Guide to Maori-related walks
It is always interesting to take a walk where there is a
story, and Peter Janssen is a master at helping people find
such walks.
Author of numerous guides to interesting sites, walks and
little-known attractions to visit around New Zealand, his
latest book is Exploring Aotearoa: Short walks to reveal
the Maori landscape (New Holland).
There are pa, battle sites, grave sites and natural features
associated with legends and ancestors from North Cape to
Stewart Island.
He gives a brief introduction, history and information about
how to get there, whether the track is easy or hard, and an
idea of the time it takes.
Not surprisingly there are more sites in the North, but in
Otago they include the Maerewhenua rock drawings near
Duntroon, Moeraki boulders, pa at Katiki Point, Huriawa and
Mapoutahi, as well as Puketapu, Mt Cargill, Mt Iron at
Wanaka, Queenstown Hill and Lake Hayes.
Recommended to pop in your pack or glovebox when on holiday
this summer.
- Charmian Smith
Josephine helps out
Josephine is the oldest restored steam locomotive in New
Zealand and the star of the new foyer at the Toitu Otago
Settlers Museum. And now she is also the star of a children's
book.
Josephine off the Rails, by Diane Miller, with
illustrations by Sheryl Macleod (Lifelogs) tells what happens
when Josephine meets a little lost dog and takes a trip to
help him find his family. It is guaranteed to delight young
fans of those TV stars Thomas and Chuggington.
They will like it all the more when they can visit the real
engine in all her glory.
- Janice Murphy
Useful primer
Safety in the Mountains' 75th anniversary is marked by
a colourful, compact and comprehensive revised 11th edition.
In its editor, Invercargill engineer Robin McNeill, the
publishers (the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand and
the FMC Forest and Mountain Trust) have chosen a figure
widely respected among the outdoor fraternity for his
knowledge, sense and clarity.
Illustrator Adele Jackson complements the text to make the
66-page book accessible and lively.
The book is, of course, no substitute for experience or, at
times, more detailed information.
Inevitably, you would be hard pushed, for example, to safely
cross a glacier and extract someone from a crevasse from
studying two pages of words and diagrams. Nevertheless, there
are useful primers - and many reminders - on topics like
navigation, river crossing, weather, wilderness medicine.
The book with its round corners and limited weight (148g) is
designed to be carried in the pack, and I can imagine
thumbing it productively during wet "pit" days or when
emergency strikes.
- Philip Somerville
Comprehensive rugby lists
In today's fast-paced life, there is sometimes no time to sit
down for a few hours and get through a book.
That is what is good about Gregor Paul's new book Top 10
of everything Rugby (Exisle). It can be picked up for
five minutes, then put down, many, many times.
Paul, who writes for the Herald on Sunday, explains
that he has always been a compulsive list writer.
Over the years he has built up quite a catalogue of lists and
through that the book was born.
Paul covers all the bases, and covers both good and bad of
the game, heroes and villains.
There are the obvious mentions and the more obscure.
This would be a good Christmas filler and a book that would
entertain the rugby fan.
- Steve Hepburn
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.