Books from our Rotorua and New Zealand collections.
The Aro Street Girls (Lyndsay Campbell, 2018) - Rotorua Author
Read about the author here
The story begins with a look forward to the next generation,
Uncle Walter and niece Rose. Rose found a jewellery case in her mother’s things
when she was having a clean out, it turns out it holds a locket with photos in
it of Aunty Kathleen and a soldier. Uncle Walter tells her the story about the
soldier and his part in the life of Kathleen… we take up the story in the
Spring of 1916.
Kathleen a young lady from a family of means living in Aro
Street, Wellington is very smitten with a young man from a very different walk
of life, a young man her mother disapproves of. Freddie Watkins is a personable young man and very reluctant
to sign up to the army, he has pacifist ideals and would rather not go, but
when a woman in black confronts him with a white feather, a symbol of
cowardice, he gives in and enlists.
Neither of them knows just what lies ahead, but they promise
to write to each other. The letters take a long time to arrive, he tries to
write once at the battlefield, but it’s very difficult because at the front in Passchendaele,
it is wet and muddy, and the noise of the guns and the screams of the injured, are
his constant companion. When his letters do arrive, they have blacked out words
and phrases due to censorship, and no-one really knows what the lads went through.
Meanwhile back in Wellington Kathy wants to go to university,
her dream is to be a teacher. Then one day her father Oscar dies and turns her
world upside down, her mother Violet cannot cope and both girls need to get a
job.
And the war continues on and on... and more families are losing
their boys and injured soldiers are invalided out of the army, conscription
begins. Life will never be the same again for either of the girls, nor for
their family.
A well written fictional story based on fact, which
illustrates life during WWI, for those left behind and those who lost their
loved ones to the Spanish flu, that returned with the soldiers at the end of
the war.
CAM - Borrow from Adult Fiction, Ground Floor. Reference only copy in Rotorua Heritage, Heritage & Research Area, 2nd Floor.
Filming the Colonial Past: The New Zealand Wars on Screen (Annabel Cooper, 2018)
University of Otago Associate Professor Annabel Cooper's book explores the depiction of the New Zealand wars in New Zealand film and television over the past 90 years.
Cooper also discusses new forms of media and innovative platforms, such as digital and online media. She pays particular attention to the rise of Māori creative control in filmmaking and the importance of this in telling our stories.
From a local perspective there is a discussion of Rotorua's role in early filmmaking. Rotorua was a popular film location largely due to its scenery, but also because the Te Arawa people at that time were active in the tourism industry as experienced guides and performers, and these skills adapted well to film acting. There is also a very brief discussion of the film adaptations of the local love story - Hinemoa and Tutanekai.
The book draws on over 40 interviews that Cooper has conducted with those in the film industry. Also throughout there are many coloured photographs highlighting New Zealand's cinematic history.
Filming the colonial cast: the New Zealand wars on screen would appeal to those interested in New Zealand history, particularly the New Zealand wars, and those with an interest cinema and the local New Zealand filmmaking scene.
Cooper also discusses new forms of media and innovative platforms, such as digital and online media. She pays particular attention to the rise of Māori creative control in filmmaking and the importance of this in telling our stories.
From a local perspective there is a discussion of Rotorua's role in early filmmaking. Rotorua was a popular film location largely due to its scenery, but also because the Te Arawa people at that time were active in the tourism industry as experienced guides and performers, and these skills adapted well to film acting. There is also a very brief discussion of the film adaptations of the local love story - Hinemoa and Tutanekai.
The book draws on over 40 interviews that Cooper has conducted with those in the film industry. Also throughout there are many coloured photographs highlighting New Zealand's cinematic history.
Filming the colonial cast: the New Zealand wars on screen would appeal to those interested in New Zealand history, particularly the New Zealand wars, and those with an interest cinema and the local New Zealand filmmaking scene.
791.43 COO NZ - Reference only copy in New Zealand Heritage, Heritage and Research Area, 2nd Floor.
Historic houses: a visitor's guide to 65 early New Zealand homes (Linda Burgess, 2007)
Linda Burgess makes you feel like you can step into one of these houses and feel at home. From Northland to Otago, the reader is taken on a journey of seeing New Zealand's history through the lens of hearth and home. Cob houses, stone houses and houses made from native timber where innovative, hard-working and entrepreneurial people lived. This is also a history of strong, gracious and friendly hosts who raised large families while making a living from the land and business interests.
Dwellings like 'Sayers Slab Whare' and 'Rai Valley Pioneer Cottage' pretty
much stand as they were built. Some unusual features of two houses such as, a cave and a square concrete structure with 24 gun placement were especially intriguing. Apart from the differences in design, materials and location the gardens of these houses link them. The gardens feature a mix of local native and exotic plants and remain largely intact today. The reader will enjoy Burgess's style of writing.
728 BUR NZ - Borrow from New Zealand History/Travel, 1st Floor. Reference only copy in New Zealand Heritage, Heritage & Research Area, 2nd Floor.
much stand as they were built. Some unusual features of two houses such as, a cave and a square concrete structure with 24 gun placement were especially intriguing. Apart from the differences in design, materials and location the gardens of these houses link them. The gardens feature a mix of local native and exotic plants and remain largely intact today. The reader will enjoy Burgess's style of writing.
728 BUR NZ - Borrow from New Zealand History/Travel, 1st Floor. Reference only copy in New Zealand Heritage, Heritage & Research Area, 2nd Floor.
Second Time Lucky: one man's journey the length of New Zealand (Erik Westra, 2018)
Erik Westra had been crazy about cycling from the time he was a child. After one cycling tour in the States, he was excited to read about the Tour Aotearoa cycle ride, a ride of 3,000 kilometres from Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairia to Bluff, to be completed in 30 days!. Along with other cyclist, Erik made it as far as Marlborough Sounds before a spectacular fall from his bike resulted in a badly broken wrist and withdrawal from the tour.
Once recovered from surgery and therapy, Erik began to plan completing the Tour. Then he decides, this time he wants to start from the beginning again, but take a different approach. As Erik says in his book "I'd be more observant: sensitive to this country's people, history and spirit...I would stop more often and talk to people, listen to them, pay attention and pay my respects as I went."
This book is an interesting account of Erik's two attempts at riding the length of New Zealand, the second of which is successful. He tells of meeting different people along the way, and out-of-the-way places that he passes through. And often of memories that are triggered as he finds himself again in places he's visited as a child with his mum, Ans Westra, the photographer. Whether a cyclist or an armchair traveller, this is a fascinating look at Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Once recovered from surgery and therapy, Erik began to plan completing the Tour. Then he decides, this time he wants to start from the beginning again, but take a different approach. As Erik says in his book "I'd be more observant: sensitive to this country's people, history and spirit...I would stop more often and talk to people, listen to them, pay attention and pay my respects as I went."
This book is an interesting account of Erik's two attempts at riding the length of New Zealand, the second of which is successful. He tells of meeting different people along the way, and out-of-the-way places that he passes through. And often of memories that are triggered as he finds himself again in places he's visited as a child with his mum, Ans Westra, the photographer. Whether a cyclist or an armchair traveller, this is a fascinating look at Aotearoa, New Zealand.
993 WES NZ - Borrow from New Zealand History/Travel, 1st Floor. Reference only copies in New Zealand Heritage and Rotorua Heritage, Heritage & Research Area, 2nd Floor.
