a  pipe ruptures

in the water surge

the floor becomes a shallow pool slowly filling with water

time is now measured in damage

at the high tide of the door sill it spills over

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

 

sheer

 

 

curtain

 

 

 

 

slipping

 

 

 

over

 

the

edge

hair tied in a topknot

long fluted tongue extruding from the mouth

a muscled abdomen

and

from the waist down

a long serpentine tail coiled in counterpoint to the tongue

 

half human!

half taniwha!

 

My brother wore it, he said the cord was so long that it used to bounce off his chest and hit him in the face when he ran. Bone on teeth.

 

He wore it all the time until the cord was tight, and all the details wore off.

 

Losing his muscles, his eyes and his moko, the marakihau became a smooth surface, his features absorbed and erased by clothes and skin.

Last year, when I went home to visit, my brother gave me a pakohe adze head mounted in a frame. He had been given the toki after our grandfather passed away. I was supposed to fix the frame for him but I haven’t got around to it yet.

 

Flying back to Waiharakeke I look down at the Wairau bar: the beginning of the Rangitāne o Wairau rohe, the place where the Wairau river meets the sea, the site of the earliest human artifacts found in Aotearoa. I realise I have never been.

 

This is where the adze head came from. How our grandfather came to have it I’m not sure, I believe it was a gift from the marlborough historic association where he was a member.

 

My brother and I drive out, we see Te Ika-a-Māui, we see people pole fishing, we see the point where the river meets the sea.

I’ve seen a whirlywind before, but nothing like:

 

 

Up-close footage of a Waterspout Tornado

 

Terrigal strange whirlwind on the ocean

 

Strange Horizontal Waterspout Filmed in the Black Sea

 

Beautifully Terrifying: Twin Water Spouts Blow Across The Ocean!

 

UFO Caught Sucking Water From The Ocean in Bizarre Footage

 

 

Mine were smaller, a mist of water spinning, rushing past the knobbies, knocking into Whanganui Bay. More unstable, falling apart easily.

Oriental Bay’s beaches are artificial of course, the first lot of sand dumped there was the ballast of a ship. Over time it became filthy, absorbing the muck of the harbour, blowing across the water. At one point the beaches were rebuilt with more ballast sand, this time hailing from Bristol, it also eventually washed into the harbour.

 

26,000 tonnes of golden sand from Wainui Bay was bought in 2003, heavier than the Bristol grade and golden rather than gray. Purchased from a private landholder, it was brought across the Strait in barges and dumped on top of what was left of the previous.

 

The beaches remain unstable. The sand must be replenished routinely as it continues to return to the sea.

(Me) With a paring knife in hand

Picking lettuce for a salad to go with dinner

Bob says:

 

!

Don’t be careless with a knife.

The first rule of being a butcher is to always keep your blade pointed to the ground.