Hard News: A modest appeal
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Lilith __, in reply to
So it goes.
And this too shall pass. Hmmm. Well good luck.
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Islander, in reply to
To us all-
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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?]
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The direct link is http://www.cstonline.tv/media-eats-media but the home site is worth visiting.
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Sacha, in reply to
Jose is going to *love* that comparison.
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done, and thanks to everyone at PA!
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Islander, in reply to
this too shall pass.
I have that round my ring.
The Okarito beach gold one, on my left middle finger, of course...
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Lilith __, in reply to
Sounds great. Did you find the gold yourself?
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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)
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Islander, in reply to
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...
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Lilith __, in reply to
I always had some of the beach with me…
Fantastic.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
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.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
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). -
Lilith __, in reply to
Nelson Creek
Nelson Creek, eh! Now a delightful camping spot.
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With plenty of adits and tunnels
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Islander, in reply to
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...
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
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... -
Islander, in reply to
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!
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Islander, in reply to
I was always intrigued by that tannin colour of the creek
and can remember catching trout for breakfastAlmost 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-
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Lilith __, in reply to
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.
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Islander, in reply to
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-
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Lilith __, in reply to
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. -
Islander, in reply to
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.) -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
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...) -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
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.
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