Blog: 1. Introduction

I was at my mother’s care facility one day and Bruno walked in and asked if I was still able to help with the entertainment programme for the residents. I had previously told him I would be happy to help him with their social activities.

My mother had told Bruno that I wasn’t to talk about native bees because that would be far too boring for the residents, we were brain-storming about what I could talk about. Bruno suggested I could talk about sand dunes, given the name of the retirement centre had “Dunes” in its name. I replied that I wasn’t sure I could talk for 20 minutes about sand dunes, but what if we did a series of talks all about Pāpāmoa, from its history to its sand dunes?

My mother immediately lit up and said yes, people might be interested in that.

I told her that when I was up on the hills taking photos of the native bees last summer, I met up with a regular called Arne and he asked if I knew the legend behind Pāpāmoa Hills? No, I replied but later I looked into it.

It’s a lovely story about some whales that get lost. Do you know it, I asked both Bruno and my mother? When both replied they didn’t, I said to Bruno that it would be the subject of my first talk and he walked away happy.

These are the notes from my stories told to the residents at my mother’s care facility about Pāpāmoa and its long history.