsgrammer #streetphotographybnw #zonestreet #streetfeat #fujiholics #streetphotographyinternational #friendsinperson #fujifilm_street #streetsby #streetleaks #streetphotographerscommunity #HCSC #wanderlustfilms (at Ahipara, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsd4--egA4d/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=6klcod7hxlss

[gettinglostinnz]

Ahipara Horse Treks - the best way to see 90 Mile Beach 

Ahipara Horse Treks – the best way to see 90 Mile Beach 

Ahipara is at the very beginning of 90 mile beach.  It’s where James Dad and Mum used to stay, surf and dive in the 70’s so it has a lot of meaning to us for that reason alone.  It is also the place that our middle daughter chose for her activity – Ahipara Horse Treks. Now for Krystal she was very particular about what she wanted out of a horse trek.  It couldn’t be for “babies”.  She didn’t want…

[temanamusic]

A H I P A R A ~ reppn #firstphoto 📸 ~ @temanamusic #TMApp 🔥 Send us your pix 🔥 #blackout // #ahipara // #family // 🔥 Thanks for the support #originalmusic #temanamusic ——> more photos ~ #blessed https://www.instagram.com/p/BuvKHWOHsug/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16o41nigxo05h

[patlevoyageur-blog]

#ahipara #newzealand https://www.instagram.com/p/BuonRB9BLlL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=b6z3ic8tsd1p

[nesiansides]

#Ahipara #FarNorthNewZealand (at Ahipara, New Zealand)

[fatehbaz]

Submerged for aeons in the peat bogs of New Zealand’s north, swamp kauri is one of the world’s most valuable and exquisite timbers [...]. But as exports boomed and wetlands were ruined in the rush for the logs, the swamps have become an ideological battleground. What is the future of this ancient taonga? 

For tens of thousands of years, they lay under the earth, from the Waikato to Cape Reinga: gigantic trees toppled in their prime, embalmed in the peat bogs of the north, silent and still.

Now, though, they are rising to the surface. Brown-black trenches score the fields of Northland, and diggers reach into their resting places, pulling the logs [...]. Some of these trees last stretched for the sun before humans built cities or domesticated animals or developed writing -- yet as they emerge, still-green leaves remain stuck to their bark, as fresh as anything you’d find on the forest floor. Such is the preservative power of an anaerobic peat bog.

This is New Zealand’s third kauri bonanza: first the forests were felled, then the gum was dug up. What’s left is the swamp kauri, or ancient kauri, or sub-fossil kauri, depending on who you ask. And depending on who you ask, it’s a taonga, a precious and wonderful timber, a unique scientific resource and globally-significant record of climate change, a source of employment, [...] and the agent of destruction of Northland’s rare and vanishing wetlands.

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A wintry wind rattles the fringing kuta, a spiky endemic sedge prized by Maori for weaving.

“There are native fish in there, there are bitterns, there are dabchicks and fernbirds, and there’s a small colony of a rare orchid species,” Matthews says. “The more you look, the more you find.” A self-taught botanist [...], Matthews says it’s the native orchids that really get him. “Orchids have a special place in the world [...].”

So much has been lost already. A 2014 Landcare study found that just 7.7 per cent of Northland’s original wetland habitat remains. Gumdiggers and early farmers destroyed much of it -- but swamp-kauri mining has been part of the problem too [...]. “It was rip, shit and bust. Some years, I was seeing wetlands disappearing weekly in the summer.” [...] Disappearing with them were [the] orchids. In 2012, he went for a reccy to a site on private land that he knew was a stronghold for Thelymitra “Ahipara”, a rare native sun-orchid [...]. “I just about cried,” he says.

The place had been “obliterated”, dug up for its buried kauri.

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What is certain is that large amounts of it have been leaving the country, in exchange for large amounts of money, labelled as ‘tabletops’ and ‘temple poles’ to exploit loopholes in the law. The industry started in the 1980s, grew steadily through the 1990s and 2000s, then exploded. In the first few years of this decade, exports totalling around 300 cubic metres a year were reported [...]. That soared to 2457 cubic metres in 2013 and 3636 cubic metres in 2014. [...] In 2010, global interest in swamp kauri soared. Wealthy businessmen [...] wanted the world’s most ancient wood to enrich their boardrooms. [...]

“The resource is being taken from one of the poorest communities in the country -- at one time we worked out up to $200 million worth per year was being extracted -- and yet you can’t see that 200 million dollars of anything has gone into Kaitaia. So where’s the money gone?” [...]

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Out on the endless mudflats near Auckland International Airport, the dead-low tide reveals long lines of soft salty wood, the clear outlines of huge trees just breaking through the cockle-strewn surface. What were once giants of the forest now hold pools of water, reflecting low-flying planes in a stormy spring sky. From down here, the sea seems to recede all the way to the Manukau Heads in the far distance. “The thought is that this represents an ancient kauri forest [...].” [...] “You can see the massive proportions of the trees that you’re looking at here -- this was a magnificent forest back in the day.” [...] In the northern hemisphere, many of the temperate forests and peat bogs were destroyed as ice sheets ploughed across the land during the last glacial maximum, between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago. Down here, even at the climate’s coldest, the glaciers didn’t touch the winterless north -- one reason so much buried kauri survives in New Zealand. [...] 

Kauri trees can live a very long time -- a millennium or even two -- and each one of those years is recorded in the wood in the form of annual growth rings. [...] [S]o [...] researchers [...] now have a continuous sequence of tree rings extending out to 2488 BC -- a span of four and a half thousand years. [...] Around 26,000 years ago, the swamp kauri appears [in the geological record] again, scattered through the millennia all the way out to the limits of radiocarbon dating at 60,000 years.[...] [A]ccording to Alan Hogg, a radiocarbon dating specialist at the University of Waikato:

“There are literally no other places in the world that have wood of this amount, this quality and this age.”

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Text excerpts from: Kate Evans. “Buried Treasure.” New Zealand Geographic. November-December 2016.

[wpmcq]

Ahipara to Opononi

Saturday, February 8th, 2020

I woke at 6am at first light. I saw a bike show up right after dark and set up his tent across the trail from me. By the time I was out of the tent in the morning, he was gone.

I broke down camp and left the Ahipara Holiday Park at 8am. I rode down to North Drift Cafe and had a latte, scrambled eggs with toast followed by granola/yogurt/peaches and berries. It was all delicious and great food to start the day with.

I climbed on the bike after a short conversation with a family from Scotland. We commiserated about our crappy skin in this climate. The mom suggested that I use Neutrogena as Banana Boat is crap.

I rode up into the hills behind Ahipara. The trees were beautiful as I headed toward my first turn off at Herekino. I was riding through the Herekino forest. There were very few cars on the road today as it is Saturday.

After my turnoff, I had about 20 km until Broadwood where I stopped for a snack of chocolate milk, juice, and Snickers bar. The road was nice and rolling and I made good time compared to yesterday on the beach.

After another 3 or 4 km, I turned on to a gravel road. What a great road. It traversed a ridgeline for about 20km. In the wooded sections, some kind of little insect was making a crazy amount of noise. They put the cicadas in Texas to shame. Somewhere on the road, the Dutch guy passed me again.

I turned on to the asphalt Coastal Road and fell down to the large bay where I would roll on to the ferry. When I arrived the Dutch guy was not there. No idea how I beat him. When he arrived I asked if he took a wrong turn. He said "No."

After waiting for 20 minutes I boarded the ferry and paid a whopping 2 NZD for the boat ride. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes. As I rode off the boat I noticed a little cafe on the corner. I ordered an avo smash with smoked salmon. It was awesome. I'm having a good food day. No fried crap. The cafe was a combination cafe/art studio/used book store. It has a very calming vibe.

I grabbed a banana from the grocery store across the street packed it and headed out. I had about 20 km to go for a total of about 80 km. There were 2 big hills remaining.

The New Zealanders have a great way to reuse old microwave ovens. They use them as mailboxes.

I rolled into the coastal town of Opononi about 5:45pm. I paid my 20 NZD and set up camp, took a shower, filled my water bottles, and juiced up my phone. At about 6:15pm I rode down to a restaurant and ordered a veg pizza and drank a couple of beers.

There was a nicer restaurant next door and when I asked to sit there she said it was all booked up and that I should go next door to the bar. An hour later the nicer restaurant was still not full.

On my ride back to the campsite I picked up 2 oranges, a box of nut bars, chocolate trail mix and 2 yogurts for the morning. They generally let you put perishables in a common refrigerator.

After charging my phone and keyboard one final time I headed to my tent for some sleep. Tomorrow my goal is to make it to Dargaville.

[kenzmirage-blog1]

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