Page 48 - Damianos Sotheby's International Realty Magazine Vol. 3

PASSPORT NEW ZEALAND
“ You are a seed. Even though you are small, you have value."
Then there was the tree itself: 3,000 years old, 52 feet/16 metres around and
as wise and silent as a vast monk. The Maori believe that the giant trunks of the Kauri trees hold up the sky and, indeed, Te Matua Ngahere gleamed like a temple. We watched and waited in silence as the rain filtered through the ferns.
Bianca Ranson started her company, Potiki Adventures, in 2004, partly because “I was having trouble finding work that allowed me to live my values as a Maori person,” she told me as she introduced me to Waiheke Island just off the capital of Auckland. After a five-year high school unit of total-immersion Maori and a fur- ther year in an intensive Maori outdoor-skills course, Ranson decided she wanted to work with young Maori to reacquaint them with aspects of traditional culture.
A benefactor suggested she also give visitors a taste of New Zealand from a Maori perspective. Many awards later, she is still imparting Maori traditions to Maori youth and giving Pakeha hands-on experience of Maori activities, perspec- tives and spirituality. Guests stay in the Marae, a traditional ancestral meeting house, visit historical pa (power) sites and participate in activities such as flax- weaving, poi-making and mau rakau (martial arts).
“The name for afterbirth in Maori is whenua,” Ranson said in a TEDx Waiheke presentation. “The name for land is [also] whenua. It shows the direct connection between us and the land.”
In fact, according to traditional Maori belief, the land was Papatuanuku, the earth mother; Ranginui was the sky father. In the beginning, “Papa and Rangi” weren’t separated but clung tightly together, shutting out all light and making it impossible for their six sons to see. The sons squabbled among themselves about how they might separate their parents. Finally, Tane Mahuta, Lord of the Forest, New Zea- land’s largest known living Kauri tree, braced his head against the earth and pushed mightily against the sky with his feet until the two parents were pushed far apart, light flooded in and the humans they had parented were revealed.
Tane Mahuta still dwells in Waipoua Forest, and I was on my way to meet him.
After Matthews and I offered a final prayer to Te Matua Ngahere, we followed the forest path in silence until he asked me to stop once again while he chanted a greeting. Ahead, Tane Mahuta stood in a clearing. Standing at nearly 170 feet/
52 metres and with his head lost in the night sky, he wasn’t hard to imagine as
an ancient creative force. Although the rain had stopped, the forest was quiet. Matthews drew a piece of hardened resin from his pocket and lit it with a lighter while he said another prayer. The forest seemed to let out a sigh as Matthews extinguished the smoldering resin and handed it to me. But he had one more gift. He leaned over, felt the ground for a kauri seed and presented it to me with a tra- ditional ancient Maori message: “You are a seed. Even though you are small, you have value.”
GETTING THERE
FLY
Air New Zealand
airnewzealand.ca
WHERE TO STAY
Copthorne Hotel and Resort Hokianga
millenniumhotels.com/en/hokianga/ copthorne-hotel-and-resort-hokianga
Hotel Debrett (Auckland)
reservations.com/hotel/hotel-debrett
MAORI ADVENTURES
Footprints Waipoua
footprintswaipoua.co.nz
Potiki Adventures
potikiadventures.co.nz
BRIEF YOURSELF
newzealand.com/int/maori-culture
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Photo: David Wall