Mokau River Holds Stories of Past

Imagine a rainforest that has hardly changed since dinosaurs knew it. Research scientist Geoff Park wrote about this forest in a book called Nga Uruora -The Groves of Life. The forest is at The Riverbend, Tauwhare and the river is the Mokau.

The Cygnet: These days the boat takes tourists up the river, but in its past life the vessel was a lifeline to people living on the banks of the upper Mokau.

Geoff says that a forest like this one makes human time seem like dust on a rock.

 "In there the trees are like towers. It is dark, wet and anything more than a few metres away is invisible."

Tauwhare is one of New Zealand's most precious forests. It has stood tall while the people on the river banks have come and gone. This week's story is about some of those people.

Rewind to the Mokau River's past

1. Maori travellers once used the Mokau River as a highway to the south.

2. Deep seams of coal could once be seen from the river.

3. Ships of the past sailed a long way up the Mokau quite easily, if they made it safely across the bar.

4. A bridge had been built across the Mokau River by the time cars came on the scene.

5. Mokau people have always enjoyed eating whitebait but the tiny fish have always been difficult to catch.

Click here to see the answers.

River highways

This week's story tells us the Mokau River was as busy as a road in the early years of last century and Maori people had travelled along this river for many years before that. The Mokau is the only river in New Zealand to be officially called a highway.

New Zealand has a lot of rivers and Maori used them to travel long distances. When the river turned the wrong way or became too shallow they just picked up their waka and carried it along a track to the next river. They could travel like this all the way from the shores of the Manukau harbour in Auckland, to Mokau in the north of Taranaki.

They paddled along the Tai-hiki River until they ran out of water and then carried their waka to the mighty Waikato.  At Ngaruawahia they turned into the Wai-pa River and then followed a short track to the Mokau.

Check out this map and see if you can name the rivers to match the journey above.

Click on this map to see how far this journey was. Which towns would we go through if we travelled by road today?

The Mokau begins

If you drive to Taupo or Rotorua from Taranaki you might go through a town called Bennydale. The Mokau River begins near here.

It bubbles up as a spring in the Pureora Forest and from there it weaves it's way north-westwards to Eight-Mile Junction. The river then turns mostly south- westward and through the Waitomo district before heading for the sea at Mokau.

You can follow the Mokau from its source by clicking on two of the regions on the site below. Work out which two. Here's the site.

Word wise?

All the words and phrases below are in this week's story. Choose (a) or (b) to show the best meaning and then check your answers when you read the story.

1. reviving bush (a) bush that is growing back to how it once was or (b) very rugged bush.

2. treacherous (a) hazardous and dangerous or (b) mean and nasty.

3. exploitation (a) cheating another person to make money or (b) using natural resources like coal and timber to make money.

4. fortunes (a) money and things owned or (b)success that comes in part from luck.

5. the coalmine floundered (a) collapsed or (b) didn't go ahead and make a profit.

6. flying fox (a) an animal a bit like a bat or (b) something that runs on a wire and can carry people across obstacles.

7. precarious (a) weird or (b) risky

8. boon (a) benefit or (b) unusual thing

9. millinery classes (a) where you learn to make hats (a) where you learn to bake bread and make pastries.

10. reminisce (a) remembering the "olden days" or (b) thinking  and talking about the "good old times".

Click here to see the answers.

Read on

Begin the story now by reading the introduction. Read the second paragraph carefully because it describes this river really well. Here's the story.

A poem for the Mokau

Write a haiku poem to describe the Mokau River. The haiku is a traditional Japanese poem and it's short. Most of them have only three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second seven and the third line has five. Good haiku poems surprise the reader in the way they describe everyday things. Here's one:

Breaking the silence

Of an ancient pond

A frog jumps into the water

A curse on the river?

Read the part of the story that begins with the heading "Mystery trip upstream."

Ian Whitaker helps run the Tainui Historic Society Museum at Mokau. He says there is a saying that nothing Pakeha will prosper on the river. He thinks it comes from a time when Pakeha mined coal on the banks of the Mokau and asked permission from some but not all, Maori.

What if you were Irene Sutton heading up the river in the 1920s and you knew all about this saying? Jot down what you think Irene might have said to her Dad. Write down what her father might have said in reply. Share your ideas with a classmate.

Log jam!

Read "Hive of industry" and find out how many different types of industries were operating along the Mokau.

If you were an investor at the start of the new century which of the industries would you pour money into? (An investor puts his or her own money into an industry to help it grow. He or she can then take a share of the profits.)

Pair up with a classmate, discuss your choices and then as a pair solve this problem:

One of the reasons for Mokau River industries failing was that the river was so difficult to navigate by ship.

Transport costs were high because even little steamers had to wait for the high tide to cross the bar. They then had to get up the river, pick up their cargo and get back again before the tide got too low and this was almost impossible. There were log jams and slips to get around and snags in the river.

What if today's technology was around then? How would you solve this problem so that your business could make a tidy profit?

People of the Mokau

Read the next four parts of the story now, through to "Battle for a bridge" and then try these quick fire activities. Think, pair and then share your ideas with a classmate.

Wieland Christoffel had a timber mill and a coal mine. Rank their chances for success on a one to five scale. One means no chance for success while five means a high chance for success.

The story says that going to university "was a rare occurrence for women in those days." What then did most women do then when they left school? It was the beginning of the 1930s- before World War 11. You decide and then talk to an older person some time and find out.

You could say that Wieland Christoffel was an ideas man. Find three pieces of evidence in the part of the story you have just read.

Battle for a bridge

Read this part of the story and then write the telegram that Irene might have sent to the Minister of Transport requesting a visit. Telegrams were a quick way of sending a message. They were short because the sender had to pay for every word and only the words that were really necessary were used. Telegrams were popular in the days before email because urgent messages could be sent quite quickly. Perhaps Irene may have sent one to the Minister after a really hair-raising ride on the trolley!

Early starts?

Finish the story now and work out how long it would have taken for Irene to get to Mackford  School each morning. If school started at 9 o'clock, what time would she have left home?

Buy this!

What if you were an electrical goods salesperson from New Plymouth when electricity came to the river folk for the first time. What would you load in your boat to take up the river. Work it out with a classmate and make a list.

The river folk might be a little suspicious of your new fangled gadgets. Work out what you would say to sell each item. Practice in pairs taking turns at being the seller and the possible buyer.

Fast forward

Tourists have been able to cruise up the river on the Cygnet for some time now. It's the same old creamboat that Irene and her father travelled on when they first came to the Mokau River. Now the owners, Grant and Pauline Taylor, have another boat for the Mokau. It's the Kingfisher and it will be cruising on the river by October.

A third cruise boat has arrived on the river too. It's the Glen Royal owned by Mokau local Ian Whittaker. It's the biggest craft to cross the Mokau Bar in 50 years and it can carry 86 passengers.

Both Mr Whittaker and the Taylors hope there will be enough business to support all three vessels but at this stage they just don't know.

What if you owned one of these river cruise businesses? What would you do to make your cruise just that little bit different. You might have to cater for a different type of tourist than your competitor. Your cruises for example might be for the adventure market.

Get together in a group of three and four and write a business plan. Don't forget to add in things like marketing ideas and extra equipment you will need to buy. Think about all the things that are up the river. These may become part of your very special experiences.

Share your plans in class and decide which is most likely to work.

Answers

Rewind

1. True

2. True

3. False. Ships had trouble sailing up this river. There were often snags and slips from the steep river banks. They could get quite a long way up at high tide but they had to get back before the tide turned.

4. False. Cars used to get across the river on a barge.

5. False. People say that in the old days there were so many whitebait, they got tired of eating them. Whitebait were even fed to the chooks!

Click to go back to the questions.

Word wise?

 1a, 2a, 3b,4a or b, 5b, 6b, 7b, 8a, 9a, 10b.

Click to go back to the questions.