[Alice Mackenzie describes seeing a moa and talks about her book, Pioneers of Martins Bay].

Rights Information
Year
1959
Reference
246952
Media type
Audio
Ask about this item

Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item

Rights Information
Year
1959
Reference
246952
Media type
Audio
Categories
Nonfiction radio programs
Radio interviews
Radio programs
Sound recordings
Duration
00:12:37
Credits
RNZ Collection
Mackenzie, Alice, 1873-1963, Interviewee
New Zealand Broadcasting Service (estab. 1946, closed 1962), Broadcaster

Interview with eighty year old Alice Mackenzie who describes seeing a moa as an eight year old and talks about her book, Pioneers of Martins Bay.

They moved to Martins Bay in 1876. She tells of how she came across the moa on the beach at St Martins Bay lying beneath flax bushes. It didn't seem to mind as she stroked its back but when she tried to tie its leg with flax it pecked her and she ran away. Later she returned to the site with her father and although the bird had disappeared they measured its tracks which were eleven inches from the heel to the point of the middle toe.

Alice recalls the last time she saw the moa when she was about seventeen years old driving cattle across the Khyber River. The only other person who saw it was her brother though many people had seen its tracks.

She describes how her school teacher, Miss Simon had encouraged her to write her stories down which she eventually did much later when she became a grandmother and had more time. The result of this was her book, which ran into two editions. In the hope a third edition would be printed Alice added another chapter about the Robinsons who built an Ark to transport their cattle about thirteen miles to the head of the lake before driving them through the Hollyford Valley to Lake Wakatipu.