Sorry for the short absence. Some health issues needed to be dealt with. They have been, successfully.

This “episode” is essentially a shout-out to our Auckland tour guide, Sofire. Unlike my other pictures, these are not for sale. I just wanted to use this forum to thank her again.

Sofire is an extremely knowledgeable and amiable woman who made it feel as though we were being brought into her circle rather than listening to a canned lecture. There were relevant personal anecdotes, a clear explanation of life for the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, and while driving as well as at the various stops, she gave us a good understanding of recent and current events in New Zealand and their significance.

Here, she is explaining about the medicinal values of ferns in Maori life.

In these two, she was displaying the strength and weaving techniques of this prolific plant. She would simply tear along the grain of the leaf and then cut it with a knife because it is too strong to rip across. The baskets that are woven from this hemp last for years. The leaves will also make extremely durable clothing when trimmed into threads.

So many things that were deemed primitive by the Europeans were the cornerstones of the Polynesian culture that reached from the northernmost Hawaiian Islands all the way down to New Zealand. From medicine to navigation to agriculture, the Maori, and the Polynesian culture are coming to be understood to be not “tribes”, but a truly advanced civilization.