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Date Posted: 21:21:40 06/25/01 Mon
Author: Diane
Author Host/IP: 203.110.18.133
Subject: A book I finished reading yesterday that I feel like sharing.

A Canoe In The Mist
by Elsie Locke.

This is a childrens book but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Actually I wouldn't classify it as "for children" more, one of those books that transcends the boundaries and defies classification. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Based just outside of New Zealands most famous geothermal area of Rotorua sometime last century when travellers where coming here from as far afield as England to view the wonder of the beautiful pink and white terraces (one of the wonders of the world at the time). It is the story of various people (adult and child, white and native Maori) and their impressions of the terraces and surrounding areas immediately prior to the night of destruction when the nearby Tarawara mountain exploded in, what at first, was an amazing display but fast became a night of terror and devastation. When the world became too dark and noisy to see a light a few feet away or to hear the shouted words of the person beside you. When every step towards potential safety caused a foot to sink knee deep in volcanic mud from the bowels of the volcano as the inhabitants of the tourist village struggled through the darkness, the hurling rocks and mud, and the terrifying fireballs.

It is about friendships barely formed and then bonded into place by mutual support and the levelling of social considerations to the need for basic survival and waking to a dawn where there is no dawn, instead a world of total devastation where the first priority is to account for the living, the dead, and search for any other survivors.

It was especially evocative for me as I have visited the partially excavated village in question and been inside some of the dwellings, seen and touched artefacts but never breathed the atmosphere as I did while reading the book.

There were other villages as well, closer to the mountain, that were totally buried and never excavated - they and their residents will lie there for always.


This was just one of those books that keeps coming back to mind after finishing it. I have no idea if it can be bought overseas but if ever you want to gain a little insight into a part of New Zealands history, a little feel for the native people of this country perhaps, then this would be a great place for you (or your kids) to begin if you can get it.

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