The escape of von Luckner.

Count Felix von Luckner The Seeadler
The Moa

Plans for escape were well underway when von Luckner arrived on Motuihe Is. There were other Germans there who had been captured in other parts of the Pacific. The phone line had already been tapped into and the prisoners were well aware of coming events. The Pearl figured large in the plans so they manufactured a sextant for navigation and also a wooden machine gun. They cut the phone line, set fire to the barracks, loaded stores and clothing on the Pearl and took off. They were long gone by the time that word of their escape spread. They even had a German flag which they hoisted when they captured the scow Moa with their pretend machine gun.

Scows were the work horses of the sea right up into the thirties. They were wind powered barges with an almost flat bottom. They moved huge quantities of timber, gravel and farm product. They would be grounded on a sandy beach, loaded or unloaded in double quick time so that they could be floated off as high tide approached. The Moa had been in sevice for ten years at this time and she was of a good size, over 90ft long and 30ft in the beam. She was loaded with 80,000 lineal feet of sawn rimu timber when she was captured and heavy in the water. Von Luckner new that the hunt would be on very shortly and they needed to make haste. As they proceeded north he had the load lightened. The sea would have been littered with floating planks.

The Moa eventually reached Curtis Is. in the Kermadecs. Here there were stores for the use of shipwrecked sailors and these were seized and loaded on board. The hunt had been on for quite a while. A companion scow to the Moa, called the Rangi, had seen it's capture and it came ashore at Port Charles to pass the word. Thirty vessels were involved in the hunt and eventually a cable layer made the arrest, and spent the Xmas of 1917 sailing back to Auckland with their prisoners.

Von Luckner did not escape again. He spent some time at Lytellton as a P.O.W. and then returned to Motuihe. At the end of the war he was repatriated to Germany. He was a charismatic man and a hero to many, regardless of nationality because of the moral way he had conducted himself in the war. He was feted alround the world, Henry Ford even gave him a motorcar! He sailed round the world with his wife and revisited NZ in 1937 and 1938. His great stature would have been of considerable publicity value to Germany in the 2ND WW. However he refused involvement and his bank account was frozen. He survived the war, then moved to Malmo in Sweden where he died in 1966.

The scow Moa had a shorter life. It came to grief on the Hokitika bar in 1935 when transporting Kahikatea logs to be made into butterboxes. The scow Rangi capsized off Motutapu Is. with the loss of four lives. It would be nice to say that both were built locally in Kennedy's Bay but in fact they were made in Auckland. The only scows made on the Coromandel came from Cabbage Bay, Colville. The Pearl was lost whilst being towed behind the Moa on the way to the Kermadecs.

Today Red Mercury is recovering from a devastating fire about thirty years ago. It is now rat free and home to many sea birds. Above Von Luckners Cove there is a nesting colony of Pycrofts petrels. Some of the 500 or so that exist in the world. Petrels have a period before they fly when they are left by their parents to fledge, the mutton bird stage. It was thought to be a good stage to move them to birdless islands like Cuvier. The birds did survive to make their first flight but did not return to their adopted island to nest. They always go back to where they were nestlings. If Captain Cook had had a GPS system like that he wouldn't have had to hang around until the Transit of Mercury!

The offshore islands. Red Mercury.

Looking at maps can be a rewarding exercise. Ships must have been built in Kennedy's Bay because "historic shipyard" appears on the map. Out beyond the Mercury Is. is a place surely deserving of a Tui billboard. "NEVER FAIL ROCK/YEAH RIGHT! Just off Red Mercury there is another large rock, yet another Tokatea, and it marks the entrance to a deep but smallish bay called Von Luckner's Cove.
It is the place where Count Felix von Luckner and a group of escaping prisoners of war, just before Xmas in 1917, encountered the scow Moa , captured the vessel and it's four crew and set sail for the Kermadec Islands.
How von Luckner came to be captured, came to escape and was captured once more is quite a tale.
There is, however, quite a pre-story. Von Luckner was born in Dresden in 1881. He was of an adventurous disposition and ran away to sea at the age of thirteen. He joined a Russian freighter sailing for Australia. He was obviously not much valued by his captain who refused to turn the vessel around when young von Luckner fell overboard. His recovery is a thing of legend. The first mate held an harpoon to the neck of the captain who quickly revised his decision and turned the boat around. Von Luckner was easily located. A large albatross, thinking he was food grabbed one of his hands in it's beak. Von Luckner, with his other hand grasped the albatross which acted like a large marker buoy flapping away on the surface, and so the lad was retrieved.
He jumped ship in Australia and for the next seven years led a very adventurous life. He hunted kangaroo, kept bar until fired as a result of an incident with the hotel keeper's daughter. He spent some time as an assistant lighthouse keeper but found some spare time to sell The War Cry become a professional boxer and a magician. He also had a period as a mercenary soldier in S.America.
He joined the Navy on his return to Germany. On the outbreak of war he was one of the few officers with practical experience in sailing ships. Four days before Xmas in 1916 he escaped a British naval blockade and made his way toward Greenland. His ship was the three masted schooner Seeadler. It had been modified by the addition of a couple of engines and two 105mm guns. Over the next year he detained and scuttled 14 merchant ships. He always took the merchant crew on board his ship and only one life was lost in this period as a result of his actions.
The Seeadler was eventually lost on the reefs of Mopelia Is. in the Society Group. He was hopeful of capturing another boat but it was not to be. He sailed some 3700km. in two 10m. long open whaling boats with some of his crew. He made it to the Cook Is. and gained help by pretending to be Dutch American at Atiu and Norwegian on Aituitaki. Suspicion arose in Rarotonga and he was eventually captured with his crew in Fiji.
He was brought to NZ and imprisoned on Motuihe Is in the Gulf. The lifestyle was fairly relaxed for prisoners of war. It was thought that, being in the middle of the sea escape would be impossible. Just to be sure however the garrison was increased from 60 to 80 soldiers and a phone line was laid from Auckland. In addition the island was provided with a fast motor launch, The Pearl, to patrol the surrounding waters.

Tuateawa Fungi Spot. A couple of Stinkhorns.

These fungi are typical of Tuateawa in autumn, particularly after a good spell of rain. They help to decompose dead plant material. Both of these images are of fungi growing in mulch. The red flower fungus is often found growing in metal drives, particularly if they have been treated with Roundup. They do grow in more natural environments though, like the leaf litter under titree. They are both stinkhorns. The smell attracts flies and they will distribute the spores widely. Both the flower fungus and the basket fungus have a slimy coating.This is what smells. The slime is largely spore material. Both fungi seem to appear from nowhere. They expand rapidly from an "egg". For most of the year you don't see too much because the feeding part of the fungi are underground.

Tuateawa Lizard spot. Striped Gecko.

A little internet search has provided a lot more detail on the striped gecko in the Coromandel. Until 1997 it was only known from two islands in the Pelorus sound. It was a major suprise when an individual turned up at Waiteti Gardens on the northern fringe of Coromandel township nearly 500km north of its known location.

A simple explanation would have been that it was a specimen that had escaped from a local lizard fancier, It is possible to keep NZ lizards if you have an appropriate permit. Exhaustive investigations proved this to be an unlikely explanation. The captive gecko was required to surrender a small portion of it's anatomy for the sake of science. DNA analysis showed it to be significantly different from it's southern relatives. It was a Coromandel cousin. Incredible efforts were made to locate other members of it's whanau. All to no avail.

The captured lizard remained captured. Retained for breeding purposes it eventually died whilst waiting for a mate.

The story is still incomplete. Ten years later, in the same area, a DOC employee, enjoying a barbecue noticed another male striped gecko sunning on a wall. Subsequently a female was found which was very hopeful. Unfortunately it had been the victim of a kingfisher attack and subsequently died. The finds did show that a local population of the gecko did exist and the plan was to release the captured male back into the wild equipped with a location device.

There was a quantity of local publicity and, shortly after, consequent to much searching a female striped gecko was found at Port Charles. Sadly it was dead. These events do suggest that this most secretive creature, probably the rarest gecko in the world does have a wider presence on the Coromandel. It could even occur at Tuateawa!!

BOOK REVIEW: Nature guide to the New Zealand Forest.

If you could only afford one book on the New Zealand Bush this would be it. There are many specialist books that deal with a particular aspect of the bush. Salmon's books come easily to mind. This text treats the bush as a community with sections on all of the living components. The layout makes it very easy to locate an area of interest. Each section is colour coded on the margin of the page. Trees and shrubs are grey, the forest floor is green for example and this feature makes it very easy reference. A book of just 300 pages cannot be totally exhaustive. You will get a good introduction to just about anything you might find in the bush. There are so many beetles and insects generally that the accounts tend to hit the highspots only. Even so, all the major areas of interest are there, from fungi to frogs, birds to beetles! Green plants, whether they be trees, shrubs or ferns are covered in great depth. The text is concise and spot on. The photographs are absolutely stunning and they are present in huge abundance.

The book itself is well made. It is a fairly flexible softback with a reasonably protective cover that should repel moisture. It is also of a size that is suitable to slip in your pocket the next time you go bush. The copy shown is a library copy and has had some use and the protective film is damaged at the corners. An extra layer of protection would be advisable for a personal copy that is sure to get a lot of use.

Nature Guide to the New Zealand Forest by John Dawson and Rob Lucas, printed by Godwit in 2000. ISBN 1 86962 055 0

Tuateawa lizard spot.

Tuateawa has more than it's fair share of iconic species. They let us know that things are going along quite well. Their absence or decline would be a real cause for concern because it would indicate that they are having problems. It could also indicate that the system upon which they depend is also under a bit of stress. It is natural to pay less attention to more secretive species but they could also tell us something about the state of our environment.

NZ has at least 90 species of lizard. However many do not live on the main islands. On the Coromandel mainland there are 5 skink species and 5 gecko species. If you included the Tuateawa offshore islands the number would more than double. In the absence of mammals and effective pollinating insects they have had a significant role as pollinators and seed distributors. They are however quite vulnerable to introduced mammalian predators. Some species must have some degree of preadaptation and have survived, but probably in much smaller numbers. How crucial lizards are to the overall ecology is unsure. Their decline is, however a cause for concern. In Tuateawa the numbers seem to be on the increase which one must assume is due to the actions of Habitat Tuateawa. Species not yet known may become apparent as a result of the decreased predator pressure.

There are unique things about NZ lizards. They are particularly well adapted to our colder climate. Through most of the world lizards reproduce by egg laying. The egg develops if it is laid in an appropriate temperature environment. Lizards are, however, cold blooded and their development is temperature dependant. If the egg is laid in a very cool spot successs is much less likely. NZ lizards are far superior. They retain their eggs within the females body and give live birth when the eggs hatch. The pregnant female can choose the best temperature environment, sunbathing when it is cooler and retreating into the shade when it is too warm. This probably also explains why our lizards are more active in the day and perhaps why we are more likely to see them.

Identifying lizards does have it's problems. Skinks are easily distinguished from Geckos. Skinks have a narrower, more pointed head. There scales overlap which makes them look smooth and shiny. The absolute giveaway is that they have a lower eyelid. How can I see that you probably think and you are almost certainly correct. However the eyelid keeps the eyeball moist so it has to blink. If it blinks it's a skink!

Geckos have much larger eyes. They are always open. They also have quite large tongues which they use to keep their eyeballs moist. Quite a party trick. Geckos are also more likely to be found up a tree rather than on the ground. They have pads on their toes made of multitudes of microscopic hairs. The suggestion is that these are electromagnetic and allow geckos to climb the smoothest surface. Identifying the species is a demanding job. Only NZ has green geckos. Only one green species is known from the Coromandel and that is the Elegant Gecko. I have never seen one outside of a cage but they do inhabit manuka/kanuka scrub and are often associated with the scrambler plant poehuehue. I am sure that there are quite a few Tuateawans much better informed than I . It would be great to get some comments! There seems to be a lot of technical detail about identifying other species. The most variable thing between species seems to be colour of the tongue, lips and mouth lining and it is probably the way members of a species identify each other for mating purposes. Another easily identified gecko is the striped gecko, not because of it's stripes but because it is light buff to tan in colour. This just leaves three species. The one pictured is probably the forest gecko but you could also find the Pacific Gecko or the Matua Gecko. The pictured gecko has been hanging around the bach for sometime. Usually it is partially obscured in the roof. On this occasion it spent a considerable time sunning itself on the deck. Obviously it must have had some kind of unpleasant encounter as it lacks a tail and one limb.

The skink pictured is at the back of the boulder beach and these are often to be seen as you walk along the shore. All the skinks here seem to be black. It is probably the Shore Skink but there is a similar species, the only egglaying NZ species, called the diving skink and it lives in similar areas. It is also recorded for Cuvier Is. The skink that we have on our sections is the Copper Skink. However it is hard to be positive as there is an egglaying Australian species with a dark rather than a copper stripe and another called the Moko Skink.

Any comments on this would be really welcome. There are so many talented people in Tuateawa that I am sure one must be an herpetologist!

Tuateawa: The Offshore Islands.

From almost any point in Tuateawa a string of distant islands can be seen lying along our horizon.

To the north is Great Barrier Is. the island of the white cloud- Motu Aotea. The highest point is Mt. Hobson at 621m. named after the chap who signed The Treaty! Unlike Tuateawa the island lacks reticulated power but on the plus side there are no possums, stoats or weasels. Until 1908 when an undersea telephone link was established a pigeon post service existed between there and Auckland. The island seems to have selected a special type of resident. Time seems to move slower there. Road users are few and more considerate drivers cannot be found anywhere. The islanders are particularly protective of their wildlife and their mustelid free status. A couple of boaties out walking their pet ferret on the beach in 2001 were quickly made aware of this point. Wisely they pleaded guilty to this offense and were fined $2600 plus costs. In a strange contradiction the last whaling station ever built in NZ was constructed on the island in 1956. It operated until 1962 and you can be certain that whales were sought in Tuateawa waters.

Captain Cook named Great Barrier Is, as he did much of NZ. He missed out naming Cuvier Is. however. This honour fell to the French navigator D'Urville, naming it after a naturalist and fellow countryman. Being nearly 40km. of the coast it is the first part of NZ visible when sailing across the Pacific. In consequence it has a rather fine lighthouse. These days it is not manned. It is solar powered and automatic. During the 2nd W.W. the island was also the site of experimental work on the development of radar. Today Cuvier is escaping the devastation created by farm animals, goats rats and feral cats. They are all gone. It is now a major home for our saddlebacks. Early this year a number of juvenile tuatara were returned to the island. Sad to think that each has a value of $20 000 on the international black market. The nesting seabirds that were once present in their teeming thousands are not back yet. The sounds of the rarest of these, Pycroft's petrel are broadcast from the summit in a place where artificial nest burrows have been created.

Closer still to Tuateawa are the Mercury Is. A self published book by a 50 year resident of Gt. Mercury gives a wealth of detail on the island from the Maori perspective. Printed in 1997 it is titled Ahuahu, The Maori story concerning Mercury Island. by Pat Mizzen. John Hovell, artist, of Kennedy Bay, provided a great collection of illustrations. In recent years it has been the sometime holiday residence of Sir Michael Fay. The whole island can be rented however but you might need to save your pennies. The going rate is $20 000 a day. Entertainment personalities like Bono and the Edge have relaxed there. The island in the group that has a real connection with the past however is Red Mercury and it will be the subject of a later posting.