Long Flat Bottom, Kaitaia

Sabrina picked me up in their '67 Mercedes on Saturday morning, February 19, in front of the Kaitaia library. We meandered through the farmer's market long enough to chat with Sabrina's friend Lisa and to purchase a huge jar of honey, 5 kilos of mandarins, and some ears of sweet corn. Then a quick stop at the PakNSave for butter and juiceboxes for the girls' (Nina, 6, and Pepita, 4) lunches, and a chat with Jade, the cashier, about which 1st grade teachers were nice. Jade, the semiprecious stone, is called greenstone here - the Maoris used it to make axes when they first came to New Zealand hundreds of years ago.
After the PakNSave we headed south on Matthews Avenue with bluegrass on the radio and New Zealand's lovely green hills on either side. Long Flat Bottom is on the Takahue River just up Takahue Road. I liked it so much that I stayed a record three weeks. Pete and his friends built the house, also rammed earth like Graeme and Dora's, but at Long Flat Bottom two of the four outside walls are 50% window doors that open wide every day so you almost forget which is inside and which is out. There is always heaps to do, but everyone finds their own pace of work, and what needs to get done gets done. I spent my time weeding the tomato patch; experimenting with feverview and comfrey infusions (like tea - the feverview was supposed to keep bugs away, and comfrey is great fertilizer); picking green sheet beetles off the mustard plants (a mustard crop, by the way, is a great soil cleanser); watering the avocado trees; visiting the Kaitaia Museum and the library; going for a swim in the river in the afternoon; harvesting lemon grass and lemon balm (dried to make tea in the winter - now there's a beautiful-smelling task!); listening to Barry, Pete and Sabrina's neighbor, play the accordion when he came for dinner on Wednesdays; making pesto and bread; picking blackberries; reading books to Pepita; gathering lupin seeds; harvesting and sorting potatoes; talking with Pete and Sabrina about dreams and permaculture. Nearly every morning or evening, when the sun wasn't so hot, Sabrina and I spent an hour or two in the potato field with a pitchfork and buckets, unearthing the most beautiful purple and white potatoes. They were Maori potatoes, waxy and yellow inside, with a lovely flavor.
While I was at Long Flat Bottom, Nina started her Kapa Haka rehearsals. Kapa Haka, to the best of my understanding, is a Maori tradition of songs and war chants. Most children learn a few kapa haka songs in school, and at Nina's school in Kaitaia, students have an opportunity to learn it more intensively. One of the teachers at Nina's school, who is Pakeha (European descended), composes the songs with a woman who is Maori (I think she writes the words - all in Maori - and he the music). The group of kapa haka students rehearses every fortnight for an entire weekend in the marae (the Maori community hall used for things like formal gatherings, funerals, family reunions, etc.) until June, when the regional competitions are held. (Last year Nina's school won the regional competition and went to nationals.) Usually visitors are not invited into the marae, but I was lucky enough to be part of Nina's family for three weeks, so I went there with Sabrina on Friday night to say goodnight to Nina. Imagine walking into a wide open room with a huge ceiling, mattresses all over the wooden floor, girls on one side, boys on the other. 80 children are singing, a simple, hauntingly beautiful song with harmony from the girls. It filled the room and gave me goose bumps. On Saturday I got to watch some rehearsal, and on Sunday the practice performance, so I learned the melody to a couple songs. Now all I have to do is learn the words....
When I grow up I will have a river flat, with window-doors on at least two sides of the house and a river I can walk to for swimming in the hot afternoons and bathing in the evening after the tomatoes are watered and the potatoes have been dug. After dinner I will make tea from the mint that is growing outside my kitchen window and sit on the porch with my cat and look at the stars.