>Jackie wrote, > >I find the Maori's keen sense of navigation fascinating. > >Either that or they are some of the luckiest people in > >navigation. Or, a whole bunch didn't make it > >[Peter] > Re Maori's. maybe all Jackies alternatives contributed. But > presumably >whether luck or knowledge played the greater part would partly depend on >whether Maori's came from the America's or Asia. No doubt they came from the Cook Island area. > Thor Heyerdahl's theories >aren't widely supported any more and the longest open water distance between >Australia and Europe via Asia and/or the South Sea islands is about 100nm >(if I read the maps correctly). Forget Australia. >That last stretch to New Zealand? I don't >think any modern paddler has achieved it! Paul Caffyn was going to do it but the Australain authorities didn't want hm to. >But Maori and South Pacific >peoples seem to have been solidly built giving them the capacity for long >voyages. Helps a lot. What everyone seems to be forgetting is that if you look up you'll see the planes flying south so something must be there. Air NZ has a godwit on the tail of their planes. In those days the godwit without the jet engines flew south each spring and north again in the autumn. Lots of migrating birds going somewhere for their summer holidays - looks a good place to go, nice beaches and possibly not too many people as was happening at home (too many people) so they sailed south. One story has it that a voyage out of NZ go as far south as the ice. They didn't paddle, they sailed so that helped a bit too. And yes, you don't hear about the ones that didn't make it. Just found a bit in the history of Banks Peninsula by Gordon Ogilvie of 6 Maori out fishing off the coast who got blown out to sea by a nor'wester that sprang up - they blow HARD. So they vanished never to be seen again. However there is a story in the Chatham Islands of 6 Maori who turned up and originated from Banks Peninsula. In those days letters took a long time (100 200 years?) to deliver and no one had taught them to write (oral history) so the two events have only recently been connected. Alex . . *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Feb 28 2002 - 12:14:04 PST
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