Robert McLean
Walking with Rocks, Dreaming with Rivers: My year in the Waikato by Richard von Sturmer (Titus Books, 2023), 150pp, $38
The islands that would become Aotearoa New Zealand were the last habitable land masses to be settled by humans. And this newness of land remains palpable. In coastal Waikato you can almost feel the birth pangs squeezing the roiling damp life out of the earth as the reclaiming ocean seethes nearby. It is almost unbearably intense.
Inland are the towns Richard von Sturmer visited over the course of a year, and that he writes about in his travelogue Walking With Rocks, Dreaming With Rivers—Beeville, Morrinsville, Kihikihi, Taupiri, Putaruru, Kakepuku, Tokanui, Maniapoto, Tokahaere, Te Kūiti, Huntly and more. [Read more…]