Awatea and the Kawa Gang

by Fraser Smith

  The leopard seal sped up and opened its mouth so wide that all Awa could see were teeth. He stumbled up onto the rock, only to realise he wasn’t out of reach. He leapt down onto the hard, wet sand, slipped and fell as Carrot flew up from his shoulder. The leopard seal was almost within reach of Awa now. Carrot swooped towards the animal’s snapping head as Awa struggled to regain his feet. Carrot screeched, and the leopard seal lunged at him.

  “Carrot, shoulder!” Awa commanded. Carrot obeyed, dodging another lethal lunge and almost losing his tail feathers.

  “Zealot!” he screeched from Awa’s shoulder. The only thing between them and the beast was the boulder. Eyes locked on Awa’s left thigh, the leopard seal heaved itself forward and struck. The predator’s muscled shoulder was deflected by the rock, knocking its strike off course. Awa dodged in close to the boulder, using it as a shield, and then took off round the other side and up the beach with Carrot fighting for balance on his shoulder.

  “Bloody hell! That was close, Carrot!” Awa stood gasping for breath in the shelter of some friendly mānuka huddled against the wind well beyond the shoreline. “That leopard seal was taking no prisoners! If it’s that fast on land it’d be real dangerous in the water. We’d better watch out. Thanks, Carrot, I owe you another one. It was going to have us both for lunch! Did you see those teeth? Rippers! Tent pegs! And a flip-top head! Hoo wee, and it looked cute enough to cuddle. We have been spared the jaws of death by the skin of our teeth.”

  “Zealot!” yelled Carrot, shifting from one foot to the other, head nodding furiously.

  A riroriro called, sweet, long, loud and close. Awa remembered his Nan telling him she would be like a riroriro, watching out for him. “Yes, Nan, I have been saved by Kākā Feathers again. I will curb my insatiable curiosity a bit next time, eh Kākā!”

  “Carrot!” the bird corrected.

  “Thanks, Carrot, you are a very brave old boy.” Awa took him down from his shoulder and stroked his back gently while watching the leopard seal. It seemed to be sniffing the boulder. Awa looked down at his bare feet, grateful they were still attached to his legs. When he looked back at the animal on the beach, the seal raised its head and looked Awa’s way, its neck stretched, nostrils quivering to catch the offshore breeze, sniffing the air.

  Back at the Kawa Gang HQ, Awa cut a long mānuka shaft and sharpened the end with his tomahawk. He used the spade to push the sand off the coals left from the morning’s fire and worked the sharp end of the stick in the heat to harden it. Then he rubbed the blackened end against a rock until it was as sharp as the leopard seal’s teeth. That leopard seal had his scent. “Anyway,” he said to himself as he tested the weight of his weapon, “it’s not a tree leopard, it’s a sea leopard. I can sleep easy up here.”

  Awa stoked the fire, put a billy of smoked mutton, taro and watercress on the side of the grate to cook slowly, and climbed the tree to the hut. He lay down in the cradle of the branches and thought.

  Carrot woke him. “Crusty, Crusty!”

  “OK, lunch must be ready, Carrot. Come on, let’s eat.”

  They were tucking into their bush boil-up when they heard a horse approaching on the track above. Toss was soon sitting with them, enjoying an unexpected lunch. Awa told him about the cut fence and the tractor tracks.

  “It’s good you’ve got keen eyes. Pa told me about that fence. I’ve patched it up, but can you keep watch? I hope it was a one-off, but they might come back.”

  “And there’s a crazy leopard seal up the boulder end of the beach. It tried to eat me. It’s fast, with teeth longer than your fingers, and a flip-top head that snaps like a possum trap. Carrot flapped around its head so I could get away.”

  “Boy, you like poking your nose in dangerous spots! You’d better watch out. Those things are lethal up close.”

  “I know now, Toss, but it looked so sleek and smooth.”

  “Lethal things often do. Like sharks, Boy. But I s’pose sharks have a reputation.”

  “Kim said a leopard seal ate his best sheep dog, while it was still chained to its kennel.”

  “I’ve seen sea lions on the beach, and leopard seals, but never got close enough to have a good look. Let them be, I say. I’ve called the dogs off them more than once. They’re probably resting after a long trip, or lost. I’ve heard that leopard seals eat penguins, other seals, fish. Even seabirds like gannets, takapū, resting on the sea after a feed and pre-stuffed with pilchards – easy prey, mmmm. That animal might have been visiting Cape Kidnappers for a feed, eh? About your Uncle Kim, he tells some tall stories. I reckon he’s pulling your leg. His dog would’ve kicked up a hell of a racket while it was being eaten. I reckon it slipped its collar to visit its old mate Jazz here.”

  The sheepdog beside him thumped her tail when she heard her name. “Pae kori, you can cook, Boy. I’ll bring you some more mutton and see what you can come up with.” Toss threw her the bones off his plate. “You have lured a few male callers in your time, eh girl? They come from afar to visit razzamatazz-Jazz!”

  Jazz wagged her tail furiously and ate at the same time.

  “That leopard seal is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, eh? Sometimes those animals stay for ages. You got any pots out?”

  “Just my hīnaki.”

  “How far out?”

  “In a pool not far, but close to deep water. Been going for fish, not crays.”

  “Tide’s nearly low. I can come with you to check it.”

  “Now?”

  “I’ve got time. I’ll sing for my supper, eh Boy?”

  Awa was pleased to have company as they crossed the rock pools to the reef. His eyes scanned the sea continually. He leant on his spear, still watching the sea, as Toss pulled in the hīnaki.

  “You’re onto something here, Boy.” Toss whistled. “Wheee-el.”

  “Look out!” shouted Carrot.

  Three butterfish and two snapper flapped furiously in the trap.

  “Impressive!” Toss exclaimed. “Enough fish for a while. Let’s bring it in to shore until yonder leopard seal has left these parts. We could even ride over to have a look at the cute wee thing.”

  From high in the saddle, they saw the leopard seal stretched out among the boulders at the end of the beach. As they approached, it raised its head and scratched itself. Jazz was stalking it, head down, stiff body close to the ground, eyes locked on her prey. As they got closer, the leopard seal rose up on its strong forequarters and sniffed the air again. The horse was uneasy. Awa felt the quiver in its gait. Toss urged it on with his knees and a firm hold on the reins.

  Carrot, perched on the front of Toss’s saddle, was nodding furiously. “Zealots! Zealots! Look out, look out!”

  Jazz attacked. She sprang towards the leopard seal at full speed, and leapt to one side just as the great animal took a snap at her.

  Toss swore under his breath and whistled loudly. “Get in behind, Jazz!” Jazz came back slowly, growling, her hackles up, the whites of her eyes sideways. The horse was tense and twitching, ready to bolt. Toss could barely control its shaking body. “Wolf in sheep’s clothing all right. Come on, Plod. In behind, Jazz.” The horse’s ears flicked back and forth. Both animals calmed as he spoke to them, “All-a-go. All-a-go.” He turned the horse away and it broke into a trot, eager to leave.

  Awa wrapped some fish in wet seaweed and put it in a sugar bag for Toss, who was ready to go on his rounds. Toss placed it on the saddle in front of him, seawater dripping down the horse’s flanks. “Ka pai, Boy! I was getting sick of mutton. Stay out of the sea, I reckon, until yonder mermaid leaves for cooler waters. It has one hot-under-the-collar hōhā mood on today.”

  Awa was pleased to have an excuse. “OK, I’ll stay inland for a bit.”

  “Spiky as the devil up close. It didn’t look sick or wounded. Yes, stay away. And inland, you stay away from that dark valley up from your hut. Oh, and keep an eye on the weather, Boy. The sky says something is brewing. It won’t last long, but batten down the hatche
s tonight.”

  At the Kawa Gang HQ, Awa cooked some rice in a spare billy and grilled a snapper wrapped in taro leaves and stuffed with taro spears. He ate with his fingers, carefully, the head first. The rice he ate with a spoon. Leaving the dishes, he washed in the creek, and with the parrot leading the way, climbed up to the tree hut.

  The roof would keep out rain, but the hut didn’t have walls. Awa cut four short pieces of rope. He tied one to each corner of the tarpaulin, spread it over his bed, and anchored each corner to the bed frame. As darkness came, he climbed under the tarpaulin, enticing Carrot in with him. He lay listening as an easterly breeze quickened up off the sea, and the surf roared on the rocks.

  7

  Rock-a-bye Baby on the Treetop

  It was pitch black when Awa woke. The wind whistled and moaned. Rain clattered on the old iron over his head. One long, heavy branch below him squeaked loudly as it rubbed against another. The little hut rocked sideways, but they were dry under the tarpaulin. He felt for the torch and put it in bed beside him.

  Carrot grumped, “Grrrr, grrrr.”

  “Don’t worry, Carrot. This tree has been here for hundreds of years. We just have to batten down the hatches, hold tight and wait till morning.”

  He pulled the bird in close to him under the tarpaulin. Carrot nibbled his ear and clicked his beak gently. Awa smiled and closed his eyes.

  He woke several times in the night and listened to the wind, rain, trees and sea outside his shelter argue noisily. Gusts of wind smacked rain against the tarpaulin, and the branches under him heaved and creaked, but the Kawa Gang were dry and warm. The storm eased as day began to break, and with gentle rain pattering on his tin roof, Awa slept again.

  He woke late. The tree was still. He shook the rain and leaves off the tarpaulin, stirring the still grumpy parrot, and sat up. Wet leaves caught the sunlight and threw it out in a thousand tiny rainbows. “Come on, Carrot, let’s go!”

  Awa was eager to check out the new world. There was no need to get dressed; he slept in his clothes. He edged his way down the wet tree. Carrot waited at the bottom. “First the kitchen,” Awa said, leading the way.

  The little creek beside the kitchen was now an angry torrent, swollen and brown, but it hadn’t reached the fireplace. Awa was pleased to see his billy had caught some clean rainwater. Dry firewood was a problem to be solved later.

  They made their way down to the raging ocean. Fat fluffy mounds of rehutai, sea foam, were caught among tangles of seaweed and driftwood high up the beach. He couldn’t see the leopard seal, but he kept his eyes peeled as they walked along the tops of the sand hills. In places, the sea had tossed seaweed right up to the fence line. It had bitten chunks out of the sand hills and thrown bundles of marram grass high up out of its territory.

  “Tāwhirimātea, Tāwhirimātea, ta-ta, ta,” Awa sang. “Tangaroa, Tangaroa, ta-ta, ta. Tāne-Tāne-Tāne, ta-ta, ta.”

  He danced down the sand hills, singing. Carrot yelled loudly, “Look out,” lifted his wings and glided off Awa’s shoulder.

  “Carrot, Carrot, Carrot, ka-ka, ka.”

  Awa stood knee-deep in a drift of rehutai at the sea’s edge. He gathered up bundles of the creamy sea-foam and threw it in the air. Still singing, he chased Carrot, throwing the foam about. Then he collapsed in the soft sand at the foot of a sand hill and Carrot flew over to land on his chest. Breathing heavily, and with the parrot looking at him sideways, Awa said, “Thank you, Tāne. Thank you, Tangaroa. Thank you, Tāwhirimātea!”

  “Carrot, Carrot.”

  “And thank you, Carrot. He kai?”

  “Crusty.”

  “Come on then, let’s start a fire, somehow. Tea, crusty.”

  “Tea, crusty,” echoed the bird.

  At the Kawa Gang HQ, Awa got matches and a candle from his bundle. He fossicked for some dryish mānuka twigs, arranged them carefully in the fireplace, and lit a candle, which he gently placed on its side under the twigs. It sputtered a bit, but the flame gave off enough heat to dry the twigs, and the melting wax fed the flames. He soon had a fire going and the billy on.

  After a long cooked breakfast that probably should have been dinner, they set off along the coast. The tide had pulled back, leaving treasure behind. Useful driftwood, shapely shells, some husky coconuts dropped from trees on tropical islands almost as far away as Hawaiki, and seaweed. Agar. Pa Rumble would have a lot to pick up on his return. Defeated seabirds, caught out by the storm, lay half-buried in the wrack. The tractor marks had disappeared, taken away by the storm.

  As Awa shook a clump of seaweed, something dropped wriggling onto the sand. A seahorse. He carefully placed it back on the seaweed and carried it up to the Rumbles’ cabin. He called out for Tredget, but there was no sign of him and the fire was out.

  He found a large glass jar and added some seawater and a tuft of seaweed attached to a small rock. Then he slipped the little seahorse off his palm and into the jar.

  “You can go back into a rock pool at low tide,” Awa said to it. He watched it swim around the jar and then wrap its tail round a seaweed stem.

  Its colour and texture, red, yellow, white and rippled, were just like the seaweed. “Now you see me, now you don’t.” Awa laughed and called Carrot, who was dozing on his perch.

  “Carrot, shoulder! Let’s see how that mermaid with the flip-top head lasted the night.”

  At the boulder end of the beach, there were two sleek shapes resting among the highest rocks, beyond the reach of the wild sea of the night before. “It’s got a mate. Not too close this time, eh Carrot.”

  Awa felt safe on the beach, with the boulders between him and the leopard seals. He stood silently, watching them.

  “Look out! ZEALOTS!” yelled Carrot.

  Two heads lifted, and one neck stretched up, the better to sniff the air. With unexpected speed, the leopard seals shuffled their bulk down over the rocks and towards the sea and Awa. This time, he didn’t hang around. He ran up to the shelter of the mānuka and stood beside his hīnaki, watching as the two animals made their way down to his footprints in the sand. The largest of the two sniffed the sand his bare feet had stood on moments before, and then looked his way.

  “Brrrr,” said Awa. “That leopard seal gives me the willies.”

  “Grrrr,” said Carrot. “Crusty?”

  Back at Kawa HQ and with the billy on, Awa checked his supplies. There was a fish left from yesterday hanging in a wet sugar bag, but no way to catch more with the leopard seals on the prowl. Awa was planning a trip to the other end of the beach to get pāua, when Toss arrived.

  “You are all right then, Boy? I was a bit worried about you. That was a wild night. Time for a cup of tea and a kōrero?”

  He tied up his horse and his two dogs, patted Carrot and sat by the fire with Awa.

  “Rock-a-bye baby on the treetop,” he sang, “when the wind blows the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all. Good tree, eh Boy?”

  “It squeaked a bit,” said Awa.

  “So would you with Tāwhirimātea snapping at you like that.”

  “I’ve thanked Tāne, Tangaroa and Tāwhirimātea for a safe night, and Carrot too, for company.”

  “Good. And how is yonder mermaid, do you think?”

  “It’s got a mate. There’s two now, and it’s got my scent. Smells my footprints and licks its lips.”

  “I could chase it off, but I don’t wanna risk my dogs. Best to wait. It might bugger off now it has company. Maybe it knew a storm was coming. No fish then, and stay outa the water. Lucky I brought you some chops. Wanna try?”

  Awa had chops grilled on the coals, a yarn with Toss and more cups of tea. Toss left him more fresh meat and went on his sheep rounds. “This is the life,” Awa said to himself.

  At low tide he took the seahorse down to a shallow rock pool and set it free, watching as it disappeared effortlessly among the seaweed. He gathered a few pāua for emergency rations, thinking abo
ut frying them in some butter back at HQ.

  Up at the tree hut, as the shadows spread down from the hills, he checked his gear was still dry. Feeling very sleepy after the wild night, he lay on the rock-a-bye bed. Carrot, perched on the headboard, was already dozing off. Awa sang to himself the nursery rhyme Toss had sung earlier that day, smiling at the thought of a baby sleeping in a treetop. “Babies sleep anywhere, but why would anyone want to put a baby up a tree in a cradle? Nursery rhymes are crazy.”

  8

  Flip-top’s Retreat

  Awa was a bit annoyed that Flip-top Head was still ensconced at his end of the beach. “Aren’t you hungry yet, Flip-top?” he yelled from a safe distance.

  The leopard seal raised its head, and Awa raised his shanghai. His stone bounced and clattered among the boulders. Another head lifted to look his way.

  “Grrrr, zealots!” Carrot wasn’t impressed either.

  “We’d better be landlubbers today, Carrot. I don’t trust those flip-tops. They must’ve eaten so much they don’t need to hunt. We should stay outa the water till they sleep it off.”

  They wandered back to the Rumbles’ cabin. Smoke drifted hazily through the macrocarpa branches. Awa stomped and shuffled his sandy feet on the steps and boards of the verandah to clean them, and Ma Rumble came to the door.

  “Awatea. Come in. It’s nearly lunchtime, where have you been? And where is that Tredget?”

  “Hello, hello, hello,” said Carrot.

  “And hello to you, pretty bird.”

  “I haven’t seen Tredget this morning. I’ve been down the beach.”

  “You look like you’ve been shipwrecked. I can’t let your grandmother see you in this state. Sit down. Carrot, bed. Have some scones, dear, and then a wash, then lunch. Then we’d better get you over to your Nan. She’s been worried about you.”