Lake Taupo is a popular
destination for sailors.
BELOW Carver Delani
Brown in his workshop.
Bottom A Ma ̄ori rock
carving at Mine Bay,
accessible only by boat
To drive the North Island is to encounter signposts that
tell the story of New Zealand, a curious mix of towns
named by homesick Scots and Englishmen – Hamilton,
Hastings, Cambridge, New Plymouth – and sing-song
Ma ̄ori villages: Matamata, Whatawhata, Mangatangi.
From Waitomo Caves, the road to Lake Taupo turns
southeast onto State Highway 30. It rolls over concertina-
creased hills and livestock grids into the North Island’s
agricultural heartland, dewy and green with vegetation.
Soon overtaken by volcanic ridges and treeless
mountaintops, the road emerges at Lake Taupo, one of the
grandest waterbodies in the southern hemisphere.
Filling the caldera of a prehistoric volcano, the lake was
created by one of the largest eruptions in history – one that
blew out so much detritus that it would have made
Krakatoa look trifling. When Taupo first appears over the
dashboard, it looks more sea than lake. It’s a body so big
that the water and sky mix like a watercolour; one so wide
that the Earth curves across its surface like a spoon.
Outside Taupo, on the town’s northern outskirts, is the
workshop of Delani Brown, a master carver who crafts
allegorical totems inspired by the lake and by the Ma ̄ori
creation myth of Ranginui, the sky father, and
Papatu ̄a ̄ nuku, the earth mother.
‘The wood can take me in any direction,’ he says,
tightening a lumpen block of petrified swamp kauri in a
vice. ‘So I have to listen to it carefully.’ As the afternoon
passes, the slab gradually undergoes a metamorphosis
into an intricate talisman. Delani uses his chisel like a
fine paintbrush, delicately etching marks and paring back
the block one shave at a time. Up close, it has whittled
tattoo lines across its brow; each groove simulates the
area’s synergy of rivers, canyons and fault-lines.
Proud of his accomplishment, Delani looks out towards
Lake Taupo. ‘Ko wai koe?’ he asks me. ‘Which waters do
you come from?’ It is a traditional greeting born from
whakapapa, the fundamental principle of genealogy that
permeates all Ma ̄ori culture. He hesitates for a moment
before pointing to the lake. ‘That’s my universe,’ he says.
‘Right there.’
It’s not just Ma ̄ori like Delani who have been bewitched
by the Great Lake Taupo region. Ever since the first tribes
arrived in the 13th century by canoe, the low-slung villages
dotted along the lake have attracted newcomers. These
days, the acacia-banked edges are filled with the
guesthouses, galleries, organic wineries and craft breweries
that keep holidaymakers here for days. Many will make the
trip out by boat to the high bluffs at Mine Bay, to bob in front
of a magnificent stone-faced god carved into the cliffside.
Before dark, the campervan is back on the road and the
next 30 miles zip by with the tempo of a radio pop song.
We veer south to the lakeshore town of Turangi, parking
by the waterside and lighting a brazier under a half-moon
sky. Dinner is lamb chops cooked on the barbecue,
washed down with cool-box beers.IT’S A SIGN
From wood and jade
carvings to traditional
tattoos, Māori symbols can
be seen throughout New
Zealand, especially on the
North Island, where Māori
culture is most prevalent.Koru (spiral)- new beginnings
Matau (fish hook)- good luck/prosperity
Pikorua (twist)- an eternal bond
Tiki (the first man)- fertility
ILLUSTRATIONS: ANNAREPP/SHUTTERSTOCK, SABELSKAYA/SHUTTERSTOCK