Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/64

46 The following significant entry appears on the 21st of the same month. “I believe that I may now assert that I have overcome the two greatest difficulties to be met with by bushmen in New Zealand, viz., the capability of walking barefoot, and subsisting on fern root. The first, the want of shoes had been a dread to me for some time, often fearing I should be left a barefooted cripple in some desolate black birch forest on this deserted coast, but now I can trudge along barefoot, or with a pair of native sandals, called by the Maoris parairai, which are made of leaves of the ti, or flax tree. I can make a sure footing in crossing rivers, ascending or descending precipices, in fact I feel I am just commencing to make exploring easy work. A good pair of sandals will last about two days’ hard work, and take about twenty minutes to make.”

Just prior to reaching the Okarito Pa they passed the wreck of a large sealing boat, which was a quarter mile inshore from high water mark. Brunner noted that “the growth of the bushes and the appearance of the wreck show that the sea is fast receding from this coast.” Okarito was originally a very large pa principally used as a base for bird snaring and fishing, and was regarded as of great importance as a food producing centre. “That it abounds in eels,” says Brunner, “I had full proof of, during my visit here, our diet being