Description
1847 is drawing to a close. Winnie Meldon, twelve years old, finds herself in a strange new country New Zealand. A country with almost no native land animals but teeming with all manner of strange, wonderful birds.Home to the Maori people who decorate their faces with wild patterns carved into their flesh like living stones.
Winnie, her Maori friend Rawiri and Kura, her courageous talking bird are pitched against the cold genius of the ex-pirate Quinlan and his statuesque cannibal associate Te Wahoe after they abduct not only Rawiriโs mother but his entire village and put them in slavery in their secret criminal enterprise.
Pursuing the slavers over land and sea the trio face death more than once, fall under a deadly curse and experience the terror of a dark presence shadowing them through the ancient forests of Mt Moehau.
Who is the man, strangely familiar to Winnie, who seeks to sabotage their journey?
Blood is shed and family secrets laid bare as this epic adventure story reaches its thrilling climax.
Readers will not only enjoy a non-stop action adventure, they will learn a great deal about this highly unusual country.
Founded by treaty between the British Crown and the indigenous Maori people in 1840, it was the only colony in the British Empire to request colonisation. Dozens of tribes signed the seven copies of the Treaty of Waitangi which circulated the country.
Because the group of islands constituting New Zealand broke off from the proto-continent of Gondwana before the evolution of mammals, it has only two native mammals, both bats whose ancestors arrived on the wind. It is a kingdom of birds.
Winnie, 12, her Maori friend Rawiri and Winnie's clever talking bird (the Maori really did train tuis to talk) travel across the land and the sea in pursuit of Rawiri's mother Moe.
In the process they encounter and survive on the natural world as it was before the invasion of foreign species changed it forever.
The book is highly historically, linguistically and geographically accurate, the result of the author's lifetime of learning. Readers can even follow the progress of the trio across modern New Zealand via a supplied link to Google Earth.
ISBN:9780473245887
