Driving Miss Oopsie Daisy
According to Maori legend Maui had magical powers. One day when he was very young, Maui hid in the bottom of his brothers’ boat so he could go out fishing with them. Once out at sea, Maui was discovered but they weren’t able to take him back to shore as Maui had already made use of his magic powers. The shore line seemed much further away to the brothers than it really was, so taking him back was simply out of the question.
The brothers continued rowing and once they were far out into the ocean Maui dropped his magic fishhook over the side of the waka or canoe. After a while he felt a strong tug on the line. This seemed to be too strong a tug to be any ordinary fish so Maui called to his brothers for help. After much effort, and according to Maori mythology he landed Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui) known today as the North Island of New Zealand.
Maui told his brothers that the Gods might be angry about this, and he asked his brothers to wait while he went to make peace with the Gods. However, once Maui had gone his brothers began to argue among themselves about the possession of this new land. They took out their weapons and started pounding away at the catch. The blows on the land so the story goes created the many mountains and valleys of the North Island today.
It’s clear that Maui failed to tame the land since the Island’s topography supports the view that the fish was very badly chopped up! Flat bits are indeed, few and far between. The South Island is known as Te Waka a Maui (the waka of Maui) while Stewart Island, which lies at the very bottom of New Zealand is also known as Te Punga a Maui (Maui’s anchor) so named because it was the anchor holding Maui’s waka or canoe as he pulled in the giant fish.
North Island roads were originally constructed in sympathy with the landscape or more likely in capitulation to them. Measure the distance between any two points, and this will be significantly less than an odometer registers for the actual trip. In some countries it is possible to find roads that stretch out, straight and dead flat, to both horizons. Not here. Here it is possible to read the speed warning for the next corner on exiting the previous one.
Country towns are not very far apart and a lot of the local traffic travel at a stubbornly relaxed pace, that is, roughly 80% of the available speed limits. Interestingly, many drivers who steadfastly restrain themselves on the open road seem to find it difficult to slow their vehicles down to sufficiently meet the lower speed limit applying in built up areas.
I personally think this is because their brain has frozen and by the time you get within the 500 metre distance required by you to slow to the snail’s pace that is the built up area limit your brain has sufficiently frozen as to have completely misunderstood what the 70km followed within 20 (sometimes 10) metres by the 50km sign is actually legally requiring from you. Who puts those road signs up anyway? That’s rear end, real Miss Oopsie Daisy stuff that!
I was driving along Farm Road, heading east toward Blackhead Beach the other day and every time I passed an oncoming vehicle they did as they have always done round here since I was a kid. With their writing fore-finger they raise their finger in a cordial gesture of hullo. Road fellowship if you will. It’s actually both lovely and surprising all over again.
Sydney (where I lived for 27 years until 11 months ago) was an aggressive driving city, full of impatient, bird flipping (the third finger on either hand thrust upward in a distinctly vehement or up yours manner!) and may or may not have gone on to resemble or end up as actual road rage. It could be daunting if you let it be. Driving is actually pleasurable here, driving out Farm Road that day reminded me of just how lovely that could be.
