The lyrics are from the song ‘Kingfisher Come Home’, which I wrote for Charlotte Yates, and the words were first referenced in my short story ‘Halycon’, Te Ao Hou magazine, 1971. The song was one of twelve original lyrics put to music by well-known New Zealand singer-composers and premiered in Ihimaera at the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival.
Lyrics quoted from ‘Home and Away Theme’, words and music by Mike Perjanik, are quoted courtesy of Mike Perjanik Productions Pty Ltd.
Red is the English translation of the Maori name, Whero.
The story itself goes all the way back to my 1950s childhood when, as a boy living on a farm, I would write stories on my bedroom wall at night. Most were about being the captain of a spaceship or submarine, and one of them was accompanied by a small pictograph: the lassoing of an iceberg and towing it to a base in the fiords of New Zealand. Fast-forward to 2011 and the bones of the story are still there, a genre piece of science fiction-fantasy, mixed up with the effects of global warming.
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) is one of the world’s greatest novels. As well as giving the white whale’s name to the giant phantom iceberg, I have used chapter headings from the novel and extracts from it are featured in the story.
Readers will note the reference to Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World, Chatto & Windus Ltd, London, 1922. There’s a passage in the book that has always haunted me:
‘Our problems are not new: they are as old as the men who hunted the prehistoric hills. When they hit one another on the head with stones the matter was confined to a few caves: now it shakes a crowded world more complicated than any watch. Human nature does not change: it becomes more dangerous. Those who guide the world now may think they are doing quite welclass="underline" so perhaps did the dodo.’
And Cherry-Garrard wrote this ninety years ago.
For those interested, a US patent (6616376 — Bagging Icebergs) was issued to Richard Fuerle, on 9 September 2003, covering a method and apparatus for bagging an iceberg. One edge of a large, flexible, waterproof bag, with floats at the open end and a drain at the bottom, is sunk and drawn under an iceberg by a ship. When that edge is refloated, the iceberg is inside the bag. The edges of the bag are tied over the iceberg and salt water is pumped out of the bag from the drain. As the iceberg melts, the bag fills with fresh water and can be pulled by the ship to where the fresh water is needed. The water can then be pumped out of the bag through the drain.
The only story in this collection to have been published before, ‘Orbis Terrarium’ is the result of a commission from Italian editor Marco Sonzogni for a story for Second Violins (2008). New Zealand authors were given introductory paragraphs from unfinished stories by the great Katherine Mansfield and invited to use the paragraphs for the creation of their own stories. In my case, I had just returned from a trip to the Galapagos Islands, where I had fulfilled one of my great ambitions: to look into the eyes of the oldest living creatures in the world, the giant tortoises of the Galapagos.
The first paragraph is from Mansfield’s unfinished ‘Such a Sweet Old Lady’, 1923.
I have set the story in April 1982, the centennial month and year of Charles Darwin’s death.
I decided to write this novella to commemorate the latest Transit of Venus, in June 2012, and the special conference and celebrations held in Uawa. The spelling of Tupaea is the Maori one. In Tahiti he is called Tupaia. Other sources call him Tupia.
‘A hee mai te tua …’: this version of the origin of ’Oro was dictated in 1840 by Tamara of Tahiti and Pati’i of Mo’orea, as cited in Donald S. Oliver, Ancient Tahitian Society, Vol 2: Social Relations, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974. It is the source of most of the information about ’Oro and the Arioi.
Other works consulted were J.C. Beaglehole (ed.), The Journals of Captain James Cook, Vol I: The Voyage of the Endeavour, 1768–1771, Cambridge University Press, 1955; Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter H. Buck), Explorers of the Pacific: European and American Discoveries in Polynesia, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Hawai’i, 1953; Captain Cook in New Zealand: Extracts from the Journals, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1951; Alistair Maclean, Captain Cook, Collins, 1972; Sir James Watt, ‘Medical Aspects and Consequences of Cook’s Voyages’, in Captain James Cook and His Times, Robin Fisher and Hugh Johnston (eds), Douglas & McIntyre Ltd, 1979, pp. 138, 140; Alex Calder, Jonathan Lamb and Bridget Orr, Voyages and Beaches: Pacific Encounters, 1769–1840, University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. Joan Druett’s Tupaia (Random House, 2011) was also consulted and is an excellent biography for those seeking further information.
When the ships of James Cook’s second expedition arrived in New Zealand, Maori clamoured for Tupaea. The news that he had died was received first with disbelief, and then with deep mourning. ‘Aue, Tupaea!’ James Cook himself acknowledged the topic when he visited Queen Charlotte Sound. Here are extracts from his journal of 4 June:
One of the first questions these strangers asked was for Tupia: and when I told them he was dead, one or two expressed their sorrow by a kind of lamentation, which to me appeared more formal than real … It may be asked, if these people had never seen the Endeavour, nor any of her crew, how could they become acquainted with the name of Tupia, or have in their possession (which many of them had) such articles as they could only have got from that ship? To this may be answered that the name of Tupia was so popular among them when the Endeavour was here, that it would be no wonder if, at this time, it was known over great part of New Zealand, and as familiar to those who never saw him as to those who did. Had ships of any other nation whatever arrived here, they would have equally inquired of them for Tupia …
In New Zealand, ’Oro is comparable to Rongo, God of Agriculture, and also to Koro, patron of dance and desire.
As always, grateful thanks to my publisher, Harriet Allan, and the staff at Random House New Zealand, and to Anna Rogers, my editor, for our collaboration and her advice and work. Thanks also to Ray Richards, my agent, my employer Manukau Institute of Technology, and the New Zealand Arts Foundation for a grant in 2009 which enabled me to write The Thrill of Falling.
About the Author
Witi Ihimaera has written thirteen novels, among them The Whale Rider in 1987, and six collections of short stories and works for children. His last novel was The Parihaka Woman in 2011, and The Thrill of Falling is his seventh short story collection.
Ihimaera has also had careers in teaching, theatre, opera, film and television. His work was set to music by well-known contemporary musicians in Ihimaera, commissioned for the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival. His words for Kaitiaki, composed by Gareth Farr, were presented at a Beethoven concert by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in September of the same year. He has travelled extensively, most recently to festivals and conferences in Britain, Germany and New Caledonia.