My latest quilts

I have been working on these appliqued quilts for many months, in fact probably on and off all year. It is so satisfying to see them finished.

And the little boys just love them! As with a quilt I did last year for their sister, I put a dedication on the back with a 'secret' pocket in it to slip a lolly or a note into when I come to visit.

The quilt on the left is entitled the Lunch Bunch, and the other is Mum and Me.

No rest for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand

I feel so very sorry for the people of Christchurch. The stress they live under is unimaginable.

I was talking to my cousin a few nights ago, he and his family live in a small town close to Christchurch. Over 300 houses in their town are to be demolished as they are no longer safe. One elderly couple had committed suicide last week as they could no longer cope with the stress of their house ruined and the continuing shakes.

And just yesterday they have had another 16 quakes, one or two strong enough to cause more damage.


(Photo and article below taken from the New Zealand Herald)


'Explosive' aftershocks hit weary city'
A series of explosive aftershocks near central Christchurch collapsed walls, trapped people in buildings and cut power yesterday.

Jittery residents relived the scare of September 4's 7.1 magnitude earthquake as a large jolt woke them at 2am.

A shallow quake at 10.30am cleared stores filled with Boxing Day shoppers.

The mid-morning aftershock was 4.9 magnitude, the largest since mid-November.

By 7.30 last night there had been 16 aftershocks - nine of which were 3.5 magnitude or above.

The latest aftershocks were a magnitude 4.4 quake at a shallow depth of 3 kilometres just after midnight today followed by magnitude 3.0 aftershock at a depth of 6 kilometres, at 2am both located close to the centre of Christchurch.

PS I have just looked on the Geonet site which details earthquakes in the NZ area, and have found that we have had one too - at 3.00am this morning! 30k north east of here, 5.4 which is quite large, but at a depth of 210km which is quite deep and not so likely to cause damage.

Garden Blues

I love hydrangeas. At the moment they are in full flower, and will remain so until late summer.

I love way you can have blues and purples and all shades in between on each bush, and the white ones have tinges of blue or pink.

They are regarded here as a bit old fashioned, an 'old ladies' flower. So be it! I can live with that.

The bach /pron.batch/ - a cottage or Holiday home

Bach (pronounced Batch, with the alternative of Crib in the southern part of New Zealand) is the name given in New Zealand to structures akin to small, often very modest holiday homes or beach houses. They are an iconic part of New Zealand history and culture, especially in the middle of the 20th century, where they symbolized the beach holiday lifestyle that was becoming more accessible to the middle class.

"Bach" was originally short for bachelor pad, but actually they often tended to be a family holiday home. An alternative theory for the origination of the word is that "bach" in Welsh means small.

Baches started to became very popular in the 1950s, as better roads and more available cars allowed family beach holidays, often to the same beach every year, and hence to the construction of a bach in that spot. One humorous definition of the bach, is "something you built yourself, on land you don't own, out of materials you borrowed or stole.

Early baches rarely enjoyed amenities like connections to the water and electricity grid or indoor toilets. They were furnished basically, often with second hand furniture.

In more recent times the basic bach has been replaced by the modern "holiday house", more substantial, more expensive (reflecting increasing affluence, and vastly increased coastal land values) and usually professionally built (due to stricter building codes).

Another important change has been the subdivision of coastal land, with increasing numbers of residents and visitors, bringing traffic, cafes, mobile phone coverage, craft shops and other conveniences to what were originally empty beaches and bush-filled gullies. Some bach-dotted beaches in the 1950s have today become suburban areas.
(from wikipedia)

Beach Bunny tails.

These are really weeds, but I love them and at our beach house I deliberately cultivate them. After all, all plants were weeds once. When it rains they droop.

The children love to pick them and put them into a vase, they can be dyed for flower arrangements, used for collage work, in works of art - their uses are endless. I like to look at them in the garden.

Along with marram grass, pingao (a native bright orange beach grass)and of course our New Zealand Christmas tree - the Pohutukawa, they spell long hot summers by the beach.

The pohutukawa is pictured on my header.

Planting spree!

In the last week or two I have planted:

*one nectarine tree,
*three blueberry bushes
*two guava trees,
*one viburnum shrub
*sweet peas
*climbing beans
*one cocktail tomato plant
*one corgette plant
*three rows of radishes,
*parsley
*basil
*strawberry plants
*sage
*Gloriosa lillies
*ten lavender plants
*four fuschias
*20 hedge plants (griselinia)

and shifted:

*two hydrangeas
*one apple tree (to the orchard)
*one hibiscus
*several clumps of dahlia bulbs

and repotted:

*lots and lots of bromeliads - too many to count.

and sprinkled in the wild flower area:

*poppy seeds
*aquilegia seeds,(granny bonnets)
*calendula seeds,
*honesty seeds
all saved from last year or gathered from friend's gardens.

And of course there has been the general garden tidying, digging of vege garden, clearing out compost bins, tending to the worm farm etc etc.

And its just the start of the summer season!

I wonder why I don't have time to blog?

Some welcome colour in the garden

More Quilt news

The story of the quilt I made my Granddaughter, as well as a photo, has appeared in the latest issue of the NZ Quilter magazine.

Needless to say I am quite pleased about this! It is only the second quilt I have ever made.

You will need to enlarge the photo to be able to read the article.

Clean Up

The trauma continues for the people of the Canterbury region with more than 300 aftershocks, some of them very strong. In fact strong enough in a few cases to cause more damage.

Here is a link to some interviews with some children with their views on the earthquake(s).


There are some wonderful stories of the generosity of neighbours and others - people turning up with a spade and helping in the cleanup, checking on the elderly and providing for them with company and baking, and businesses lending out their machinery and time without payment to help.

Canterbury University students have organised themselves into a workforce with shovels and are helping many homeowners to clean their backyards and driveways of silt, sand and rubble.

And then of course there are a few tales of burglaries and looting.

A crisis brings out the best in people and unfortunately sometimes also the worst.

Google Maps map of the quake and the aftershocks. They are colour coded according to the day with red being last Saturday, teal Sunday, yellow Monday,green Tuesday, purple Wednesday,and pink today (so far)




View Christchurch earthquake: Where the land shook in a larger map

Quake update

Christchurch is now experiencing gale force winds and heavy rain is predicted to add to the misery of the quake damaged city!

However the clean up has begun. I was talking to my cousin who lives in Kaiapoi and he has been out and about helping neighbours to secure their homes and make them watertight. However they are all traumatised by the event and shiver when another aftershock occurs.

There is an interesting account here of a young lad who fell out the second storey of his house and survived with very little injury!

We did not feel the quake here in the Bay of Plenty which is in the upper half of the North Island. Quakes are always a possibility in our region with the last destructive one occurring in 1987 at Edgecumbe which is an hour away south east of here. However we have an active volcano on our doorstep. White island sits just out there off shore continually smoking away and occasionally spewing more than steam!


Extract from this morning's NZ Herald.

"Parts of central Christchurch were being reopened, but weary residents face more disruption as schools, public buildings and many businesses remain closed.

Late yesterday, 60,000 people were still without water supplies and 10,000 were without power. About 100 water mains were broken, and only a quarter of them had been repaired.

Schools and early childhood centres in Christchurch City and Selwyn and Waimakariri Districts have been told to stay closed until at least Wednesday following concerns from the Chief Medical Officer of Health.

All non-essential procedures at Christchurch Hospital have been cancelled, as have jury trials due to start today.

Much of the hard-hit central city remains cordoned off, but engineers have made progress inspecting about 500 damaged buildings.

Civil Defence officials are urging visitors to stay away for at least a week, unless absolutely necessary, as the city tries to come to terms with its shattered infrastructure.

One Kaiapoi resident said a constant flow of sightseers was distressing residents, and urged people to stay away.

Most public buildings and schools remain off limits for at least the next two days, under the Civil Defence Act. A curfew is in place in Christchurch from 7pm to 7am, and police said the central city was still dangerous.

Aftershocks from the quake are expected to be felt for several weeks.

The weather seems likely to add to the misery. The MetService predicted winds of up to 130km/h would hit many parts of Canterbury. Those winds are expected to be replaced later today by a cold southerly and rain.

The rain may well force further evacuations, especially of residents near the Waimakariri River, where stopbanks were badly damaged by the quake.

Civil Defence Minister John Carter said safety was the most important factor for emergency staff, who were contacting elderly people to ensure they were being looked after.

"We are aware that there could be significant rain up in the Alps and that the [Waimakariri] River may swell over the next couple of days."

Mr Carter said Civil Defence was working to rebuild the stopbanks and set up an evacuation plan should it be needed.

If people were evacuated, they would probably go to welfare centres set up around the region to help hundreds whose homes are too damaged to stay in.

About 250 people have spent the past two nights at makeshift Red Cross centres at Linwood College, Burnside High School and Addington Raceway.

The Salvation Army has fed about 1000 people since Saturday.

Today, work will continue around the region to restore essential services and assess damage caused by the quake, which has made headlines around the world.

The Shaky isles

Photo from Geonet - link here.

"A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred at 4:36 am on September 4, the epicentre was 40 km west of Christchurch city, and the depth of the quake was at 10 km."

I have posted about earthquakes in New Zealand before - they are a fact of life here, we all live with the possibility of a major quake happening at any time.

The people of Christchurch are counting their blessings that not one person was killed, there are two people with serious injuries and many minor injuries. An earthquake of this magnitude (similar to the one recently in Haiti) can often cause more destruction and loss of life.

The time of the earthquake meant that most people were at home and many in bed, not on the streets, in the business areas or at workplaces, schools etc. While there has been destruction of homes and other buildings, roads, sewerage systems etc, our very strict building earthquake codes have made many of our buildings in a good position to withstand a good 'shake'and although damaged many are not 'totalled'.

I have several relatives living in Christchurch and thankfully all are safe and well, but one has quite extensive damage to her house. They are all feeling very very nervous with all the aftershocks that are occurring day and night, over thirty in all and some quite strong. (Click on the map above to see the sites of the major shock and all the aftershocks)More information here and here.

Hadn't heard this excuse before!

And I have (used)heard just about every other excuse under the sun!

Sock Toys

These little fellows jumped into my hands begging to be assembled last week. Now I am looking for a child to match them with!

Meeting a blog buddy at Morpeth

When I travel I usually attend to all the obvious bookings well in advance ie air fares, accommodation, any organised group tours etc. So those type of experiences flow along without any surprises - barring the odd airline hiccup of delayed flights, airport holdups etc that are likely to happen along the way.

Often the memories of my trips that stay with me are the unexpected events or opportunities that appear, the people I meet, and the unplanned enjoyment that can arise as a result.

As the saying goes - A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

We had several such 'detours' on our trip to the UK last month.

One unexpected event happened on our visit to Morpeth, Northumberland and one planned event as well. We had traveled up to York to see the usual sights and decided to go on just an extra hour and a half to Morpeth which is not too far from Alnwick castle and gardens which I wanted to visit. And also, living not far away from Morpeth is Gail from Irritatingly Optimistic.

I had talked to Gail before we left and we arranged to meet in Alnwick village. How amazing it is to actually meet a person you have only met previously in cyberspace. And to talk to them as well. I hadn't really given much thought to how different our accents would be. Gail is as lovely in person as she is on her blog!

The unexpected event happened that evening. After dinner at a local restaurant we wandered out to the town square and over to the bell tower which was resounding with the peal of bells. I was rather curious about the sounds and poked my head into the open door at the base of the tower. A man popped his head out from a trapdoor above and invited us to come on up the stairs and join the local bell ringers for their evening practice.

Rather embarrassed at being caught snooping we sidled up the steep stairs and were amazed to find a group of 10 people crowded into a very small room, eight of them with a bell rope in hand. We were given a seat and told to remain very still, keep our feet away from the ropes, and that there were several tons of bells above us.

So we were captive there for the next 20 minutes as they finished their practice. And how fascinating it was. They follow a very complicated sequence pattern and there is much more skill involved than I would ever have thought.

The bell ringers were all very friendly and welcoming - a dedicated bunch of people of all different ages.

It was a memorable day.

I am back

Yes I am back in the country. And reflecting on a hectic three months.

Firstly a trip to Perth Australia to visit family. Home for four weeks then away again to the Northern Hemisphere.

I have been to the UK and Europe four times in my lifetime.

The first was the summer of '69. They may well have been the best days of my life - but there was no doubt it was a good summer. London was sweltering, we were so young and ready for adventure.

My friend and I had emigrated to Canada, worked there in northern British Columbia for a year and were now in Europe and heading home to New Zealand.

Canada and America we had explored by Greyhound bus - before leaving New Zealand we purchased an open ticket for three months travel and we made the most of it, touching on 42 states in all.

After a stint of hitchhiking in the English countryside we joined a bus in London that took us overland through Europe to Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal. We then flew to Singapore, train through Malaysia to Thailand, Cambodia, then flew to HongKong and home. Three months of hilarity, partying, and amazing sights seen and people we met along the way.

My next foray to the northern hemisphere was in 1998 to accompany my daughter as she took up a university exchange for a year. Another hot and sweltering summer. We journeyed to Italy where we stayed with friends, then back in England hired a car and wandered around exploring the countryside.

2006 was my next summer in the UK and France,this time our journeys were mostly by train. I donned a backpack and did some more wandering. This time staying in Bed and Breakfast places, unlike the Youth hostels and backpackers of 40 years earlier.

And now, 2010, again in the summer, another trip. How the times have changed. B and B's again and we took a rental car to travel around in. This time the trip was as much about visiting friends and family as it was seeing the sights. In France we hired a canal boat and experienced a slower mode of travel.

While its good to be home etc etc - I am finding it hard to settle down. Its the middle of winter and wet and cold. Friends have 'flu and colds and all is gloomy.

Oh well - the cat is pleased to see us.

Owl bath! This is delightful - love the music too!

I am also enjoying this story of Molly and McGee and their family of four owlets.

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

Its Finished!!! My Quilt is Completed.

I have finally finished the quilt I have been working on for the last month or two.

My Grandaughter, her two brothers and her cousins each drew a picture on a swatch of material with fabric pens. The ages of the artists ranges from age two to eight. For the two year olds we drew around their hand and they coloured it in. They also did a swatch each. The older children were more creative and two did a self portrait as well as other drawings.

I then made up the patchwork top and sent it off to the quilting lady who has a long arm machine to do the quilting or 'oversewing'. I am not very skillful at doing this final task on my home machine.

The second picture is a close up of the panel I made for the back of the quilt with the date etc and also two little pockets that I can slip notes (or a lolly) into when I go to visit.

Matamata - Hobbiton

When I travel 'across the hill' (the Kaimai ranges) to Hamilton I go through the small country town of Matamata which is nestled near the hills, just 40 minutes from Tauranga.

It is a small town, pop about 6,000, with a wide main street with beautiful manicured gardens along the middle of the road. The town is surrounded by lush green farmland, and is a dairying area with also several racing thorough bred horse stud farms.

But Matamata's recent claim to fame is its link to the "Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Tucked away on a quiet dairy farm, the film set for the Hobbiton village was made and the filming took place over a period of time there.

Nowadays there is not much that remains of the film set, just a few 'hobbit holes' in the hillside, and the shell of the houses in the earth. See here and here for further information.

I generally stop for a coffee at one of the many cafes and sit and watch the tourists wandering around the town. Gollum is frequently photographed as well as the Information centre with its grass roof and hobbitlike decor.

ANZAC Day....Eric Bogle - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

This song is an Australian compostion, but it pertains to New Zealanders as well. The 'A' in ANZAC of course refers to the Australian Army Corps.

I have written several posts about ANZAC Day and its meaning to the people of New Zealand. Please visit here and here.

On a more personal note here and here .

We rose at 5am this morning and attended the dawn parade, at the cenotaph right beside Mount Maunganui beach. It was a perfect morning, a beautiful calm dawn as the sun rose over the surf and the Harvard planes flew overhead in formation.

The World War Two veterans are now aged and fewer are able to march in the parade each year, there are still many Vietnam, Korean, and veterans from other wars, but the attendance by the members of the general public was greater than any other year. Many young people and children had, like us, risen before daylight and made the pilgrimage to the ceremony at the cenotaph before dawn.

CORRECTION - I have just looked again at the first frame in the video where it says that 50,00 Australian troops died at Gallipoli. That is not correct.

Here are some more figures closer to the truth:

There were about 7,594 - 8,700 Australian soldiers killed at Gallipoli. An estimated total of 664 Australian officers and 17,260 men were wounded. In all 61,522 Australians lost their lives in the First World War.

A total of 18,500 New Zealanders died in or because of the World War One, and nearly 50,000 more were wounded. Of the total number who died, over 2700 died at Gallipoli, and 12,500 died on the Western Front.

The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was just over one million.

In the history of the Great War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the number that died in France and Belgium during the war. But for New Zealand, along with Australia and Turkey, the Gallipoli campaign played an important part in fostering a sense of national identity.

Perth Australia

On the Caves Road in the Margaret River region we drove through this magnificent forest, I think they are Jarrah trees.



The perth city outline across the Swan River









The view taken from our balcony - the gum tree did block the Red Bull course a little but you can see the markers in the river.



Is there really such a thing as a 'motor bike' frog. I believe so!



We have just returned from a trip to Perth Australia to visit family. While there we were able to watch the Red Bull Air race from a wonderful vantage point - the balcony of our apartment in South Perth which had an amazing view of the city and the Swan river.

We also did a three day trip south to the Margaret River region, a beautiful area of wineries, forests, caves, and rugged coastline.

Blogging is taking second place......

I seem to be spending less time at the computer these days. Not sure if it is a good thing or not. Perhaps as winter draws in I will be spending more time here.

Blogging is taking second place to:

* family - have been spending time 'over the hill' with Miss Four and Masters nearly three (twins), have nursed Auntie 91 (years old) as she recovered from an operation, visited Auntie 86, attended funeral of Uncle 87.

* talking on skype to our overseas children - skype is amazing!

* trip planning - we are off to Perth Australia next week to visit daughter and her partner, then to the UK in June,

* scrapbooking the postcards/Christmas cards as pictured in a previous post. Many of them are over 100 years old so thought that it was time they were preserved in a manner befitting their age, ie in acid free materials.

*gardening - giving the garden an autumn clean up. Have just dug up the rest of our potato crop, picked the last of the beans and tomatoes. Had our lawnmowing man prune the camellias, and the bay tree.

*cooking and freezing multitudes of apples and giving the rest away to the neighbours. I think that they sigh when they see me arriving with yet another bucket of apples.

*quilting - have just completed a quilt top for my grand daughter and taken to the lady with the long arm quilter to do the final quilting.

*reading - have discovered the Millenium series of books (Steig Larson)and am wading through the last one,

*beginning a digital photography group - time I learnt how to take better photos,

* doing an applique course to improve my machining skills.

And that is enough to be carrying on with!

Port Waikato

There is a distinct feeling of Autumn in the air but it doesn't stop the keen surfers. We were at Port Waikato a few weekends back and saw this trail of people heading out to the waves.

Port Waikato is on our West coast where the waves are often wilder and larger than the East. The sand is also black with a heavy iron content.

King (Queen actually) of the Castle

Christmas cards from the past

I rediscovered several old postcards and Christmas greeting cards languishing in the bottom drawer a few days ago. When I took them out I was dismayed to see how they are deteriorating - the paper is 'foxed' and the ink fading. So my task has been to mount them properly into an album on acid free materials and see if we can get them to last another 100 years.

They are all family cards, some sent to my Mother and Aunt when they were little, and some sent to my Grandmother when she was in her teens, and some were my Great Grandparents!

The oldest dated one is 1909, but the ones sent to my Great Grandparents are probably older than that. My Mother gave them all to me when I was a child. I was making a scrapbook which was a favourite occupation in those days and they all got stuck in the book, probably using flour and water glue. That would have been around 56 years ago. Several years ago I carefully prised them out of the old scrapbook, they were a little worse for wear but not too bad considering the treatment they have had.

If you click on the first photo you will see one sent to my Mother - the inscription reads - 'To little Muriel with best love from little Willie'. Unfortunately no one knows who little Willie is! No date on it, but would be about 1919.

Seeding plants - for the lazy gardener.

Summer is nearing the end now and plants are rapidly going to seed. I love to have self seeded plants popping up in the gardens everywhere. Saves a lot of planning and the self seeded plants seem to grow very healthy and strong.

These are some pics of our swan plant, the main source of food for the Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The trees have lots and lots of 'swans' which are swelling, bursting and throwing seeds around. The bonus is that the seeds are attached to a lovely shiny thistledown which floats dreamily in the wind.

History of the Passionfruit

I did some research on the origin of passionfruit and came up with this interesting extract from the website of the NZ passionfruit growers Association.
The image of this passion flower is similar to our variety. It is a beautiful flower.

'The purple passionfruit (Passiflora edulis) is a native of the rainforest margins in the Amazon region of Brazil and perhaps also of Paraguay and northern Argentina. It has adapted to the cooler sub-tropics and the high altitude tropics.

There are many other passiflora species spread widely around the globe and about 50 species are native to New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and South East Asia.

Passionfruit acquired its name from Spanish missionaries who thought parts of the plant's flower resembled different religious symbols. The Jesuit missionaries who accompanied the Conquistadors to South America saw in its striking flower a means of illustrating the Crucifixion; the 10 petals and sepals represented the apostles, the crown of thorns was seen in the filaments, the five anthers represent the five wounds, the three stigmas were allied with the nails used to pierce the hands and feet of Jesus and the vine's tendrils were equated with the whips.'


Members Lounge for the exclusive use of financial members of the NZ Passionfruit Growers Association Inc.

More fruit stories - Passionfruit

More of the summer harvest. Now our passionfruit are ripening. Passionfruit have such an interesting name - and I have no idea why they are linked to 'passion'!

Perhaps its the lovely fruity tropical smell when you cut them open that reminds one of tropical beaches, sunsets, and - well - passion. And they are a beautiful deep shade of purple.

No likelihood of these little fruit going to waste - I scoop out the contents and freeze any spare ones we have. They make an excellent topping for desserts, and to add to cooked fruit and fruit salads. I also occasionally make 'passionfruit honey' which is a spread for toast.

Rotting Fruit

I hate to see fruit wasted. This is our neighbours pear tree, note all the fruit on the ground, rotting where it has dropped.

Another neighbour and I have picked up several bags and cooked and frozen them, but there are many more there for the taking.

Oh Darn

I have to admit - 'oh darn' are not actually the words I used when this damage occurred.

I was backing out the drive and negotiating my way around the assortment of beach toys and paraphernalia on the lawn at our beach house, and failed to remember that we have a sizable pohutukawa tree sitting on the lawn also.

The pohutukawa is a native tree, sometimes called the NZ Christmas tree as it has beautiful red flowers which appear over the summer. My header has a close up of the flowers, which are actually the stamens.

Luckily the damage, apart from $300 excess, is covered by our insurance - I am off to get a quote tomorrow. The tail light looks okay but the glass is broken and it has been pushed askew. The side panel also has a crease in it.

The tree has considerable damage to the bark, but will survive.

A Curtain of Apples

Our Golden Delicious apple tree is groaning with fruit this year, so much so that on one side the laden branches reach to the ground.

I can see that I will be busy baking apple based goodies all year. Apple shortcake anyone? An open invitation to all!

Waitangi Day - 6th Feb

'Every year on 6 February, New Zealand marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. In that year, representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs signed what is New Zealand’s founding document. The day was first officially commemorated in 1934, and it has been a public holiday since 1974.

For some people, Waitangi Day is a holiday; for many, and especially for Maori, it is the occasion for reflecting on the Treaty. Since the 1970s the style and mood of the commemorations on Waitangi Day have been influenced by the increasingly heated debate surrounding the place of the Treaty in modern New Zealand.

Waitangi Day is recognised as New Zealand's national day, and the date is an important marker in the country's history. Recognition of the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi as the nation's founding document will continue to encourage leaders, communities and individuals to mark the day in new ways.'

Taken from NZ History Online

The treaty of Waitangi is significant to our family as my Great Great Grandfather was one of the signatories of the treaty, and another great great Grandfather and a Great grandfather were present on the day and witnessed this historical event.

Pataka - a Maori storehouse

This posting is in response to a photo posted by teepe of a larder on a pole used as a form of food storage by the Sami people of Sweden. There is a similarity to a building used by the Maori people here in days gone by.

In pre European times the Maori people used a building up on poles to store their food. The idea of course was to keep it clear of rodents, dogs etc. Sometimes there was just one pole, sometimes several.

Often the storehouses were elaborately carved.

A google search revealed this article written in 1933 about similarities of the pataka and Alaskan buildings.

_______________________________________________________

This description and observation is taken from 'The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4 (August 1, 1933)'


The Pataka, Maori and Alaskan.

'There are some curious resemblances between two far-severed races, the Maori and the Indians of the coast of Alaska, in respect of certain branches of material culture. The dug-out canoe, carved from a single log, is common to both peoples; there is a close likeness between the two.

The Alaskan totem pole, with its carved figures, is much the same as the tall tiki post seen in olden Maori villages, though the style of carving is different. Most of these carved posts in both countries have been gathered into museums.

Another close likeness between the structures of these races separated by the whole breadth of the Pacific Ocean is seen in the pataka or food storehouse of the Maori and the high-legged food cache seen on the Alaskan coast and along the great Yukon River. Both are built on exactly the same principle, a stilt platform-house, high above the ground, for protection from marauding animals. There is just now before me an American geographical magazine with an article on the Yukon containing a photograph of a log food cache which but for the niched-log manner of construction might stand for the Maori pataka or whata. The illustration shows a structure raised above the ground about seven feet on round posts, on the upper parts of which tin is nailed to prevent wild animals from climbing up and gnawing through the floor to get at the dried fish and other supplies stored in the small house. Exactly the same precaution is taken by the Maori and the Pakeha bushman and surveyor against rats.

The backblocks settler in New Zealand found the pataka of the Maori an excellent means of keeping his food supplies dry and safe from the rats; and so do the white traders and settlers along the Yukon.

The Maori often expended a great deal of artistic decoration on his pataka.'

After summer reality!

Louisa Plums

Moko The Dolphin

Moko is our latest resident dolphin.

There are many dolphins around our coastal waters and often in the past one or more have abandoned their pod and adopted a stretch of coastline or a harbour as their territory.

Moko is a very playful and sociable fellow who is giving pleasure to many swimmers and boaties around the Mahia area this summer.

There have been some concerns that he is becoming too forceful and sometimes tries to prevent kayakers and body boarders from getting back to shore.

I hope that he stays safe. The safety of the swimmers and kayakers doesn't concern me overly as it is their choice to be there and to interact with him. They are in his territory.