ASPECTS OF TRAVELLING IN EARLIER TIMES

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 58

ASPECTS OF TRAVELLING IN EARLIER TIMES

na Bill Secker

□ NGA RA 0 MUA

IN an age, when, what constitutes a good holiday for many folk is to clock up as many kilometers as possible while conducting a grand tour of New Zealand, it is a sobering thought of what travelling entailed in old Aotearoa, forms a gap in our knowledge of an aspect of life in not so remote times.

In olden times, there were two means available for parties travelling along the coastline and areas adjacent to the sea. These options available to travellers were walking along the shoreline with deviations inland at difficult headlands, promontories and rocky coasts and journeying by water. When viewed from this vista in time, both means had their shortcomings because of the varied nature presented by the terrain, the weather and sea conditions which handicapped to a varying extent swifter travelling by canoe.

Now if there is one outstanding feature that strikes overseas visitors to these shores and the observant, who in an increasingly urbanised society keep an affinity with nature, it is the varied scenery which our country offers. However in days gone by this changing scenery assumed another dimension for travellers. For to a civilization where beasts of burden and wheels were not available for the transportation of goods and people, an ever changing vista in the course of a day’s journey could throw up obstacles which often taxed the stamina of travellers to the limit. In certain areas canoes were in their

element. The numerous bays and harbours of the North Auckland peninsular, the rugged terrain presented by the Marlborough coastline from the mouth of the Wairau the Cape Koamaru at the northern tip of Arapawa Island, the deeply indented Marlborough Sounds which ruled out overland travel over most of the area, and the vast stretches that comprised the eastern and southern seaboards of the South Island, were districts where coastal voyaging held sway.

Because of the sea keeping limitations imposed by the design of the waka taua, voyaging by canoe had one disadvantage in that it was governed by the weather. These limitations imposed on travelling by canoe, meant that it was standard practice to follow the shoreline and not set a canoe for a distant landmark. In windier parts of the country and where the shoreline provided unimpeded progress for miles because of the existence of sandy beaches, much of the travelling was on foot. These conditions existed in the lower half of the North Island’s west coast where physical barriers placed in the path of the traveller were rivers to ford. Travelling by canoe however held the

great advantage in that a greater distance could be covered in a given time and what is more important a greater volume of goods and produce could be transported with less energy being spent.

Primitive as the old transport and communication system may appear in this day and age, it nevertheless worked for all the limitations imposed by the technology of the time.

This can be readily judged by the distribution of greenstone from its South Island sources, and the widespread presence of Mayor Island Obsidian - volcanic glass in ancient village rubbish heaps hundreds of miles away from where it was quarried.

However the point that needs to be taken into account when looking back into these earlier times, is that whether travelling away from the pa or kainga as done by walking or coastal voyaging, the two means of journeying were complementary to one another.

Although early missionaries, traders, naval and army officers and other persons of varying backgrounds have documented in their journals and published literary efforts aspects of travel in old New Zealand, there is still much that should be recorded.

Historical societies abound but little is done by these bodies to look into the subject of how earlier generations moved about their districts and record information on salient points of interest for a wider community.

The heyday of coastal voyaging by canoe is well captured in this scene drawn by C.F. Angus off the mouth of the Wairau. Cloudy Bay is a wide stretch of water but here we can see the coastal navigators of old keeping close to the shoreline instead of making a direct course from A-Z. The inshore canoe is sailing before the wind while the one in the foreground is heading into a swell. Under these conditions the steersman would keep the bow a few degrees from the wind so that the craft would slice through the water and avoid the tendency to roll. All the indications are that it will be a wet trip for the complement of the canoe heading into the sea.

In this part of the country overland travel was virtually out of the question because of the rugged nature of the Port Underwood Hills which extended from the Wairau to Tory Channel.

Nevertheless these were times of change for the Maori. Though the scene depicts a past era it was nevertheless the time when the traditional Maori sail plaited from indigenous material had

been replaced by a more durable article cut from duck. It is no doubt due to the early adop-

tion of duck for sail making which accounts for the dearth of the genuine article in our museums.