Jeremy Baker

Waitangi, Rēkohu

Waitangi is the main settlement of Rēkohu (Chatham Island / Wharekauri).

Hotel Chatham is the centre of all visitor activity. It's the main accomodation, and only restaurant and bar on the islands.

Hotel Chatham

The Waitangi Store is the main grocery and supply store. Given the island’s population of 600, it's not large. It seems many people import their own goods directly.

Waitangi Store

Small towns make for interesting combinations. They also tell Sam’s life story (but not necessarily in that order…)

Combinations and Sam's Biography

The petrol station and hardware store:

hardware store and petrol station

Rēkohu and Rangihaute visit (5-8 February 2021)

A group of friends and I visited Rēkohu (Chatham Island) and Rangihaute (Pitt Island) over Aotearoa New Zealand’s Waitangi weekend (5-8 February 2021). These islands are the most remote part of Aotearoa, 800km east of Te Waipounamu (South Island).

The islands boast stunning natural landscapes of considerably diversity, while their cultural history is equally diverse, tragic and fascinating. Ancestral home of the Moriori, famous for their pacifist culture, rākau momori (dendroglyph tree carvings), and sadly the devastating impact of contact and colonisation by both Europeans and mainland Māori.

In the next few posts I’ll put up pictures of our trip, but I wanted to provide some context for what was a truly fascinating experience.

Below is a picture of the western coast of Rēkohu, north of the main settlement of Waitangi.

West coast of Rēkohu

"The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in the Late Iron Age Scandinavia"

Neil Price (Oxbow Books 2013), 2nd Edition, 432 pages, hardback.

I have waited for this book for years - and now its here! What a tome. . .

mbnov

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Landscape and Memory" by Simon Schama made a huge impression on me when it first came out in 1995. It still resonates today. A masterwork of history and sociology. #mbnov

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This book pretty much is everything about me at the moment … #books #sheep #history #life #work #farming

Community housing, Wellington City Council.

Delighted that this has been fully renovated.

A new book 📚 for the new library 📚 from a new bookshop 📚 #library #books #wellingtonnz #bookshop #nzbooks #nzbookshopday2020 @goodbookshopnz

"The Madman's Library" - The strangest books, manuscripts and other literary curiosities from history (Edward Brooke-Hitching, 2020)

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“The Burning of Books - A History of Knowledge Under Attack” 📚 (John Murray 2020)

Attacks on knowledge and its importance are increasingly notable. Such attacks have a long history, and this book explores that history, and its continuing relevance.

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Work - a history of how we spend out time

James Suzman’s new book 📚 “Work - a history of how we spend out time” is a fascinating and thought-provoking review of the long run history of work and the impact of agriculture and industrialisation. It highlights the opportunity, in a world of increasing automation, to transform how we organise our lives and economies to support ourselves and each other. As John Maynard Keynes thought:

by 2030, capital accumulation, improvements in productivity and technological advances would have solved the “economic problem” and ushered in an age in which no one besides a few “purposive moneymakers” worked more than 15 hours in a week

We now have a chance to turn that prediction into reality.

Read more: The 300,000-year case for the 15-hour week – Finanz.dk

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Just started reading: Alaric the Goth by Douglas Boin 📚

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Currently reading: Laughing Shall I Die by Tom Shippey 📚

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Currently reading: The making of the ancient Greek economy by Alain Bresson 📚

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The Children of Ash and Elm (Neil Price 2020)

Every now and then a history book comes along that helps you think about the past in entirely new ways.

This new history of the Vikings by Uppsala University archaeologist Neil Price does just that. 📚

See: Kirkus Reviews

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IMG 8916

Wreck of the Hydrabad

Exposed elements of the wreck of the Hydrabad Waitarere Beach

Maritime Archeaology Association of NZ investigation

1956 photographs of the wreck

Bill visits the wreck of the Hydrabad

We went for a walk up the Hokio / Waitarere beach in search of the whale burial site, and couldn’t see anything, but visited the site of the Hydrabad wreck instead:

See Wreck of the Hydrabad

“The Making of the Middle Sea”

New book 📚- “The Making of the Middle Sea” A history of the Mediterranean from the beginning to the emergence of the Classical World. (Cyprian Broodbank, Oxford, 2013)

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Arrowtown Library

Arrowtown Library 📚 #library #books #heritage #otago #aotearoa #winterpridenz #travel

Now I just need someone to play it with

“Lex Arcana” - alternative Roman history RPG

Couldn't help myself . . .

New book: Creators, Conquerors, & Citizens

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Five types of gun laws the Founding Fathers loved

Fascinating: theconversation.com/five-type…

A little bit of history . . .

An oral history of the world’s first gay rugby match -  thewireless.co.nz/articles/…

Story of the Krazy Knights - New Zealand’s first gay rugby team.

Krazy Knights team

Dean Knight fifth from right in main pic (curly hair, smiling).

Alan Wendt sixth from right in main pic (scowling).

Grant Robertson bottom left in main pic.

Jeremy Baker sixth from left in main pic.

Harp Harding third from right in main pic.

James Kolose second from right in Ponsonby team pic.

Gavin Hyde far left in NZ Falcons team pic.

A good book in a great spot

A good book in a great spot #hokiosummer #underthetrees #shade #books #relaxation #warmday

Atlas of Winchester from 350AD to 1800

One of the most amazing things I’ve ever owned - atlas of Winchester from 350AD to 1800.

Spectacular.

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Atlas of Winchester Site

 

 

Freddy Flea @ Federal Deli

It seems that the Spanish government is doing all it can to ensure Catalan independence: twitter.com/CatalansF…