New Zealand Odyssey: Windmill Roadsigns at Matakohe

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by Don Donovan (who did the text and illustrations) and Euan Sarginson, who did the photography and design. In this series of blog posts, I will publish some of my drawings.

In 1987, when I was working on the Northland section on 'New Zealand Odyssey' I found this piece of landmark roadside sculpture which reminded me of John Piper's and John Betjeman's 'Tree of Knowledge'. There's a wealth of information here. The museum is famous for its history of kauri forestry and gum-digging around the north Kaipara area and the Coates Memorial church honours New Zealand's first native-born prime minister.

Then again, the Maori names are descriptive: Tinopai means 'very good'; Hukatere = 'driven foam'; Matakohe = 'headland of the kohekohe tree'; and Taparoa = 'long spear'. Dargaville isn't Maori, of course, it was named after an Irish immigrant called Joseph Dargaville.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz