April 4th 2023: Way back when ...

I've been working on a fascinating project recently that has involved me looking way back in time to what New Zealand might have been like when the first people arrived from the Pacific, way before Europeans started to visit these shores.

It's one of those projects that really tugs at the imagination strings, with some almost unbelievable scenarios that reveal themselves to be deeply rooted in fact. One that really makes my head spin is the description of the dense forest and large podocarp trees that dominated our northern coastline from Purakaunui to the Otago Harbour, and no doubt beyond in many places.

In the 1998 publication Te Pari Rehu: The Misty Cliffs, published by the Long Beach Amenities Society, authors Stan Durry and Dawn Paterson describe the "dense forest" with large trees and evergreen leaves, and an understory of thick scrub that persisted across the coastline in the 1850s. They describe it as being "alive" with native birds – well before the imported birds "trespassed on their solitudes".

They continue to describe the order of appearance of the stars in a dawn chorus: the kaka is first to wake, then the bellbird, then the miromiro, the tieke (saddleback), then the kokako would join in and then the piwakawaka and finally the kereru would bring its dulcet soothing coos.

And so, to illustrate this, I found myself last week bumbling around in the lowlight of a Catlins forest in search of a dawn chorus to record and imagery to capture the feeling of what we might have had along our coastline less than 200 years ago. Once you see the land through this lens it really opens your mind to what we might have had. It also helps to cast some light on what we could have in the future. Looking backward to look forward.

Certainly I feel grateful we still have places like the Catlins to immerse ourselves in.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS This week we have the South Island Surfing Championships taking place in town from Good Friday to Easter Monday. There is a pretty good swell due for Friday and Saturday with favourable winds for St Clair and Blackhead and then the tail of the event will see a small pulse of north swell that should ideally see the remainder of the event held at Blackhead. You can check the latest forecast here. Keep an eye out for the influx of surfers. Back in December we estimated that this event is worth about $300,000 to the Dunedin community. You can read that story here.