Whanganui River by canoe
The river rose by 4 metres through the day. I thought it was normal for this river, rain makes it rise, rain stops and river drops. I changed my mind when logs and trees float past. Dead goats swirl in the whirlpools. Pumice chunks clunk against the hull. The rain hisses on the yellow river. Waterfalls roar. The hull of the waka acts as a timpani, amplifying the buzzing sizz of pebbles colliding in the water below, like the clicks of fish crunching on a coral reef. Luckily we don’t tip out in the pressure waves between eddies.
I saw a white tui! Heard kiwi call. Gulls, ducks, kingfisher, swallows, shags, hawks, fantails, and chaffinches swoop over the awa. Water cuts deep channels through papa. Fossils pack the old sea floor! Karaka trees mark old pa sites. I am unimpressed with the weedy willows and selaginella infestations at the campsites.
Wooden Niu poles mark the site of Hau Hau rebellion, at the junction of two rivers. The war pole, the peace pole; like ships masts. Four arms mark the points of the compass. On the end of the arms are carven hands, with flat palm, and stigmata holes. An eerie place, history and the success and death of a now extinct religion. The Hau Hau believed they were immune from bullets, and danced around decapitated heads…..
Posted: October 19th, 2011 under New Zealand.
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