Waitaha Pā and Journeys End
Life, I’ve found is full of ancient twists and philanthropian turns. It invades our sense of balance so that no stone is left unturned and every crook and cranny is visited. It’s like the Whanganui awa (river), serpentine and capably intrudes upon our careful placement of one’s feet on the river stones of sense and sensibilities. I love that about it now and the prior lesson of stone-stepping at Pipiriki isn’t lost on me either.
LIVE EVERYTHING
My point then, is to live everything. Why? So regret finds no small toe-hold in my memory to torment me later on in my life. And it means living the questions too, so that at least I know how I arrived at my answer. On the one hand, we’re capricious we humankind yet on the other, we still frame our questions to life badly.
It comes as no surprise to me then that we sometimes end up having to retrace our footsteps, if for no other reason, than to learn the life lesson. The life lesson is, I think, to LIVE not merely exist!
Not far from Whanganui city we stop and climb the hill to the Waitaha Pā site. I’m feeling tired and the taniwha thrashing about on my insides makes me feel sickeningly unwell. Nevertheless, I climb to the top of the ridge, appreciating the visceral choice of this Pā site with its sweeping views up the awa (river) toward the city and its proximity to a heavily bush-clad hill across the gully. A good alternative escape route by those original Pā builders.
It has a strong backbone this hill. I steel that sense into myself and hope for plenty of it for the days ahead. Indentations in the earth’s surface around the top have become grassed over across the years but there’s no mistaking there were middens (a mound or deposit that indicates the site of a human settlement) or some such thing there at one time. The taniwha within must be in its death throes. I feel horribly ill now.
I decide to come down off the hill. Over my shoulder, I see Craig is sprawled out in the sun, lizard-like, drinking it in. I pick my way down from the Pā top (traditionally this term refers to a Māori village or settlement). “In contemporary Western (especially archaeological) usage, it has come to refer to a Māori hill fort from the 17th-19th centuries, that was fortified with palisades and earthworks such as defensive terraces. Prior to the 1960s, any Māori settlement, fortified or not, might have been called a Pā.”
The descent is steeper than I think, so I opt for zig-zagging my way down. I find I can keep my footing and hold my own against the impending feeling I’m simply going to fall off the side of this hill. The feeling is unnerving. Part way down, I double over wanting to throw up. I stay crouched low to the ground, afraid if I do stand up I really will fall off the side of this hill! Fifteen minutes passes before I feel able to continue.
AN ODYSSEUS MAN
Once over the wooden sty, I make my way toward a row of trees. I sit gratefully in their shade, my arms and legs sticking out far enough to enjoy the warmth of the afternoon sun on them. I’m not there long before I see Craig emerge over the brow of the hill and make his way confidently down the hill face. This modern day Odysseus, a man of twists and turns.
Oddly, Steely Dan’s song, ‘Home at Last’ comes to mind, with its unnamed Odysseus figure as the narrator. We walk silently to the car, the both of us caught up in our own reverie. As the car moves off and with my head against the passenger car window, I feel the tiredness engulf me. I feel like I’m drowning in it.
When we cross the Dublin Street bridge heading back into the city, I whisper a silent heart-felt thank you to the awa (river) that has been our constant companion throughout this journey. Journeys are funny things, we think we choose them. We don’t.
We think we make our plans and to a greater or lesser extent perhaps we do. We think we choose our travelling companions but we don’t. The Journey chooses them for us. I wrote those thoughts on Day One, I believe them even more firmly now. The life lesson again, I think, is to LIVE not merely exist!
