Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: A modest appeal

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  • Lilith __, in reply to Islander,

    So it goes.

    And this too shall pass. Hmmm. Well good luck.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Lilith __,

    To us all-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Russell; in celebration of PAS and your associated activities, I have dedicated my latest guest blog ('Media eats media') for the UK site Critical Studies in Television Online http://www.cstonline.tv to Media 7. Take a look and tell me what you think (and pass it on to Phil and the team?]

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    The direct link is http://www.cstonline.tv/media-eats-media but the home site is worth visiting.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    Jose is going to *love* that comparison.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    done, and thanks to everyone at PA!

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Lilith __,

    this too shall pass.

    I have that round my ring.

    The Okarito beach gold one, on my left middle finger, of course...

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Islander,

    Sounds great. Did you find the gold yourself?

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • R A Hurley,

    i just surfed here from (accidentally, i promise you!) reading the comments on a stuff.co.nz story... my mind thus filled with a toxic black ooze, i clicked over to PA to see a request for donations... and i thought "yes! take ALL of my money, just PLEASE don't leave me alone with those people!" (shorter version: i gave you as much money as i can spare, and my mother said to say she misses Media 7 terribly)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 63 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Lilith __,

    No - my claim was on the south beach...I have some amalgam (here, a mix of flour gold (it's actually much finer than that) and mercury) as a souvenir of that long ago time.
    But my neighbours had a good claim over on the north beach and I bought a wee chunk off them.

    The ring weighs one troy ounce, and This too shall pass is engraved, in runes,
    on the inside.

    It was a great comfort when I was travelling, because I always had some of the beach with me...

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Islander,

    I always had some of the beach with me…

    Fantastic.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Islander,

    The ring weighs one troy ounce, and This too shall pass is engraved, in runes,
    on the inside.

    Thanks Islander. My engineer ancestor William Wylie spent his working life in mining ventures, including Preservation Inlet, Ross, Central Otago, and Australia. According to his 1924 obituary, at one stage he "went to manage a dredging venture at Okarito, in the south of Westland, but owing to the dredge pontoons being lost while being towed down the coast, the venture fell through."

    When I first read that I thought 'Good job too.' The same thought recurred to me when reading your story.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    Quicksilver Messengers...

    went to manage a dredging venture at Okarito

    My dad's father was a dredge master in the Grey Valley and environs,
    including round Nelson Creek where they lived, Dad and his brothers
    also had a claim near the deep lead up from the Creek.
    I only ever went to the claim once, it was pretty rugged
    and I'd hate to be there when some of the tunnels they'd dug
    suddenly filled with water. And I can still remember being worried by
    the crate of sweating gelignite in the shack there. I still have the
    alluvial gold we panned that day (a very small amount in a vial).

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Attachment

    Nelson Creek

    Nelson Creek, eh! Now a delightful camping spot.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __,

    Attachment

    With plenty of adits and tunnels

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    There are still bits of an old dredge in the 3-mile lagoon -that's the only one I know of that made it to these environs...

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Lilith __,

    Nelson Creek, eh! Now a delightful camping spot.

    Are there still glow worms in the tunnel
    through to the swing bridge?
    I was always intrigued by that tannin colour of the creek
    and can remember catching trout for breakfast
    and gaffing eels at night in it...
    aaah, West Coast time is fuller
    than other places...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    The last dredge in the Grey valley - indeed, on the West Coast, recently stopped operations. I can still remember what the Taramakau one sounded like...

    and as for what West Coast explosive storage methods were like - aargh!

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    I was always intrigued by that tannin colour of the creek
    and can remember catching trout for breakfast

    Almost all Coast creeks have the tannin colour (obviously not the glacier-fed ones!)
    It used to be my pleasure to go for eels for whanau brekkies from the local 3 creeks- oath, I’m going to miss this place – but so it goes.

    Thank you, Mr Vonnegut.

    O – entirely OT – may I note my sadness at the not-unexpected death of Hitchins? I loathed a lot of his political swing-swang but loved his determined atheism -despite an extremely-trying lengthy dying- & courage- haere ra ki Te Po e Chris-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Are there still glow worms in the tunnel
    through to the swing bridge?

    Absolutely! Although I haven’t been there since…(checks)…2003. I remember being very chuffed to get quite close to a mob of paradise ducklings in the creek. That was before Chch was full of them and they were no longer a novelty. :-)

    That same trip I also went to Larry’s Creek (just north of Reefton) and waded over (clear swift icy water to the hip, yikes) to see the stamper battery and one scary-looking half-flooded tunnel leading off into the hillside. Hard to imagine anyone having the guts to go into those places day after day. And the stampers going 24 hours a day. Hell.

    Amazing how the bush takes these places back, though.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Lilith __,

    A fortnight ago I came back from Franz to home - and was halted by a line of vehicles at the corner going into Big O.
    WTF?
    Walked down the road a wee bit and-
    there was Mum Pari with about 5 round her, and Dad Pari trying his frustrated best to herd the other 5 over to her and off the road-
    and very patient loopies sitting there waiting for the parents to get it together
    (well, majorly the ducklings...)

    There was one other local in the queue: all ducklings survived that encounter.

    We still put out a sign further down in the village: "Please be careful of our duck residents!" because we have two local putakitakiatoa families-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Islander,

    10 stripey kiddies, eh?? And they can run quite fast but often in random directions!
    I remember some years ago going to visit a pair down by the Heathcote in Sydenham when they were a rarity here. They are so handsome. But since then they’ve taken the city back! They’re everywhere up and down the rivers and in parks. You hear them flying over and calling to each other from house roofs. Hearing a duck quack from just above your head can be disconcerting.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Lilith __,

    ince then they’ve taken the city back!

    Am so glad to learn that Lilith!

    They are indeed beautiful - striking- birds, the paradise shelducks.

    Putakitakiatama (female) & putakitakiatoa (male)* are wonderful - they mate for life, and do not seem to readily remate when a partner dies. And, if you've been in a jetboat going on a West Coast stream, you'll realise why NZ Post chose a female pari (quite a while ago) for it's fastpost icon - they can easily outfly it!

    While my ancestors here ate pretty well everything with wings on it, they sensibly only ate pari which were not fully fledged (and they checked all the harvest to make sure they also culled damaged birds.)

    *putakitakiatama = like a child blowing a war trumpet
    *putakitakiatoa =like a warrior blowing a war trumpet
    (I use Kai Tahu dialect - elsewhere it'll be putangtangia-etc or some other variant of it.)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Lilith __,

    Ducks deluxe...

    But since then they’ve taken the city back!

    It's the new City slogan:
    Christchurch, there's quacks everywhere...
    (but really we're just wading for the Man...)

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Lilith __,

    Stripeys and family in Avonside a couple of months back.

    Amazing how the bush takes these places back, though.

    Amazingly fast sometimes. In the late 60s the houses from the former timber mill at Kotuku were only distinguishable as mounds of blackberry with the occasional chimney. although they'd only been abandoned less than 15 years.

    At Notown though, a couple of valleys down from Nelson Creek, the old schoolhouse was being used as a hay barn in the 70s. There were still chalk drawings on the blackboard, with a date from 1941, presumably the last day of school there. It was as if the kids had been allowed to draw what they pleased. There were pictures of streamlined Buck Rogers-style cars and planes, and a large depiction of a boxer fighting a tiger. Wished I'd had a camera.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

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