Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

His Koru, Her Koru

17TH OF JULY

Samantha

The place is so majestic that we’ve been walking around for hours. We’ve seen lakes with the weirdest shade of pale neon green water, watched as a geyser was made to erupt, found the Champagne pool with the bright orange edge, and I stared at it for so long while Em was taking a thousand photographs.

We are nearing the end of the tour as we reach a patch of native forest. There are little signs with the name and description of some of the trees and plants, and I read them all as we make our way through the narrow path between them. The trunks are covered in moss, from bright green, to deep ivy, and there’s also all kinds of mushrooms and lichen growing around the trees. The place feels magical, and I think it’s all so fascinating, that I keep finding myself staring at things like a piece of bright orange lichen covering a tree branch, or a tiny red mushroom that I find hidden between the shrubs of the understory.

There are also ferns all over the place, the most commonly known plant of this nation. It’s also the one used as a symbol of the country. Around them, there’s plenty of cabbage trees, which are some sort of short palms with spiky tops. They make a good pair, as they seem to always grow one close to the other. The sign tells me they’re called Tī kōuka in Maori.

There are plenty of different trees, and I read the signs for the Totara, the Kohekohe, the Rimu and the Tawa before I find one about the Kauri: “Agathis Australis. This is the largest coniferous tree of New Zealand, and is among the most ancient trees in the world.” I run my hand down the smooth trunk, thinking that something about it feels oddly familiar. That's when I remember why.

“This tree is named like my grandad,” I tell Em. “Well, I guess my grandad was actually named after the tree,” I correct myself.

“Oh, wow,” Em approaches me and reads the sign. “Your grandad was named Kauri?”

“It was his middle name, actually, his full name was Mikaere Kauri Tutaki.” I explain.

I look at the sign for a little moment while Em reads, and then we start walking away slowly, resuming our tour around this majestic landscape.

“I wonder if Mikaere is the name of another plant or something,” I say as I daydream a little. I’ve found myself looking up the meaning of so many maori words in the last couple of days that I feel like I might have been a little obsessive about it.

“I can look it up,” Em says as she pulls her phone out.

She starts typing, and I can see she's doing an online search. As we keep walking, she looks back up at me.

“This is pretty cool, it says that Mikaere means ‘who is like God’.” Then she frowns as she keeps scrolling.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Oh, I’m just trying to understand this, I looked up Kauri as well, and it’s showing me pictures of the tree and stuff, and then I read Tane’s name,” she says as she glances at me.

“Uhm,” I try to pretend like she doesn’t fully have my attention for mentioning his name as I keep walking and letting my eyes dart around the forest. But after she doesn’t say anything else for a moment, I can’t stop myself from asking, “So?”

“It just picked my attention,” she says as she shrugs, “I’m running a search on that now, give me a moment,” she explains, and I lean over to look at the screen over her shoulder. “It looks like there’s a huge Kauri up in the North of the Island,” she reads. “Which is the biggest one of them all, and they call it Tane Mahuta. That’s funny, that Tane is named after a tree, or maybe a tree is named after Tane,” she comments.