So True - The Black Seeds

The Black Seeds is another reggae band from New Zealand. I guess it must be an island thing, this reggae vibe. Even if the island isn't tropical, we seem to all have that tendency towards the slow, easy movement that is reggae. I'm loving it!

Pounamu, Pounamu, Where For Art Thou Pounamu?

Block of pounamu found in the Arahura River a few years ago. It's about the size of a tire. I don't think I would be able to lift it. Pounamu is extremely heavy!

When I went to the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, there was an exhibit there about the main Iwi of the South Island, the Ngai Tahu. The exhibit was very interesting and what caught my eye most of all was the pounamu or greenstone, which is only found in the South Island. The South Island is called in Maori - Te Wai Pounamu, which means The Land of Greenstone Water. Wai, meaning water and Te meaning the. I would directly translate it as the The Water Pounamu, or the Pounamu water (land of).

I found the name of the river which pounamu comes from, the Arahura River. I decided that I would try to find my way there and see if anyone would be willing to show me how to find pounamu.

I knew that the river was privately owned and was to find out that it was owned by Mawhera Incorporation, a Maori landowners trust. I went to the iSite in Westport to find out how to contact people to visit the Arahura. I was given the number to the company and was warned that I might not have much luck. I called regardless and was questioned by Mika Mason, a prominent character in the Maori community in the South Island. When I explained my reasons for wanting to visit the river, I was given the name of a woman, Jo Tootle, who would take me to the river bed and show me around.

I was really excited and recognized how blessed I was to be able to visit the Arahura.

The Arahura River Bed



Mountains above the Arahura

So on Tuesday I was picked up by Jo and we joined up with her cousin, Nathalie and another friend Marge, to go on a girls' outing up the Arahura. We had a great day!

To give you a little bit of background, I'd like to paraphrase the legend of Poutini. This tells us the story of why pounamu is found in this river.

Poutini is a protective spirit who swims up and down the West Coast of the South Island, protecting people and the essence of pounamu. One day, while hiding from his enemy Whatipu (the god of sandstone), he came upon a beautiful woman who was bathing in the sea. Her name was Waitaiki. He kidnapped her and took her from the North Island down to the Arahura River (west coast of the South Island). Along the way, he stopped in different regions, lighting fires to keep her warm (these sites are now known to have valuable stones such as obsidian, flint,basalt, argillite, bowenite jade (in the South Island) and "floater" stones...most of these stones were used as tools in Pre-European history in New Zealand).

In the meantime, Waitaiki's husband, Tamaahua discovered that she was missing and went in pursuit of them to get her back. When he got to the Arahura, the water was warm and he knew he was in the right place. Poutini, knowing that he could not beat Tamaahua in a battle, turned Waitaiki into his own essence, pounamu, at the top of the Arahura River. He figured, if he couldn't have her, no one would. He himself slipped downstream, past Tamaahua and out into the sea. Ever since Poutini resides along the coast, the guardian spirit of the land and its pounamu.

When Tamaahua found Waitaiki, she was a gray-green smooth greenstone (this type of greenstone is called inanga). He wept for her and named the mountains around her after his island home Tuhua and after himself, Tamaahua, so that she would know where she came from. He returned home, remarried and had lots of kids.

Since that time, every spring, pieces of pounamu break off from Waitaiki and flow down the river. These are her children, or uri. (This story I got from Jo, it was narrated by Tipene O'Regan; I have paraphrased it and written it up here)

So we went on the lookout for her children. I thought every green stone I found was pounamu, but I was wrong! Jo and Nathalie are very knowledgeable and could tell pounamu apart from other green stones. Below, our outing!

(I made a mistake while filming and said the river was owned by the Ngai Tahu, when in fact it's owned by Mawhera Incorporation).

Nathalie found a piece of pounamu



Below: The tikanga, or correct way of doing things

Below: On the hunt

Can you spot the pounamu?

In the summertime people actually walk in the water, it's easier to find pounamu when it's wet because the green is brighter. It was too cold to do that here, though my boots did get wet!

Below: Bed of...

Below: Say hello to the Weka!

After our outing, Jo invited me back to her place for dinner. We had smoked eel for dinner! (this was one of the dishes on my list of things to eat while in the South Island). As it was being cooked, the smell was very strong. I wondered whether I would like it. But when we sat down to eat, it was delicious! The only time time I had had eel before was in a sushi restaurant, but they always cooked it in a sweet sauce which I didn't like. This was yummy!

Smoked eel, or tuna, in Maori (pronounced Tuh-na)

Before dinner, I met Jo's husband, Bob, whom I found out is a pounamu carver! The day just got better and better! Didn't expect that bit of luck! Bob took me out to his workshop and showed me how pounamu is carved. Hope you enjoy the tour!

Below: a tour of the workshop

Below, some of the carvings Bob has made. Aren't they beautiful?!

Light passing through the pounamu

I was given the middle necklace as a gift. I love it! Now I have two necklaces, one from Shani for my birthday and one from Jo and Bob. I'm truly blessed. (In New Zealand it's considered bad luck to buy pounamu for yourself. You can only buy it for others or have it given to you)

In conclusion, I'd like to thank Mawhera Incorporation, Mika Mason, Jo, Marge, Nathalie and Bob for this very cool day. I learned a lot!

Punakaiki

I left Westport on Monday, heading towards Hokitika. On the way, the bus stopped at Punakaiki, or the Pancake Rocks, for lunch. They are called the pancake rocks for the layered sedimentation in the rocks along this particular part of the coast. Take a tour!

Can you see any shapes here? Look closely at the rocks

Nikau Palm

Below: A live mermaid

Behold My Koolstyle - Dam Native

I saw Dam Native live at the Cuba St. Carnival in Wellington back in February. They are quite political and very involved in representing Maori people and the clash or issues that exist between Maori and Pakeha people in New Zealand. They are interesting to listen to. It gives you a different perspective on things.

Goin' Trawlin'

The Journey Man

I'm getting pretty pushy in my old age! Not only had Jack been kind enough to feed me whitebait, but I also convinced him to let me tag along with him when he went fishing on the Tasman Sea.

He kept warning me about getting seasick, but I can honestly say that I've never been seasick, and I've been on plenty of boats, yachts and ships over the years. The closest I got was a bit of queasiness on a cruise ship in 1997. But I overcame it.

Anyway...the type of fishing he does is called trawling. Trawling is basically putting out a large net several meters long and with the help of chains, having the net drag along the bottom of the ocean, pulling in bottom-feeding fish. After a few hours, the net is pulled in and you have a plethora of fish to sort through.

I'm not going to write you a novel, I'll let the videos and pictures do the talking. Enjoy the fishing!

A gorgeous sunny day

Below: A Tour of the The Journey Man

Below: A life-saver!

Below: Throwing out the line

Birds zoning in on the catch



Below: The first catch

When the guys pulled in the net, they found that they had caught some crayfish too! What luck! We only kept a few and threw the rest back in the ocean. The guys believed they were on the march because it's not crayfish season and yet there were a lot of them and they were all adults.

Below: Post-embarrassment video!

Below: The variety of flatfish

Red Cod in the foreground and gurnard in the background


A combination of different flatfish including brill, sole and turbot

Below: The Chiller

Evening pinks on the mountains

Floral Sunset on the Tasman Sea


Below: Electric Skate on the second run

Below: Who knew there was such a thing as sea lice?

We got back to Westport at 10:00p.m., having gone out at 11:00a.m. On the way back, Jack filleted a gurnard for me to cook up and also gave me one of the crayfish he picked up.

I was starving by the time I got back to the backpackers. Can you imagine how hungry? I had only had a piece of bread with butter in the morning and three cups of tea, two of which I had on the boat and subsequently threw up. So, now I can honestly say that I have been seasick and it wasn't so fun! Thankfully I only threw up tea, but I didn't want to push my luck and ingest anything while on the boat.

So I didn't eat anything until about 11p.m. that night and I had stir-fried vegetables with fresh gurnard and crayfish! Delicious! What a nice way to end the day! Thank you to Jack who was patient and kind enough to show me the world of commercial fishing. It was really cool!

Trippin' TripInn - Westport

I was in Westport from Thursday to Monday morning. During that time, I stayed in a very cool backpackers called TripInn. The hosts, Donna and Jack Devine were really very friendly and helpful. The place was warm with coal burning stoves and the house was built in the mid 1800's, so a jewel of a place. I love old buildings!

Since Donna was out of town when I first arrived, I got a chance to speak to Jack and found out that he's also a fisherman! I told him about one of my goals for the South Island: eating whitebait.

I had been told several times about whitebait, a tiny fish that is eated in a kind of patty. I figured, if it's a typical Kiwi delicacy, I should try it! Jack just happened to have a bag of frozen whitebait in his freezer and invited me for lunch one day so I could see for myself what it was like. Below, you will see a bit how it's made.

Below: how to clean and prepare whitebait

You add an egg and stir the whitebait and the egg slowly, adding in some flour to make it more dense.

Below: cooking it

Cooked whitebait

It was absolutely delicious! I couldn't believe that it really tasted like fish, because as you could see, it didn't look like it would have the consistency or taste of fish, but it was fresh and awesome. We put some salt and pepper on it and a squeeze of lemon. Yummy! I'm now in love with whitebait and I understand why people were telling me to eat it! ....and I had frozen whitebait, imagine it fresh!

Abel Tasman National Park - Day 3

I look like a big black burnt marshmallow in all that gear!

On day 3 I had a 4 hour walk from Anchorage Bay to Marahau, the start of the National Park. I was ready, feeling energetic. Earlier in the morning, it looked like it was going to be another beautiful day, but then we saw the clouds coming in, so I put my rain gear back on. Ready to sweat it out another day.

It did start raining as I headed up the mountains above Anchorage Bay. It was just a drizzle, though, not too bad.

Above Anchorage Bay...gorgeous view! Worth the drizzle.

Below: a vid of the Anchorage Bay valley

The paths were really well designated, so it was a really easy walk through the forests.

Below: one of the lookout points

One of many little waterfalls along the way. I believe New Zealand has one of the highest rates of rainfall/year in the world.

Some of those prehistoric ferns that dot New Zealand's whole landscape

In the distance, you can see snow-capped mountains. A reminder that it's winter, though as you can see, most of the native New Zealand trees are not deciduous.

Below: Silent video of the scenery

After stopping for lunch at Apple Tree Bay (by then the sky had cleared and the day was gorgeous once again), I headed back up the track and was suddenly stricken by incredible pain in my left Achilles tendon. I hadn't fallen or twisted anything, so I didn't understand where the pain was coming from. And to top that off, I had started having pain in my right hip. A sharp pain that started from the hip and radiated downward toward the knee. From the knee, the pain started from the back of the knee and continued down to the ankle. The last hour and 45 minutes of my walk out of the park was in immense pain. I never stopped, walking at a snail's pace, but doing so knowing that if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to continue. But even hobbling my way back, the walk took 4 hours, so it would have been much quicker in regular health. The third day was the easiest walk, with the fewest hills to climb. It was a beautiful walk.

View from Marahau back on the Abel Tasman National Park. I was finally done!

I highly recommend doing the walk in the Abel Tasman National Park. It is gorgeous and fresh. I don't recommend walking through it in the summer because thousands of people walk through it during that time. If you want to connect with nature, do this walk in the winter, where crossing people along the way is a rare occurence. You feel that much more connected with your surroundings.

So, I was supposed to spend the night in Motueka and head out to the beginning of the Heaphy track the next day. As soon as I got to Motueka, I called a massage place and asked for a massage. I wanted to be healthy for the Heaphy track (especially since I had already paid for the huts). The woman was about to close the shop for the night. I begged her to keep it open for me. I asked her to wait 30 minutes so that I could take a shower before going to see her (I hadn't showered in 3 days, no means to do that in the park). She kindly waited for me to shower and hobble over to her "office". It was supposed to be just an hour, but with all the pain I was feeling, we went over about 15 minutes and I only had to pay 5 more dollars. It was a very reasonable 60 dollars for all that work. During the massage I asked the woman if she knew someone who had a bathtub. I truly believed that with the combination of massage and bath, I would be well enough to do the Heaphy track the next day (the Heaphy track is a much more challenging track than the Abel Tasman). She had a friend who did have a tub and called her, asking her if I could have a bath in her house. So, I was accepted and the woman drove me over to her friend's house. I paid 5 dollars for the water and sunk into the bath full of bath salts. I soaked for about 30 minutes, massaging my thigh and tendons, hoping for the best.

As I got out of the bath and returned to the living room, Jan, the host, offered to feed me. She had made too much food and asked me to join her for dinner. I accepted, feeling really lucky to have had not only a massage and a wonderful bath, but also spaghetti for dinner! Afterwards, we watched a little TV and Terry, her husband, drove me back to the backpackers. This is New Zealand, guys, generosity that extends beyond the norm. There are so many beautiful people in this world!

The next day, I went out to get some last minute things for the trip and I realized that I could barely walk. All my best intentions would not allow me to do the Heaphy track in that much pain. So I canceled the transportation and decided to postpone my trip to the Heaphy track until next month. I have faith that I'll be healthy enough to do it then. So I stayed one more night in Motueka and then took the bus to Westport, on the west coast of the South Island. I've been here every since, trying to take it easy and recuperate. I'm feeling a bit better, but still in pain. I will stay here until Monday and then head further south and see what new experiences are in store for me.

Keep reading, I have some firsts in Westport too!