Volume XVII, No. 3

MARCH 2005

COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS -
from New Zealand Handbook

If you like “ketchup” with your fries, ask for tomato sauce (ketchup also exists but it’s completely different from American-style). Beetroot (red beets) is slapped in almost everything (including all hamburgers, so if you don’t like it be sure to specify “no beetroot.” “French fries” are called hot chips, potato chips are just called chips. “Tea” can mean a cup of hot tea, or a complete dinner—confirm the exact meaning before you accept an invitation! “Napkins” are called serviettes.

CAFFEINE ATTRACTION

The aroma of freshly-brewed coffee will be in the air at New Zealand’s first-ever national coffee festival in Taupo this year.

Caffeine aficionados will be in their element at the BP New Zealand Coffee Festival and Awards in October.

Public displays showcasing over 40 exhibitors will include seminars by leading New Zealand baristas Ben Simcox (Auckland) and Emma Markland Webster (2001 World Barista Championships place-getter) on topics such as coffee-bean roasting, cooking with coffee, and franchising. The festival incorporates the New Zealand Coffee Awards, to be judged by renowned Australian Barista Championship chairman, known as ‘Instrauteur’.

Festival Director Michael Guy hopes the event will emulate the success of the Kona Coffee Festival in Hawaii and the Aroma Coffee Festival in Hawaii and the Aroma Coffee Festival in Sydney, which attract thousands of spectators each year worldwide. “I think we’ve got an exciting coffee culture, and because we’re a small nation people get excited about events like this.”

Although food and drink are not key motivators for international travelers to visit New Zealand, the standard of cuisine once they are in a country can have an impact on their impressions of a destination.

Cities such as Wellington are now integrating “coffee culture” into the city’s marketing campaigns and Positively Wellington Tourism General Manager (Tourism) Chris Lamers says that Wellington’s proliferation of world-class coffee baristas is a tourist drawcard. “It’s something (the international visitor) expects. They judge a city as being more sophisticated because it has good coffee.”

Hawkes Bay’s Hawthorne coffee roaster Peter Kelly believes the overseas visitor is embracing New. Zealand’s burgeoning coffee industry. “Particularly Europeans and to a large degree Americans, who already have strong coffee cultures. Now they’ve got the whole gambit of good food, great wines and finishing with a great coffee, and I think they’ve realized that from a food perspective, New Zealand has got that complete package.”

New Zealand is definitely becoming a more coffee-centric nation Larners believes. “I think it epitomizes New Zealand’s maturing taste. New Zealanders are taking time to experience their food and drink a lot more, and coffee’s just one example of that.”

UNCONDITIONAL KIWI KINDNESS -

by Samantha Lawler and Adam Bongarzone

We went to New Zealand in September of 2004. Adam had a job on a research boat that sailed from South Africa to New Zealand taking ocean floor measurements, and Sam’s research at Huntington Library ended at the perfect time for her to go meet him in Auckland!

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Sam's flight left on a smoggy Los Angeles afternoon, and eleven hours later deposited her into a cold, damp, cloudy Auckland morning. She picked up a rental car and was amazed how laid-back the rental company was (Apex). They were completely unconcerned about the fact she was sleep-deprived, 21 years old, and used to driving on the other side of the road!

After a mildly terrifying drive through morning rush hour in Auckland, she stopped at One Tree Hill for a sanity break. She couldn't believe there was such a beautiful, green, sheep-filled park in the middle of the largest city in the country! After a bit more slightly less scary driving, she made it to the Auckland ferry terminal where Adam was supposed to meet her. She waited for several hours while Adam was delayed by customs, and finally, after six weeks apart, met Adam as he was exiting the Devonport Auckland commuter ferry. Adam got the most enthusiastic welcome of anyone on the commuter ferry!

Since we're both college students, our trip was on a fairly small budget. We stayed in many of the wonderfully cheap and friendly youth hostels, and also took advantage of the nearly empty roads late at night and slept in the car. We slept in our tent a couple of nights, but because of the rain and low temperatures, sleeping in the car ended up being more pleasant.

We bought a lot of our food from various grocery stores. New Zealand has amazing cheeses, but we couldn't find good orange juice anywhere. Adam enjoyed the many versions of fish and chips at take-away stands, while vegetarian Sam loved the creative veggie burger patties. The best ones were sweet corn patties at Kentucky Takeaways in Picton. They have a hilarious painting of a hillbilly with overalls, bare feet, a straw hat, and no teeth chasing a chicken with a hatchet.

New Zealand has just about every type of food available in inexpensive restaurants, except Mexican food. By the middle of the trip we got desperate for our normal Mexican food, and made makeshift bunitos out of whatever we could find in a convenience store in Tekapo. They were tasty.

Our trip took us from Auckland around to the Coromandel Peninsula, where we stayed with friends, then down to Rotorua and Tongariro National Park, where we camped and nearly froze. We drove on an amazingly beautiful dirt road along the Wanganui River (don't tell the rental company), and camped on a black sand beach just above the city of Wanganui.

Then we headed down to Wellington, where we stayed in a huge old house converted into a hostel.

Wellington reminded us quite a bit of San Francisco, but in addition you have to drive on the wrong side of the road! After a night of wandering around Wellington, we turned in our rental car and took the ferry to Picton, where Apex provided us with another car, saving us about NZ$100 in ferry costs.

From Picton we drove along the incredibly beautiful Queen Charlotte Sound, then headed for the west coast. The remote west coast was beautiful, especially the nearly sea-level glaciers. In the parking lot for the Fox Glacier, we were really excited to see a kea! Sam rolled down her window to get a picture, and the kea started trotting toward us. It didn't stop until it was perched on the sideview mirror, staring hungrily at us. It was a little intimidating how aggressive that little bird was!

After a night in the car parked on a beach, we headed through Haast Pass. We couldn't believe how many waterfalls there were! It was amazing! We started heading toward Queenstown, and experienced a sheep traffic jam along the way.

Queenstown was a bit disappointing because it was so much like any American skiing town. We left after a night at a hostel, and started heading towards Milford Sound.

Sam got the car stuck right across from the middle fjord of Lake Te Anau (once again, don't tell the rental company). We were used to getting cars unstuck in the desert, so we jacked up each side of the car and stuck sticks under each tire, which totally didn't work on squishy mud. Luckily, a family happened to be fishing just down the road, and they helped pull us out.

Even though we were covered with sandfly bites on any exposed skin, we decided to spend the night there because it was so beautiful. The next day we began the drive to Milford Sound. We were really excited that the road was open, since only the day before the road was closed due to avalanche dangers. Just before the first "Avalanche Zone: No Stopping" sign, Adam took over the driving. He's originally from Boston and has actually driven on ice and snow before, unlike Sam who's lived in Los Angeles her whole life.

It was sprinkling during most of the drive, and there were thin waterfalls snaking down steep mountainsides everywhere! Most of the waterfalls ended in giant piles of snow. We stopped at "The Chasm" which was a river flowing through rock smoothed into odd shapes by years of erosion. The name is a bit cheesy, but the place was amazing.

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All around the thick rainforest were steep mountains, waterfalls, clouds, snow, and signs of avalanches.

We finally reached sea level at Milford Sound, and were completely overwhelmed by what we saw. We decided to splurge and take a boat out to the mouth of the sound and back. The top of Mitre Peak was lost in the clouds, but the countless waterfalls plunging down the heavily forested walls of the sound into the ocean made up for it.

We highly recommend a boat tour to anyone who makes it out to Milford Sound. There's so much to see and it's all so beautiful! The slow-moving boat gets you right up close to some of the larger falls and gives you time to absorb everything.

After Milford Sound we drove to Invercargill and Bluff, then headed up the east coast until we got to the Waitaki River and started heading inland to Mt. Cook. We stayed at a little hostel in Tekapo for two days while we drove and hiked around Mt. Cook and the surrounding glaciers, and splurged again to go skiing at Round Hill one day. Then we headed back toward the east coast.

When we were getting ready to sleep in the car one night, a bunch of teenagers started a bohfire on the beach nearby. After we had been asleep for a couple of hours, some guy knocked on our window, and instead of our being told to leave or being yelled at, he asked "Where's the party?!" It was amazingly confusing. I guess we picked the local party beach to sleep on.

We stopped at many beautiful beaches along the west coast and saw sheep, cows, sea lions, and in the far south, penguins. Eventually we took the ferry back to Wellington and continued to drive along the east coast.

Just above Napier, Adam was trying to pass a truck when the truck lane ended, so rather than get in a head-on collision with oncoming traffic, he opted for the trees on the side of the road. Nobody got hurt (and we had the extra insurance so we didn't have to pay for it!)

The most amazing part of the accident was that within ten seconds of crashing, the truck driver, the driver of the oncoming car we almost hit, several other passing motorists, and the farmer whose trees we crashed into ran up and made sure we were ok. There was no "You stupid Americans almost hit me!"

Everyone genuinely wanted to make sure we were okay. The truck driver hopped into the car and got us out of the ditch, then the farmer hopped in and drove the car into his driveway to make sure it worked, then he let us use his phone to call the

rental company while his wife offered us tea and food.

As beautiful as Milford Sound was, we think the unconditional kindness of complete strangers was the most incredible part of our trip.

We kept driving north, minus one sideview mirror, and kept camping on beaches. Eventually we found our way back to our friends on the Coromandel Peninsula for one last night in New Zealand. The next day we returned the rental car, and after three weeks in New Zealand, headed back to California.

(Editor: Thanks, Sam and Adam, for the informative and fun story of your trip. Other readers: please send in your stories, too. We need more!!)

THE END OF AN ERA -
Kiwinews

After running for 95 years, the overnight train service between Wellington and Auckland and vice versa has been axed due to falling patronage and the advent of cheap air fares. The 11-hour trip compares to a one-hour flight.

Prior to the advent of cheaper airfares, going by rail was the way to go. Refreshment stops were made along the way with pies, ham sandwiches, and/or fruit cake being the popular items eaten, all to be washed down by tea served in a really thick cup. Latterly, the train had a dining car.

In 1953 New Zealand's biggest rail disaster occurred when the overnight express ploughed into the Whangaehu River near Tangiwai (8km west of Waiouru), after the bridge was washed out. One-hundred fifty one were killed in that Christmas Eve disaster.

This means that New Zealand passenger rail service is now down to one long haul North Island train per day, each way, and two South Island, and nothing south of Christchurch. Of course there are a few suburban runs around Auckland and Wellington, even as far as Palmerston North and Masterton.

It's possible to occasionally take rail excursion runs to Gisbourne, New Plymouth, Invercargill and even Kawakawa, but whether regular passenger rail service will ever return to those or other towns is doubtful.

PROTECTING OUR BIRTHRIGHT -
Fairfax New Zealand Limited

Many more New Zealanders visit the beach than own it. The Government will have been mindful of that salient point as it laid out its plans to improve

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public access to waterways bordered by private land, writes the Dominion Post in an editorial.

Though home ownership rates are high in New Zealand, only a comparative few own property that borders a river, lake or the sea. The Government's decision to take on such landowners may, therefore, not be as courageous as it first appears.

Still, if handled badly, the matter is ripe for conflict. Skilful negotiation will be required to balance the legal rights of the public and of landowners, and to persuade both that it is in everyone's interests to reach an accommodation on access.

If an Englishman's home is his castle, then a New Zealander's birthright is his or her access to rivers, lakes and the sea. Even those who live sedentary, urban lives, which increasing numbers of New Zealanders do, carry in their blood and hearts the notion of their right to go down to the sea, river or lake to fish or swim, or just to be there. They might not go there, but they want to know they can.

A glance back at the heat and passion of this year's foreshore and seabed legislation, which was never likely to impact on most New Zealanders, shows just how visceral the issue is. Three days before Christmas, the Government set itself up for another potential showdown when it announced it was intending to provide a right of pedestrian passage of five metres' width on private land adjacent to significant waterways and bodies of water in rural areas.

The Government describes its move as "embracing the Queen's Chain ethos", but stopping short of the right of access the Queen's Chain allows. Under the proposals, only pedestrian access will be allowed to the five-metre strips; no vehicles, no dogs, no guns.

Even so, Federated farmers' response was that some of its members consider the Government's actions a land grab, even though there will be no change of ownership title. Many have reason to feel aggrieved. Their title has given them exclusive access to their own property, a right also enjoyed by most urban landowners who would call the police if they saw a stranger sauntering through their back yard. Under the proposals, the exclusivity some rural landowners have enjoyed will be revoked.

Many rural people are feeling put upon already, challenged over how they can defend themselves and griping at their lack of access to services that city people take for granted. The proposals for land access will be one more blow.

Landowners have to compromise, even if some will be dragged kicking and screaming to do so.

Significant waterways should not be locked away for the enjoyment of only the privileged few who own the adjoining land. That is not the New Zealand way, but it has been happening gradually. The access today's adult generation remembers from childhood is gone in many places.

The Government is proposing a long lead time, possibly to avoid conflict in election year, but also in an acknowledgment that these matters will have to be dealt with case by case in what could be sensitive negotiations. Access to waterways is part of being a New Zealander. So too is respect for property rights. Melding the two will be a challenge but one that is worth the battle.

PENGUIN MYSTERY DISEASE

A mystery disease is killing off yellow-eyed penguin chicks in New Zealand in a fresh blow to efforts to conserve the world's rarest member of the penguin family, a conservation group says.

BirdLife International said the disease, which has baffled local scientists, had killed up to 80 percent of this spring's chicks in the worst affected areas on New Zealand's South Island.

"Most penguin chicks have been found dead at nests on Otago Peninsula and North Otago, with other outbreaks on Stewart Island and the Catlins coast," Birdlife said.

"With a global population of just under 5,000 birds, the yellow-eyed penguin is classified by BirdLife as endangered and is considered to be the world's rarest penguin species," it said.

BirdLife said New Zealand's Department of Conservation was running tests to try and pinpoint the extent and nature of the illness, which is thought to be caused by a strain of comynebacterium. It said there are more than 50 strains of this type of infection, one of which causes human diphtheria.

The main threats to yellow-eyed penguins include introduced predators such as domestic cats and loss of habitat.

BRITS SAY NZ'S A BEAUTY BUT TOO QUIET - Stuff

New Zealand, the world's most beautiful country-but not the top place to live, says a new English survey.

Gather some young Brits at Base Backpackers in Cathedral Square and you will not find much argument with that.

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Four independent travelers expressed no surprise at a survey by London's Daily Telegraph that rated New Zealand the world's most beautiful country, but down the ladder when it comes to places to live.

It is a great country to visit, for physical beauty, fun and friendliness, but it is too quiet and too dear, they said.

Jason Stray has been everywhere but is in New Zealand for the first time. Four years ago, Australia was the place to go and no one talked about New Zealand. That has changed.

Steve Westgarth said everyone back home knew someone in New Zealand and they all talked about "what an awesome place it is".

"It's a cool place to be," he said. "No other country in the world has the tourist thing like this, where you can do everything and have the same bus driver the whole way and you experience Maori culture and wicked beaches and all-it's gorgeous."

Andy Roberts summed Canterbury up: "It's like a warm Wales." Stray agreed that much of New Zealand looked like parts of Britain, but said some of the landscape was the most beautiful anywhere.

"Transport links in New Zealand are pretty bad," Westgarth said. "But the hostels are great and the backpackers here seem a friendlier bunch than elsewhere."

Emily Jackson said the scenery was spectacular and the extreme sports a big draw. New Zealand's popularity was growing by word of mouth. But could she live here? No.

"It's the low population. It's very quiet. The cities are lively for visitors but people are always moving on. There's a constant change-not a place to settle," she said.

Stray could live in Sydney, maybe Auckland, but not Christchurch. Boring? "It's pretty quiet, yeah."

From WYSIWYG NEWS - By Brian Harmer

(Copyright by Brian Harmer, reprinted by permission)

At Greta Point in Evans Bay, there is a restaurant that, in its present incarnation, is called Eden. Early this week I had occasion to take a guest lecturer there for an early dinner before putting him on a plane back to Auckland. After a grey and somewhat scruffy start to the day, the city turned on a perfect evening, and the restaurant provided the perfect vantage point from which to view it.

This is not intended as an advert for Eden, though I usually enjoy the food there, even if I do resent vegetables or salad being "extra". The restaurant is partially on piles over the water, and looks from

Greta Point across the remains of the old patent slip and South across the harbour towards Kilbirnie. To the East, the view is directly across the bay to the hills and the cutting that guard Miramar peninsula from the West.

Beyond the peninsula, the perfect golden clarity of the late afternoon light picked out the high peaks across the harbour. We were seated against the Eastern windows, and had an uninterrupted view of the sea at our feet and the bay beyond. The water below us was glassy calm and provided a perfect place for the kayakers who were performing seemingly effortless laps around a circuit denoted by a set of coloured buoys.

Strands of the seaweed known as "Neptune's necklace" floated by. A sudden ripple in the otherwise still water marked the emergence of a shag from a fishing expedition, apparently unsuccessfully. A large flock of terns swooped by in perfect formation, following some mysterious invisible pathway as if they were on rails.

Since it was the evening rush hour, a steady succession of Boeing 737s and the occasional Airbus made their growling ascent under noise abatement procedures to the North, and between times, the lesser fry, ATRs, Saabs, Jetstreams and Metroliners buzzed by at lower altitude. A fleet of small yachts emerged from the Evans Bay Marina and made small progress until a light wind arose to ruffle the previously perfect surface with a very light chop. Then it picked up. Suddenly the yachts were flying, as yachts in Wellington are wont to do.

Evans Bay runs more or less North and South between the bulk of Mt Victoria to the West and the Miramar Peninsula to the East. Thus, daylight saving notwithstanding, the shadows of evening fall early across the water, leaving only the hills beyond in light. So it was as our meal came to an end and I delivered my guest back to the terminal before returning home.

The rest of the week seemed characterised by wind and driving rain. Great sheets of it drifting diagonally across the landscape from the South. And wind! Buffeting howling hissing wind. The Hutt River, when it was visible through the rain, turned from its normal lethargic silver blue to a sullen somewhat swollen brown surge. The new works I referred to last week disappeared under the rising water. The big yellow diggers sitting unattended on their mounds of rock appeared to be floating on the water. Until today, that is. A bright blue day, with no wind, and only the still swollen river to remind us of the midweek deluge.

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2005 - LIONS TOUR, TRI-NATIONS, SUPER 12, CENTENARY TOUR - Stephen Mangum

This promises to be a historic year for New Zealand rugby with a series of brilliant competitions.

The Super 12 is under way for its final season before expanding to fourteen teams next year. The tournament kicked off on February 25 and will conclude on May 14. The semifinals are set for May 20 and 21 with the championship game on Saturday, May 28. The powerful ACT Brumbies and Canterbury Crusaders are most likely to make the final four with five or six others having a shot at the remaining slots.

Next year will feature two new teams. One will be in South Africa and the other in Perth, Western Australia. Former All Blacks coach John Mitchell was recently selected as the new head man for Perth.

The All Blacks have a huge season ahead of them with the much-anticipated British and Irish Lions Tour at home followed by the expanded Tri-Nations series, then a centenary tour of the British Isles.

The AB's concluded 2004 as the top-rated team in the world after an outstanding fall tour to Europe. The boys opened up by crushing Italy, then came from behind to edge Wales 26-25. In the key match of the tour they played one of their best matches in recent years to obliterate France 43-6 in Pans, then topped it off with a big 47-19 win over the Barbarians at London.

First up this year for the All Blacks is a home fixture vs Fiji on June 10, followed by the colossal British and Irish Lions Tour. The visitors are bringing a 44 man squad for the three test matches, seven games with provincial teams, and face off with the New Zealand Maori.

Lions Tour Schedule - All matches start at 7:10 PM

June 4, Sat vs Bay of Plenty at Rotorua

June 8, Wed vs Taranaki at New Plymouth

June 11, Sat vs New Zealand Maori at Hamilton

June 15, Wed vs Wellington at Wellington

June 18, Sat vs Otago at Dunedin

June 21, Tues Southland at Invercargill

June 25, vs ALL BLACKS AT CHRISTCHURCH

June 28 vs Manawatu at Palmerston North

July 2 vs ALL BLACKS AT WELLINGTON

July 5, vs Auckland at Auckland

July 9, vs ALL BLACKS AT AUCKLAND

The AB 's then get a short rest before jumping into the Tri-Nations Series with Australia and South Africa. This year the competition expands to six matches vs the previous four test format. The Wallabies will prepare by hosting France, Samoa, and Italy. The Springboks tune up with France and Uruguay.

Tri-Nations Fixtures

July 30 South Africa vs Australia at Pretoria

Aug. 6 South Africa vs New Zealand at Capetown

Aug 13 Australia vs New Zealand at Sydney

Aug 20 Australia vs South Africa at Perth

Aug 27 New Zealand vs South Africa at Dunedin

Sept 3 New Zealand vs Australia at Auckland

The Lions Tour and Tri-Nations Tournament should prepare the All Blacks well for their centenary matches in the British Isles. This is the 100th anniversary of their initial series of matches in Europe. It also featured the first use of their famous team name.

The northern tour features matches vs Ireland on Nov. 13, England on Nov. 19, and Scotland on Nov. 26. Discussions are also under way with Wales to schedule a matchup. If approved this would be the All-Blacks first Grand Slam tour since 1978 and music to the ears of rugby fans worldwide.

Rugby superstar Jonah Lomu is on the come back trail. After being on dialysis for over a year his condition had greatly deteriorated. However, he received a kidney donated by a friend in August of 2004. Lomu has overcome medical obstacles before, and is training for his return to rugby. His immediate goal is to captain and play for a side vs Martin Johnson's side at a June 4 farewell to the great English player in London.

Good luck, Jonah!

KIWIphiles: Until next time, play on !!

DID YOU KNOW?

The first national sporting body formed in New Zealand was the Rifle Association, which came into being in 1860. There was a flurry of activity between 1885-1890 when the Racing Conference and the Bowls Association, Lawn Tennis, Amateur Athletics, Amateur Rowing, and Amateur Swimming and Golf Associations were formed.

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WHALE RIDER ROCKS THE RED PLANET -

by Jon Stokes (NZ Herald)

The success of the film "Whale Rider" has taken the Maori language to new heights-outer space.

NASA scientists have named features of the Martian landscape using Maori names and words, influenced by the popular movie about a girl's struggle to lead an East Coast tribe.

A NASA scientist, associate professor Brad Jolliff, speaking on National Radio, said two rocks found by the Mars robotic rover Opportunity had been named Paikea (the lead character in the film) and Wharenui (meaning meeting house in te reo).

He said the rocks were found near a cliff named after the late Wellington-born scientist Roger Bums, who died in 1993. Based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he accurately predicted that jarosite, an iron sulphate usually formed when water flows through and alters iron-rich sediments and rocks, would be found on Mars.

The find boosted speculation that Mars once carried large amounts of water.

It is not the first time Maori has been used to mark features on the red planet-agency scientists have already used the names of the Rotorua geysers Pohutu and Kahu.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

NEW ZEALAND WEBSITE

There's a great new website:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/

The following is from that site from the 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand:

YOUTH HOSTELS ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND (Inc.)

The Youth Hostels Association seeks to provide simple accommodation for the night and a friendly community atmosphere for young people traveling across country, usually on foot or by bicycle. Membership of a Youth Hostel Association in any country entitles one to become a member of the International Youth Hostels Federation, with associations in nearly every country in the world. In most European countries there is a chain of hostels within walking distance of each other where beds and beddings, cooking facilities, and a common room are provided.

As it is a non-profit-making organization, each person staying in a hostel is expected to do one household task before leaving. Hostels have been established in all types of buildings such as ancient castles, cottages, and ships at anchor. In New Zealand even an out moded tramcar has been put to use.

The Youth Hostels Association was first formed in New Zealand in 1932, in Canterbury, where farmers often made available some farm building or a portion of their homes. In 1955 a National Council was formed and since then growth has been rapid. Though in New Zealand it is a voluntary organization, by 1965 there were 39 hostels, eight of which were added in 1964, and over 7,000 members. The objects of the association are given as: "To help all, but especially young people, to a greater knowledge, love, and care of the countryside through the provision of hostels or other simple accommodation for them in their travels, and to promote their health and education." By Olive Rita Croker, M.A., Botanist, Wellington.

DISCOVER THE MANAWATU REGION - AATravel

The prosperous farming regions of Rangitikei, Manawatu and Horowhenua, on the coastal plains of the southern central North Island, produce milk, sheep and horticultural products.

The rivers, which run from the Tararua and Ruahine Ranges, formed fertile alluvial plains and provided a means of transport in earlier times. The coastal beaches offer good fishing, but swimming outside patrolled areas is dangerous. Tararua, to the east of the Manawatu Gorge, intersects with southern Hawke's Bay and northern Wairarapa, but has its own distinct assets.

Rangitikei is being developed for adventure, including hiking, fishing, rafting, canoeing, jet-boating, and bungy jumping. Scenic tours, world- renowned gardens and craft shops are among its attractions.

Manawatu offers visitors a delightful mix of rural life plus the exciting 'big city' sophistication of Palmerston North. Conveniently located half way between Taupo and Wellington, the Manawatu land scape sweeps dramatically from the high country Ruahine and Tararua Ranges to the coastal plains and beaches of Tangimoana and Himatangi. Unspoiled rivers through fertile agricultural and pastoral farmlands are a big drawcard for outdoor enthusiasts.

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Horowhenua has Levin as its main centre with Foxton, where museums are an attraction, and Shannon nearby. To the west of the region are long unspoiled beaches, and on the east the rugged Tararua Ranges, ideal for hiking and hunting. The area has a temperate climate and its rich alluvial soil makes it the major market gardening area of the lower North Island.

Numerous roadside fruit and vegetable stalls are an attraction. The Manawatu River is well known for fishing and other water sports and its estuary at Foxton Beach is a wonderful natural habitat for bird-life. The dune lakes of Horowhenua and Papaitonga close to Levin are rich in Maori history.

Visitors keen to explore the region will find relaxing country retreats, award-winning gardens, excellent golf courses, antiques and craft stores, and historic homes. For the adventurous there's horse trekking, great tramping tracks and trout fishing.

And for thrill seekers there's kayaking and jet-boating through the Manawatu Gorge, aerobatic flying, scenic helicopter flights, mountain biking, a 4WD safari, 4x4 quad bikes, bridge swinging, and Formula Ford single-seater racing.

A visit to the Tararua Wind Farm (the largest in southern hemisphere) provides fantastic views of Manawatu, Hawkes Bay and Wairapapa. Guided tours are available. The Manawatu Gorge is a textbook example of what happens when a range rises across a river and is one of only a few places in the world where the river flows east to west through a main divide.

Tararua, a relatively new district comprising the southern sector of Hawkes Bay and the northern part of Wairarapa, is bounded by the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges. Tararua takes in the 70 Mile Bush area, so named by settlers who cleared 70 miles of bush for farming in the mid-1800s, and stretches as far south as Eketahuna.

NZ SCIENTISTS EYE POTENTIAL

FOR $2b RADIO TELESCOPE - Stuff

Scientists seeking to site a $A2 billion ($NZ2.14 billion) "digital" radio telescope in Australia or New Zealand recently met in Wellington.

The academics and other researchers making up New Zealand's square kilometre array (SKA) project committee met for the first time.

The plan for the proposed radio telescope would use modern digital technology, including super-computers and broadband communication

links to compare and match huge amounts of data while observations are being made.

While in Wellington, international SKA project director Richard Schilizzi, of the Netherlands, and the Australian vice-president of the international SKA committee, Bryan Boyle, were to meet government agencies and ministers to background the SKA project.

The lobbyists were accompanied by representatives of AUT, whose centre for radiophysics and space research was accepted as the New Zealand partner in the Australasian SKA Consortium, and invited to contribute to the bid to host the $A2 billion dollar radio telescope array.

AUT's Professor Sergei Gulyaev, an internationally recognized radio astronomer, said that a conference was also to be held in Auckland to bring together for the first time in New Zealand engineers, radiophysicists, astronomers and geoscientists keen to acquire the technology.

Radio astronomy and very large baseline interferometry (VLBI) techniques are used for cutting-edge research in astrophysics, earth and atmospheric sciences, and geodesy-the science of measuring the size and shape of the earth and precisely locating points on its surface.

"The potential to bring New Zealand into these big global developments in radioscience and supercomputing is clearly there for grasping," Prof. Gulyaev said in a statement.

He said it was likely that a southern hemisphere location-Australia and New Zealand-would be preferred for the SKA project because that would offer the best views of the centre of the galaxy.

At present, only nine of the world's 154 radio telescopes are located in the southern hemisphere, and seven of these are in Australia, and Prof. Gulyaev said this emphasised the critical importance of NZ's position and the role it could play.

VLBI technology relies on several radio telescopes making simultaneous observations, which will help determine the structure of distant radio wave sources.

It will also allow the study of tectonic plate movements such as those of the Pacific and Australian colliding under New Zealand, the atmospheric ozone concentration and variations in the Earth's rotation.

AUT is also a member of the international VLBI service, which provides navigation for space craft sent to other planets.

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The Auckland conference was to be chaired by a noted astrophysicist, Sir Ian Axford, and Mr. Schilizzi was to talk about the importance of the SKA Project internationally, while Mr. Boyle would speak about the project's development in Australia.

BOOKSHELF

New Zealand Bed & Breakfast Guide 2005, New Zealand's leading guide to accommodation with character. Compiled by Elizabeth James.

New Zealand is a land of sheep farms and rural vistas. For the traveler seeking excellent hospitality and a taste of how real New Zealanders live, this thoroughly expanded and newly updated bed and breakfast guide is the quintessential handbook. It offers personalized listings written by the hosts themselves, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, prices, and directions to more than one thousand private homes and hotels. Full-cover photo graphs show the natural beauty surrounding these locations, as well as views of the accommodations. Details on listings include nearby attractions, meals available on-site, facilities available to handicapped guests, language other than English spoken by the hosts, and much more.

Ranging from homey to luxurious, all bed and breakfast establishments listed in the guide are inspected to ensure that they meet the standards of the B&B Book Team; many are members of recognized B&B associations, such as the New Zealand Association of Farm and Home Hosts.

(Editor: I never take a trip to NZ without my guide.)

(Readers may order toll free from Pelican at 1-800-843 -1724, or from bookstores).

A PEOPLE REDISCOVERED - Pacific Way

Born 48 years before as Tame Horomona Rehe, Tommy Solomon was indeed the last pure-blooded Moriori.

But the Moriori were not a separate race. That was one of many myths about the original inhabitants of the Chathams, or Rekohu, as the Moriori named their windswept homelands.

For generations, ignorance and prejudice had shaped New Zealanders' views on the Moriori. Even in the late-1980s, author and historian Michael King found that many Europeans still vilified the Moriori as a "degenerate race, deficient in intelligence and morals, alleging that

they were driven out of New Zealand by the racially and intellectually superior Maori, to take final refuge in the Chathams as a pitiful remnant of a primitive and vanquished people".

And some Maori were still contending that the Moriori had never existed at all, saying they were no more than a European-created myth designed to justify European repression of the Maori.

"Nobody in New Zealand-and few elsewhere in the world-has been subjected to group slander as intense and damaging as that heaped on the Moriori," King wrote in Moriori-A People Rediscovered.

Myths about the Moriori had persisted with "astonishing potency, convincing even Moriori descendants that that part of their inheritance was of no value and best consigned to oblivion."

At the request of one of Tommy's own descendants-Wellington lawyer Maui Solomon- King pieced together a definitive, readable and moving history of the Moriori that lifts the veil of mystery from their culture forever.

For the record, the Moriori were (and still are) Polynesians, whose ancestors were shared by the New Zealand Maori and migrated to New Zealand from the Pacific.

Sometime between the ninth and the 16th century, the Moriori left New Zealand and settled on the Chathams, where, cut off by the ocean, their culture evolved its unique character.

More than any other change, it was the Moriori rejection of lethal combat that set them apart from the Maori-and made them most vulnerable to their mainland warrior cousins.

By 1791, the first Europeans (New Zealanders) to call at the Chathams found a people "confident, assertive and in control of their lives and their environment", King says. There were around 2000 Moriori on the islands, but their numbers were soon to be threatened.

European seal hunters quickly wiped out a principal Moriori food and clothing source and they brought with them illnesses against which the isolated natives, like the Maori, had no resistance. King estimated some 400 Moriori succumbed to European disease.

But the major catastrophe was still to come. It arrived in 1835 in the form of two shiploads of Taranaki Maori, the Te Ati Awa. Forced south to Wellington from their traditional homelands by Waikato rivals, they were seeking new territory and conquests.

As was their custom, the Maori invaders walked the land, claiming it for themselves. Alarmed,

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the Moriori chiefs met for three days, but they would not renounce their nonviolent traditions, even in the face of 900 invaders, choosing to offer the Maori peace and friendship.

The outnumbered Te Ati Awa, meantime, were deciding that attack was the best form of defence and they set about killing the natives-and devouring many of them after cooking them in hangi, the traditional Maori earth ovens.

Around 300 Moriori were slaughtered in the following months. Those who survived were dispossessed of their tribal lands and claimed by the Maori as slaves. Over 1300 others, reduced almost overnight to abject misery, "died of despair" in the years to come, according to an 1862 record which numbered the entire Moriori population less than 30 years later at just 101.

They lived on as "black fella" serfs and vegetable growers for their Maori masters until long after the practice was officially abolished by the New Zealand administration in 1863.

In 1870, the survivors applied to the Native Land Court for the return of their lands, allowing a small portion to the well-established Maori. But European justice reversed the order, and gave them back a tiny portion of their former territory.

A few took up their land and farmed it well, but the number of Moriori continued to dwindle and their culture died with them. Some left the island, some married Maori or Europeans.

Many, mindful of the many negative images that went with their name, simply chose not to be Moriori.

And so things remained for many years after Tommy Solomon's death. The turning point, King wrote, came in 1980, when Television New Zealand ran a documentary on the Moriori, which exposed the many ignorant falsehoods perpetrated about the people of Rekohu.

Three years later, their history thus reassessed, people of Moriori descent held their first reunion. Now restored to new pride in their identity, the Moriori are staking a claim to the valuable Chatham Island fisheries.

Michael King's account of their ancestors' cruel fate has proven useful to the Moriori as it is fascinating to other New Zealanders.

(Moriori, A People Rediscovered, by Michael King, published by Penguin Books in the early 1980s.)

NEW ZEALAND WINE -

from Conde' Nast Traveler

Because of its relative isolation, New Zealand remains something of a mystery. We know generalities: clean, beautiful, under-populated, and off by itself on the edge of the world. Nonetheless, 20 years ago the country's young wine industry managed to get our attention with its crisp, herbaceous, pungently fruity sauvignon blancs. They put the South Island region of Marlborough on the map and led to a boom in vineyard development.

Located in the heart of the Gimblett Gravels District, Trinity Hill Winery recently caused a stir beyond the wine world. A major American insurance company complained to the U.S. government about a signature appearing on Trinity Hill's labels. The government took up the fight and informed Trinity Hill that it could not ship wines to the U.S. with the signature of its general manager, John Hancock, on the label. I spoke with John Hancock. He is much younger than the fellow who signed the Declaration of Independence.

When you make inquiries about and/or reservations for anything in New Zealand, if you saw it here, please be sure to mention that you saw it in the KIWIphile FILE!! Thank you.

KIWIphile FILE

Published quarterly by Eva Trapani

E-mail: KiwiET1@aol.com