Over and Out

Christmas is over,the family have gone home, the house is empty and already I am missing the sounds of the little voices. We ended up with six adults and three children so it was quite a houseful. Especially with only one bathroom!

But - summer is here and its time to adjourn to the beach. Barbeques, afternoon siestas, sitting around and catching up with friends and relatives, long lazy walks fossicking for shells along the beach in the evenings, making endless sandcastles for the little ones to knock over, towing kids on body boards through the shallows, and bush walks on those very hot days when it is too hot at the beach. (the term 'bush' is used in New Zealand to mean native forest)

Thank you for following my blog this year - and especially those of you who have left comments. I have valued your comments and views, and hope that you will return next year. All the very best for the New Year 2009!

I will be back on or around the 10th of January - probably with lots more photos of our wee space in the world.

I leave you with some garden photos - the hydrangea flowers seem to be bluer than ever before this year.

Angels singing Christmas Carols

I love this clip of Romanian children singing a Christmas carol. I have no idea whatsover of the meaning of the words!

Christmas Reds

It is the time of the year when we are surrounded by magnificent Christmas reds......

a Santa red,






there are strawberries in abundance,








my little red car,










bougain-
villea red,














and the best red of all................

our own New Zealand Pohutukawa known as the Christmas tree

Flax(harakeke)

These are some photos of flax on the Chatham Islands. It is in full flower around New Zealand at the moment - some varieties with golden flowers, some with red. I always associate the flowering flax with Christmas - and of course also the Pohutukawa tree - some photos of that later.

Flax - which is actually a lily - is a magnificent plant and had many traditional uses to the Maori in pre European times.

Most Maori settlements had their own flax plantation. They grew different varieties - some for their strength, softness, colour and fibre content. No plant was more important to them than the flax, or harakeke as it was known.
It was used for clothing, footwear, mats, plates, baskets, ropes, bird snares, fishing lines, lashings and nets.

Other parts of the flax were used also - the tall dry flower stalks were used for floats and rafts. Nectar was used for sweetening.

Flax also had many medicinal uses. The sticky sap or gum that flax produces was applied to boils and wounds and used for toothache. Flax leaves were used in binding broken bones and matted leaves were used as dressings. Flax root juice was routinely applied to wounds as a disinfectant.

Today, flax is used in soaps, hand crèmes, shampoos and a range of other cosmetics. Flax seed oil can also be found for sale. There have even been experiments to make flax into wine!

It is still widely used by the Maori to weave into traditional kete (baskets), cloaks and pois.

The Hollyhock story

These plants are not just hollyhocks. They have a story.

I had a very dear elderly friend who was a keen gardener. She grew the most amazing hollyhocks, all self seeded and all in glorious shades of red.
I envied her plants and several times I took the seed home with me, scattered it around the garden but they either never germinated or if they did none ever grew to maturity.

She died two years ago, aged 103. The first spring after she died, all these hollyhocks appeared in my garden, even though it had been a few years since I had planted the seeds.

Now, for the second year I have these beautiful red hollyhocks growing as prolifically in my garden as hers did.

Different garden, but they are my friend's flowers. I have accepted her mantle with pride.

Shhh - the Kiwifruit are hatching

Some facts

Some random facts about the Chatham islands.
*the sun rises first in the world there
*varied and spectacular scenery
*solitude and remoteness.
*fishing, diving and abundant seafood,
*situated at around 44degrees south
*the weather is often windy and wet.
*The Te Whanga lagoon is a major geographical feature, it covers 20,000 hectares and is about one fifth of the island
*Chatham, the largest island has a population of around 695 people,
*no public transport, no taxis.
*about 180 kilometers of roads, mostly gravel.
*freight to the Island is expensive - $200 per cubic metre by ship., $3 a kilo by air.

More Images

1. The beautiful endemic Chathams Islands forget-me-not.
2. The basalt rocks are all five sided.
3. The amazing rock formation on the coast - basalt rock columns.
4. A shepherds hut.
5. We ate lots and lots of seafood! Farming and fishing are the two main industries on the Islands.

Images of the Chatham Islands

1. a spectacular fungus growth
2.Moriori tree carvings (dendroglyphs)- the age of these is unknown but they are very very old. There are 1145 documented carvings and they were thought to have been done by the Moriori to mark special occasions eg birth of a child.
3. Moriori rock carving
4. typical Chathams scene - a windswept tree by a bluff.
5.the flax was just beautiful with gold and some red flowers.
6.Fossicking for fossilised sharks teeth. I found three.
7.More windswept trees.

I'm Back!

Chathams Part One
Here is a map of the Islands - they are 860kms west of Christchurch, an hour and a half flight from Wellington.

The Summer Begins ! Shark Sighting at Bay of Plenty beach

Shark clears water on first Summer weekend
1:18PM Monday Dec 01, 2008
John Cousins

A close encounter with a big shark added an edge of excitement to this summer's first beach weekend when bathers were sent scurrying from the surf on three occasions at Papamoa Beach yesterday.

The 2.4m thresher shark swam so close to shore chasing fish that at one stage it was clearly visible as it sliced through the shallows.

Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club's acting patrol captain Ross Merrett said the shark was seen swimming around the back of the flagged area at 1pm and when it did not move away, swimmers were told through loud speakers to leave the water.

Swimming conditions were not exactly pleasant with large numbers of jellyfish floating about. When 10-year-old Morgan Lyall heard the alert he thought it was because of a big poisonous jellyfish.

"If we knew it was a shark, we probably would have sprinted out."

The appearance of the non-aggressive shark coincided with the hottest part of the day and the beach was packed with people.

Guards waded into the shallows to underline the warning. Senior guard Ashleigh Cleverley said when bathers who asked were told what the trouble was, their walk turned into a rush.

An inflatable rescue boat was used to scare fish off to encourage the thresher away. The beach reopened 10 minutes later once the shark had swum off.

Half an hour later it was back, coming right into the shallows to chase fish and herd them into edible quantities by swimming in circles and using its tail to thrash the water. When it returned a third time 30 minutes later, Ashleigh said some swimmers started to dawdle and even sit around rather than get out.

Mr Merrett said people became curious and some bathers waded back into the surf to waist depth get a closer look.

Guards told them to back off because a blow from a thresher's tail was extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal.

Mr Merrett said it was not uncommon to see thresher sharks in the area in front of the clubhouse, with half a dozen sightings during the patrol season.

At least two sharks were feeding in the shallows along Tauranga's coastline yesterday because the second warning at Papamoa Beach coincided with bathers at Harrison's Cut sighting another thresher.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES

Chatham Islands

Tomorrow I am going offshore to the Chatham Islands for a holiday. I am very excited - the Chathams are a remote location with a very interesting history and flora and fauna. The islands are only home to about 600 people, of European, Maori and Moriori descent.

They are rather wild and windswept and I certainly won't be expecting shopping malls and theatres! There is telephone access but I am not sure if I will be able to access a computer while there. So I will be offline for about 10 days or so.

Some information below:

The archipelago of the Chatham Islands (Rekohu in the Moriori language and Wharekauri in the Māori language), is a territory of New Zealand and consists of about 10 islands within a 40-km radius. The remote islands, located over 800 kilometers east of southern New Zealand, have officially belonged to the country since 1842.

The first human habitation of the Chathams involved migrating Polynesian tribes who settled the islands about 1500 AD, and in their isolation became the Moriori people. The exact origins of these people remains a matter of some dispute. The Moriori population of the islands numbered about 2000.

On November 19, 1835, a British ship carrying 500 Māori armed with guns, clubs and axes arrived, followed by another ship on December 5, 1835 with a further 400 Māori. They proceeded to massacre the Moriori and enslave the survivors.

After the invasion, Moriori were forbidden to marry Moriori, nor to have children with each other. All became slaves of the Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga invaders. Many died from despair. Many Moriori women had children to their Maori masters. A small amount of Moriori women eventually married either Maori or European men. Some were taken from the Chathams and never returned. Today, in spite of the difficulties and genocide that Moriori faced, Moriori are enjoying a renaissance, both on Rekohu and in the mainland of New Zealand.

The current population of 609 individuals have European (66%), Māori (57%) and Moriori origins.

A Vege Post

I love this time of the year - the sun is not yet too hot, we are getting a good drop of rain every now and then, and the garden is growing as I look at it.

Especially the vegetable garden - we have potatoes, tomatoes, two varieties of lettuce, runner beans, butter beans and green dwarf beans, corgettes, broad beans, beetroot, radishes, and spring onions. A good watering every now and then of liquid from the worm farm helps also.

The raspberries are ripening and the Christmas plums are turning colour.

Unfortunately the weeds are growing also! And slugs. I have the lettuces growing in old ice cream containers with the bottom cut out. This is a very effective way of avoiding having to use slug repellant.

Forgot to mention silver beet, basil, mint, green strawberries, sage and thyme.

The Paua

To Māori, paua are recognised taonga, or treasure, esteemed both as kai moana (seafood) and as a valued resource for traditional and contemporary arts and crafts. Paua are frequently used to represent the eyes in Māori carvings and traditionally are associated with the stars, or whetu the eyes of ancestors that gaze down from the night sky.

The paua is iconic in New Zealand: its black muscular foot is considered a delicacy, and the shell is frequently used in jewelry. It is known as abalone in North America.

Highly polished New Zealand pāua shells are extremely popular as souvenirs with their striking blue, green, and purple iridescence. Transporting unprocessed abalone shells out of New Zealand is illegal.
(from Wikipedia)

When the going gets tough then kiwis fly!

Kiwis with one-way tickets are passing through departure lounges in record numbers.



Article from NZ Herald (nzherald.co.nz)

Kiwis fleeing to Australia hit record high
4:00AM Tuesday Nov 25, 2008
By Eloise Gibson

Transtasman migration

* Migration gains hits 7-year low
* Record numbers leaving for Australia

The number of New Zealanders moving to Australia last month set a record, and the flow of people moving here from other countries continued to slow.

Statistics New Zealand figures issued yesterday show 47,800 people left to live in Australia in the year to October.

About 13,200 came to New Zealand from Australia - the same number as last month. About two-thirds of them were New Zealanders returning home.

That created a net outflow of 34,600 permanent and long-term migrants to Australia for the year, breaking September's record of 33,900.

Until last month, September had the highest annual outflow to Australia since records started in 1978.

Immigration from all countries fell last month to its lowest level in seven years.

New Zealand gained 4300 migrants net in the year to October, 3200 fewer than in the previous 12 months.

Tourist numbers for the month were also down, dropping 3 per cent from last October to 173,900 as the economic downturn deterred visitors from China, the United States, Korea and Japan.

Luring people to stay in New Zealand was a policy promise by the National Party.

Before the election, National leader John Key described accelerating losses to Australia as a "vote of no confidence" in the Labour-led Government.

National's agreement with the Act Party included a commitment to set up an advisory group to come up with ways New Zealand can close the income gap with Australia by 2025.

The last time long-term departures peaked as sharply as they did last month was in 1989, when New Zealand lost 33,700 more residents to Australia than it gained.

In the year to December 1979, New Zealand lost 33,400 residents to Australia.

Statistics New Zealand said the population was about a third bigger last year than it was in 1979.

But most of the population growth since then had occurred above the age of 40, while most migration occurred below that age.

Cheeky Blackbird

When I feed our cats we have a visitor who also arrives for some food - a very cheeky Blackbird.


He sits just a few feet away from the cats and is not at all concerned for his safety. He has probably realised that two of our three cats are so old and deaf that they wouldn't be able to even hear him, let alone chase and catch him.

The white spots on the lawn are petals from the flowering cherry tree above.

Sorry about the poor photo - it is taken out the window and shows the reflection.

Togs or Undies?

I was looking through some of our NZ TV ads on You Tube and found this one. No doubt it will make its appearance again for summer.

Its kind of true really!

Most guys here wear boxer type shorts for swimming and wouldn't be seen in speedos, except for the life guards of course.

More Quotes

When asked his opinion of New Zealand:
"I find it hard to say, because when I was there it seemed to be shut." ....... Sir Clement Freud 1978

[He would have been referring to the time when most shops closed all weekend, apart from corner dairies and petrol stations, and also possibly when pubs had to close at 6pm every evening]

"New Zealand was colonised initially by those Australians who had the initiative to escape." ....... Robert Muldoon 1981

[Referring to Australia's background of convict settlement]

"The United States invented the space shuttle, the atomic bomb and Disneyland. We have 35 times more land than New Zealand, 80 times the population, 144 times the gross national product and 220 times as many people in jail.
Many of our big cities have more kilometres of freeway than all of New Zealand, our 10 biggest metropolises each have more people than all of New Zealand, and metropolitan Detroit has more cars on the road than all of New Zealand.
So how come a superpower of 270 million got routed in the America's Cup, the world's most technically oriented yacht race, by a country of 3.5 million that outproduces us only in sheep manure?" ....... Eric Sharp 1995

The Goodnight Kiwi

This was a piece that was played every night at around 11pm when our TV shut down for the night.

This was many years ago of course - we now have TV running all night!

Old TV Ads - this one for Chesdale Cheese

Baking Today

This was my attempt to bake a Christmas cake today. I am quite pleased with my effort. Christmas cakes are not usually my forte - now pavlovas - they are another story!

At my Kitchen window

Slip Slop Slap

An Australian TV ad, but we have had similar ones on our TV in New Zealand

Skin Cancer

This morning I had surgery for a skin cancer removal. Various types of skin cancer are very prevalent in New Zealand. We spend a lot of our time outside, especially during childhood which is when much of the damage to our skin occurs.

Mine is a Basal cell carcinoma - affecting the skin - which is the most common type of cancer in humans. Luckily, it is very rarely a threat to life.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) typically affects people of fair complexion who have had a lot of sun exposure or repeated episodes of sunburn. The tendency to develop BCCs may be inherited. BCCs can vary in size from a few millimetres to several centimetres in diameter. They usually grow slowly over months or years.


Mohs surgery: Mohs surgery (or Mohs micrographic surgery) is an outpatient procedure in which the tumor is surgically excised and then immediately examined under a microscope. The base and edges are microscopically examined to verify sufficient margins before the surgical repair of the site. If the margins are insufficient, more is removed from the patient until the margins are sufficient.

Luckily I had to have only one layer removed but am home now with a very sore nose and will have two black eyes by the look of it!

Update:
All is going well, no post op complications of any sort. I just look like a racoon thats all!

A Challenge

My blog friend Gail at Squared Off has awarded me this beautiful Autumn Friends Award.

My task is to list five things I have always wanted to do and pass the challenge on to three other bloggers.

I am a bit of a reluctant participant in memes, mostly because I do not like talking about myself!

1. I would like to fly in a helicopter. Strange but I have never been in one. I have been in just about every other form of transport you could think of but the opportunity has never arisen for a helicopter ride.

They have scenic flights from our local airport so one birthday I might drop a few hints to the family..... Or maybe wait until my 90th birthday (about 30 years away!)and get my photo in the paper with the caption - "family grants aging Grandmother her birthday wish!"

2.Learn to quilt. I look longingly at the beautiful quilts I see at various exhibitions and have a desire to make one myself. I am a good sewer and know that I could learn but I have never been to classes because I think that the hobby could take over my life and I might not be able to allocate the time to it that I would wish. Silly reason maybe. However the classes are there waiting for me and one day very soon I will succumb.......

3.Travel, travel travel. Need I say more. There are many corners of the world that I have yet to explore. There are some places that I visited years ago that I would like to see again - Grand Canyon, the temples of Angkor, Persepolis, Goreme valley (Turkey), and many more. And lots of new places. I would also like to visit friends overseas and especially meet some blogging friends.

4.Spend another winter in BC Canada. A winter there back in 1968 was a magical time (especially for a person who had never even seen snow falling) and I would like to repeat the experience.

5.Live long enough to see my all children marry and have children of their own. And to see Grandchildren grow into adulthood.

Well that about completes the list.

I would like to pass this award and task on to Chrissy who is in hospital at the moment on complete bed rest. All the very best Chrissy.

I will have a think about who else to target!

PS I should have changed this award to a summer picture as of course it is not Autumn here!

A New Government

NZ election means a big jump to right

John Key, leader of the National party, the boy trader of Wall St, was last night tasked with trading New Zealand out of its direst economic crisis for many years.

He is preparing to build a Government of all colours, as he reaches across the political divide to work with not just Act and United Future, but also the Maori Party and the Greens.

New Zealand voted for a change of direction, and a change of generation.

Key faces a weighty responsibility: he will take the premiership as the country enters what could be its worst recession in decades.

Helen Clark, acknowledged by friends and foes alike as one of the country's strongest-ever leaders, last night announced her resignation as leader of the Labour Party.

After nine years as Prime Minister and 15 years as leader of her party, her defeat had seemed inevitable in the final days.

Headlines in todays paper. yesterday we voted, today we have a new Government. Labour,led by Helen Clarke had been in for nine years but the country has voted very clearly for a change in direction. So we now have a National Govt.led by John Key.

I don't tend to get very excited about politics, or Politicians, but there is certainly the need for some new direction.

Quake shakes Bay of Plenty

An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale shook the Bay of Plenty early this morning.

The quake at 12.57am was centred 20km west of Rotorua, at a depth of 200km, GNS Science reported.

The quake was widely felt in the North Island.

And the second headline! Yes another earthquake, no damage though. I didn't feel it.

What they said about us!

"A country of inveterate, backwoods, thick-headed, egotistic philistines" ....... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 1909

"I believe we were all glad to leave New Zealand. It is not a pleasant place. Amongst the natives there is absent that charming simplicity .... and the greater part of the English are the very refuse of society." ....... Charles Darwin 1860

"If it would not look too much like showing off, I would tell the reader where New Zealand is." ....... Mark Twain 1897

"The first european to find NZ was a Dutch sea-captain who was looking for something else ... It takes its name from a province of Holland to which it does not bear the remotest likeness, and is usually regarded as the antipodes of England, but is not. Taken possession of by an English navigator, whose action was afterwards reversed by his country's rulers, it was only annexed by the English Government which did not want it, to keep it from the French who did."....... William Pember Reeves 1898

When George Bernard Shaw visited New Zealand a reporter asked him his impression of the place and, after a pause, Shaw is said to have replied: "Altogether too many sheep" ....... George Bernard Shaw 1934

"Terrible tragedy of the south seas. Three million people trapped alive." ....... Thomas Jefferson Scott

It's rose time again

Redo of my Weta post

We have an insect in new Zealand that I just love to bits. Truly. It is the weta.

Some people are scared of them, some find them ugly and I guess they are a bit. But they have character and really, if you don't try to cuddle them, they don't hurt you. They can get a little agressive if you try to pick them up.

There are lots of different varieties, Tree weta, ground weta, giant weta and cave weta are a few. The most common one we find around here is the tree weta.

They like dark places and before putting on our gumboots it always pays to shake them first in case a weta has taken up residence.

Some weta facts:

* The weta is only found in New Zealand.
* Weta are large by insect standards but some of the giant weta are ENORMOUS and are amongst the heaviest insects in the world
* The weta is sometimes known as the dinosaur of the insect world
* The weta is more primitive than the tuatara
*The weta has changed very little in the past 100 million years.

Go to:

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_flash_skin/1382032

to view a fascinating cave weta video. My brother had an old gold mine on his property and there were lots of cave wetas in there. I have to admit they are a little scary, I don't like the way they can jump on you if you disturb them.

Later
I have just finished cleaning out the garden shed and removing an pile of old firewood. As I predicted it was the home to several wetas. I managed to photograph one very angry specimen. I have put three in a terrarium to observe them for a while.

Interesting Facts - last Installment

17 - Lost in space
In the scene of Star Trek: First Contact, when Picard shows Lilly she is orbiting Earth, Australia and Papa New Guinea are clearly visible but New Zealand is missing.

18 - Bottom line
No capital city in the world is further south than Wellington.

19 - Animal farm
Less than 5 per cent of the population of New Zealand is human - the rest are animals. This is one of the highest ratios of animals to humans in the world.

20 - Pipebands galore
There are more Scottish pipe bands per head of population in New Zealand than in Scotland.

21 - Big readers
New Zealand has more book-shops per head of population than any other country; one for every 7500 people.

22 - Bad behaviour
New Zealand has the third highest rate of deaths in the developed world from maltreatment among under-15-year-olds; third to Mexico and the US.

23 - Freshwater spring
More fresh water flows up from cracks in the limestone at Waikoropupu, near Takaka, than from any other freshwater spring in the world - more than 2100 million litres every 24 hours.

24 - Trout heaven
More rainbow trout in the 2kg to 3kg category are caught annually in New Zealand than in the rest of the world put together.

25 - World-beaters
New Zealand is home to the world's smallest dolphin, the Hectors Dolphin, the rarest sea lion, the Hookers Sea Lion, the largest flightless parrot, the kakapo, the oldest reptile, the tuatara, the heaviest insect, a weta, the biggest earth-worms, the smallest bats, some of the oldest trees, and many of the rarest birds, insects, and plants in the world.

* Facts sourced from Statistics New Zealand, Strange Facts & True About New Zealand, Guinness World records, The Kiwi Site and the ENZ New Zealand Immigration Guide.

Note:
Fact 22 - this is a fact that I am very ashamed of. Our rate of child abuse is horrifying. There is a particularly sad case before the courts at the moment.

More Facts about NZ

8 - Golf swings
Measured by club memberships, golf is the most popular sport in New Zealand, followed by netball.

9 - Curious Kea
The kea, native to New Zealand, likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.

10 - Quick work
The shortest interval between separate births in the world is 208 days. New Zealander Jayne Bleackley gave birth to Joseph Robert on September 3, 1999, and Annie Jessica Joyce on March 30, 2000.

11 - Why bother?
Two Massey University students broke a Guinness World Record in December for the world's largest tape ball. The ball, which weighs 53kg and has a circumference of more than 2.5m, was made by winding Scotch tape continually around itself.

12 - Spelling test
The longest place name in the world still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a hill in Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay. The Maori name translates to "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as Landeater, played his flute to his loved one."

13 - Middle age
The median age of New Zealanders is growing. In 1901 it was 23. By 1991 it was 31 and in 2001 it was 35. By 2021 it is expected to be 40.

14 - Rising prices
In 1984, $43 in New Zealand would buy approximately the same as $100 today.

15 - Blacked out
The longest blackout in the world was on February 19, 1998, when the four main power cables supplying Auckland city, broke down. The disruption, which lasted 66 days, affected 7500 business and residential customers and cost businesses an estimated $300 million.

16 - The sea, the sea
No part of New Zealand is more than 128km from the sea.

_________________________________________________________________

Fact 9 - the kea is a very cheeky and fearless mountain parrot.

Some Unusual Facts about New Zealand

1 - Cook's cure
Captain James Cook, the man who navigated New Zealand, is said to have discovered a cure for scurvy, a disease that results from Vitamin C deficiency, when he played around with medicines.

2 - More births
New Zealand births exceeded deaths by 29,890 in the September 2005 year.

3 - Older brides
New Zealanders are getting married older. The latest statistics show that the median ages of men and women marrying for the first time is 29.9 and 28.1 years. These brides and grooms married, on average, nine years older than their parents did.

4 - Big on butter
For each person who lives here, New Zealand produces 100kg of butter and 65kg of cheese each year.

5 - Clever Kiwis
A New Zealander invented the tear-back velcro strip, the pop-lid on a self-sealing paint tin, the child-proof pill bottle and the crinkle in hair-pins so that they don't fall out.

6 - Olympic gold
New Zealand has won more Olympic gold medals a head than any other country.

7 - Sheep dip
In the early 1980s, New Zealand was home to more than 70 million sheep, but now has 40 million, or about 10 sheep to one person. This decline hasn't stopped New Zealand from bringing in 50 per cent of all international trade in sheepmeat.

Anne Wilson

A word of explanation.

Anne's 'story' has been taken from letters that remain, and her journal. In the first entry of her journal she said "my hand will write what my heart dictates". Some of her journal entries are very sad and personal, others are amazing as she documents her life in 'this savage land'.

We suspect that lump she mentioned was breast cancer.

Her journal and letters were edited initially by a distant cousin, Max Armstrong, and it is credit to him that her story has survived. My narrative is taken from his account of her life entitled "My Hand Will write What My Heart Dictates".

Later I will post 'Maria's Story'. Maria was Anne's sister in law who came to New Zealand to look after the four motherless Wilson children.

Anne's Story - Final installment.

The Elms Mission House
______________________________________________

Meanwhile life went on at the Puriri mission station as usual.

House fires were a real danger to the families, a raupo (NZ bullrush) hut burnt very quickly and fires were needed to help keep away the mosquitoes. Apparently by the time you counted to 20 the house would be burned.

“We have scarcely any excitement here but the other day Mr Preece’s chimney caught fire but providently the wind blew in the contrary direction or the house would not have been long a house. You will find Puriri looking very shabby. The dwellings begin to decay, the garden neglected. All things seem dreary except hope. I hope to see you soon.”


Missionaries children were not all little angels……

“The dear children are behaving remarkably well now. They have lost the bad example of Alex Chapman and the little Fairburns.”

Little did she realise that one her nephews would later marry one of the Fairburn children.

“I am very careful to keep our children from Alex Chapman. I am more and more convinced of the necessity. Mrs Brown begins to see it too and seems very careful also. Little Hawker grows a sweet little fellow. Indeed they are my only solace in this exile from you. John and James are behaving well.”

The other missionary wives provided wonderful support for each other. It wasn’t easy for them, they all came from different backgrounds and often had to share the same dwellings. Anne mentions many of them in her journal.

“Dined at Mrs Fairburns” “Mrs Chapman drank tea with us” “Teaching the children in the morning, Mrs Morgan dined with us” “In the morning sewing for Mrs Preece. Dined at Mrs Fairburns” “The Preeces have been uncommonly kind to us since we came here.”

Sickness was an ongoing problem;

“A miserable Sunday. Unwell and very much distressed not only with anxiety about my absent husband but a sick child. The low state of missionary spirit at this house is truly grievous.”

“Now it is night and dear little James who has shown signs of being poorly several times today, is in a fever and delirious. I fear it may prove the Puriri fever from which my family suffered so much when residing here formerly. The bare idea fills me with an inexplicable horror. I feel inclined to send for my husband but should he come only to suffer what he did before, how can I wish for him. If that illness should attack us again I feel as if I should sink under it.”

“Little Hawker grew very much sicker after I last wrote to you. I looked into Graham* and found an emetic recommendation. I therefore administered one to him, a third of a grain of emetic tartar. He suffered very much from it at the time but has been better ever since.”

In 1837 they shifted to Waimate but again John was often absent. Over the next two years Anne Wilson’s health worsened. Her headaches became more frequent and she discovered a lump under her arm.

Anne writes to her husband;

“Mr Marsden is expected here tomorrow. Everyone seems rejoiced but my poor heart is not in time with theirs. On Friday night I put on a blister which drew amazingly but does not seem to have done my side any good. It is rather worse than before.”

Later:

“Mr Marsden arrived last night. He is staying at Mr Clarkes. There is a doctor of the vessel come over here and Mr William Williams will consult him about me. Since I wrote this I have discovered a small hard lump coming under my left arm and am decidedly worse. I think it my duty to tell you so.”

On New Years Day 1838, with Anne expecting her fourth child, the Wilsons and the Browns embarked aboard the “Columbine” to return to Tauranga. Their fourth son George was born just weeks after their arrival in Tauranga.

Anne’s health continued to deteriorate and on 23 November, 1838, age 36, she died at The Elms in Tauranga. Her grave was the first European grave in the Mission cemetery.

She was nursed with great care and love by Charlotte Brown who later described her as:

“an endeared and highly valued friend and assistant….an affectionate and tender mother and a wife whose worth her husband only could really appreciate”

Anne Wilson became an inspiration to her family for many years to come.

She was my Great Great Great Aunt.
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Reference: Max Armstrong 'My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates'

*Graham was a medical reference book.