Catching a ride to the lake of legend in the early hours of dawn

It is a trying task to get out of sleeping bag and strap cold clothes on but I do it. as it turns out, that is the most difficult part. a familiar excitement stirs. I grab my daypack and head strong out on the empty unsealed roads. It is a shame I have not taken up to early mornings days prior. I am enjoying my trek immensely to B and S's house, where I hope to catch a ride into the park . Trees and ----- are shrouded in the morning mist thick coats, sights such as these cast away doubts that these people truly came from the mist. Light arises faster than expected. I find myself missing the fading bluish tint of dark, curtain of mystery. I had awaken with renewed strength ready to confront fears, encountering haunts of history hidden in pockets of land.

Wild horses, white band of frost runs across the bottom of their manes constrasting to shaggy dark winter coats. I smile in delight. Deers gazes on the hillside draw my eyes to them. I cannot make out more stoic silohuettes in the distance yet I know their attention is frozen on me ( testament to mind-matter energy?).

It is not til I near the general store that I see my first car. A local, he kindly stops to see if I need a lift to school, where I have been routinely spending my days. I kindly pass asking him instead to pass a message. Hopefully Asha delivers my other msg to Blue, crazy Blue, what a misfortune for missing the opportunity to tramp (kiwi lingo for hiking) together...the-crazy cracker from the likes which I could have learn. People who deviate from the norm refreshen me in unusual ways and well it's been a while since I've met anyone like that. the conversation with Blue day before makes me realize how before I head out, I should put in an extra effort to see the trees ,now that my kite construction activities are completed .

At last I am at B&S's, they are lovely and eager to share and laugh, people like them make it all the more difficult to leave. 1080-sodium fluoroacetate comes up into conversation. 1080 is dropped by DOC to combat possums in the Te Ure Were forests. Apparently, it was in the Taupo news, the curiosity about how its use is banned in the US, yet sold by the US to NZ.

The Maori's I encounter were not happy with 1080. I was curious about B's stance, how he coped in a position caught in conflict as he is of Maori descent and works for DOC. Also, how he felt about DOC going against disapproval of local iwis.

B states that DOC (Dept of Conservation) does not proceed without approval of local iwis (tribal family).

"Doe", a representative on the conservation trust had informed me differently. According to policy, DOC only had to consult local tribes. The iwis largely disapprove of aerial dropping of 1080, and were willing to have 90% of 55,000 hectares by ground control (trapping and poisoning) and the 5% (steep areas) permit the aerial dropping of 1080.

S states that 1080 dissolves harmlessly a few weeks time in water. This is what is told by those promoting its use. " 1080 doesn’t remain in soil or water, but breaks down harmlessly into natural substances. "

Consider 1080 getting consumed by a deer, how long would it take a deer carcass to decay ( a few weeks), and those feeding upon the carcass?

I vocalize my doubts, knowing how chemicals bioaccumulate/biomagnify up the food chain (reminded of the effects of DDT in the US, Silent Spring). Its misleading, encultured myth whatever you want to call it that 1080 will just disappear, it'll continue on to affect life elsewhere. DDT cotinues to be found in human tissue and food after years of its discontinued use.


Hunting dogs have died horrible convulsive deaths from consuming the chemicals. This is evidence of indiscriminate effects of 1080. But common sense entertains an extensive range of effects, for the fact, that nature is not a simple, isolated system (not close laboratory experiment), but rather complex, interrelated, interactive system.


[discussion cont in separate blog]


I note the quiet, and it didn't seem B&S wanted to confront the controversy further, and sign with, "conservation is a tricky issue." B& S laugh to the understatement.

----We transverse through breathtaking bush, towering kahikatea trees, moss hanging thick from their limbs.

I look at this beauty, and I feel at once awed and outraged, at the decisions of the federal custodians of this national heritage.

When I venture into Te Ure Wera I felt my spirit strenghthened and renewed from the ills of modern world. In many ways, it has proved to be medicine for me. For the Maoris living with Te Ure Wera forest, although the dependency has declined, they still obtain food and medicine from the forest. As it is one way for this Maorito engage with the land as their ancestors had, foraging for food and hunting is of special importance for the Tu Hoe today, as a nation struggling to keep alive old traditions and practices.

On my visit to Te Ure Wera affected by 1080 (an extensive tract), I felt wary and skeptical on spending days or venturing even out in the bush, knowing that I would have to rely on rivers (potentially affected by 1080) for source of water. The presence of 1080 changed my relationship to the forest. The Maoris have shared with me that since 1080 is use they no longer take their dogs hunting, and are discouraged from using medicinal plants, as research has shown that their medicinal plants also absorb 1080.

If someone travels on the treeless North Island, and able to see and experience Te Ure Wera, the last old growth of its kind, they would realize how unique and special it is. Actually on this planet, old growth in general is unique and special.

----- The river winds below in the plummet of the valley. The road continues like this for the next 90 km and then we are there, the legendary Lake Waikaremoana-sea of rippling waters.