Month: March 2021

Northwest of us – about 15 kilometres – lies Komokoriki Hill Road. On the old maps that’s on the northern edge of the old Komokoriki Block.  We are on the very southern edge of this Block.  This area between the Ahuroa Block and the Wainui Block was bought by the Crown in 1862 from Ngati Rongo Chief Hemara Tauhia.  Ngati Rongo is a hapu of Ngati Whatua o Kaipara.  Hemara Tauhia and his iwi lived on the east coast, around the peninsula and headland of what is now, Wenderholm.   Tapu burial caves, now hidden are said to hold the sacred remains of the people who lived and died there, before the Pakeha.

Our land is towards the end of a small tributary that drains our valley into the upper reaches of the Waiwera River.  I’m not sure at what point we decided to call the farm Komokoriki Farm, but it may have been soon after we discovered this link to the original Komokoriki block.

You may or may not believe in ghosts or spirits. I have an open mind.  A few days after we moved into our new home here in 2014, I encountered a Maori warrior, dressed in traditional warrior attire in the hall.   Not a man as such, almost like a phantom.   He was walking towards me and disappeared.  In my surprise, I uttered “Tena Koe” … it happened so quick and he was gone so completely, that I hardly believed it, but the memory of it is vivid.

Maybe Hemara Tauhia still roams this Komokoriki Block of land, watching over it for his ancestors and descendants.

The map of the Komokoriki Block is from an historical report commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal (Barry Rigby, August 1998) entitled, “The Crown, Maori and Mahurangi 1840 – 1881”. (WAI 674 F001).

First post!  Big moment!  Rural ramblings – the good, the bad and the …. ordinary!

This morning our dark dawn chorus is richer in bird song again!  From bed I heard Rosellas harmonising their beautiful, lilting dong call.  Kingfishers were chatting and a Tui singing a virtuoso trill.  Grey Warblers twixing, Fantails flirting!  Later during milking and feedout on this beautiful sunny morning, I heard the wop wop wop of a Kereru flying over. I filter out the less popular calls – a magpie warbling on the bush edge, myna birds yakking, starlings skawking.  All this to a background of the chooks waking up and the chonk as they land from their high roost in the chook house, followed by persistent “feedme!” clucking.  A neighbour’s rooster crows down in the valley. One of the chooks laying early, struts out an egg song of achievement!  And almost all day now, the Grey Warblers warble on, tiny silver sparkles flitting in the manuka, keen to get mating underway for the season!

Back on planet Auckland, the region relaxes to Level One Lockdown restrictions and the most noticeable result here is an increase in overhead air traffic.  We are isolated and insulated from most of Auckland, but now the sky is busy again.  In this COVID mediated world, the commercial air traffic  massively reduced in Level Four last year and hasn’t recovered much. Even under Level Two and Three, the overhead passing small planes and helicopters virtually disappear too, except for occasional emergency rescue helicopters.  Back at Level One now, the ‘learning to fly’ Cessna group returns on the weekend too,  from the small airfields north and southwest of us.  They loop overhead, practicing their flight protocols.  I still hold my breath when they cut the engine to do a mid-air restart.  Count to 10, to 20, whew, the aircraft engine whirrs back into life and I’m relieved to hear it for once!