GROAN

We engaged in some culinary experimentation tonite with muttonbirds.

Not the well known salted muttonbird which is normally cooked by boiling it and replacing the water a few times to get rid of the excess salt.

No, we cooked fresh muttonbirds. They are not brined.

So what did we do?

Well first you have to catch your muttonbird and Bustedblonde did that a while back.

Then you gut it.

Then we did something we have never done before - we boned it out.

We removed the ribs and backbone and breastbones. So all that was left with the bone in were the legs.

Now muttonbirds are very very oily. More on that later...

We lay the bird skin side down on the chopping board.

Then we got some of our favourite salt - its a smoked herbed version and lightly sprinkled it over the meat . Not too much though..

Then we made the stuffing - its a traditional sage and onion stuffing with good old dried mixed herbs.. And a chopped up raw onion. Then we chucked an egg in to bind and then we used Fejoa and Apple juice to moisten...

Then added salt and pepper to taste.

Then we trussed it up .. ( sorry no camera but it look a bit like a mini version of the goose in the pic)

Then we scored the skin with a knife to let the fat out. This is really important.

Then we placed in an open baking dish with about 1/2 a cup of water.

It was pretty hot oven to start them we turned it down a bit and as the water evaporated the oil drained and roasted the birds for about 2 hours.

We took a cup of oil off when they were finished.

Now fresh muttonbirds have a propensity to dry out. Not these babies... They were divine..

Moist, meaty and rich and the bed of potato and swede mash a perfect sweet foil to the richness.

Just wish Busted had caught more of the buggers.

DEREK FOX IN PRINT

Maori commentator and publisher Derek Fox has a new column in the Cook Islands but it deserves another airing.

We don't agree with everything he says - ( that often makes having a drink with him a stimulating and interesting occasion) but his thoughts need a wider audience.

Here is the Cook Island column in full .

Still looking for justice

Last week I foreshadowed that I might this week talk about the Foreshore and Seabed debate here in Aotearoa. I indicated that while what MPs used their ministerial credit cards for was gaining all the headlines, the big story of the week should really have been the foreshore and seabed – and I still believe that.

It’s important for a number of reasons. Firstly it is/was a pivotal issue and cornerstone of the support agreement between National and the Maori Party; and secondly it’s one of those flax root debates between Maori and Pakeha which we need to get right – and so far we haven’t – if there is to be a peaceful path forward in this country.

It’s also important because we are at the halfway stage in the political game we call this parliamentary term, and the Maori Party doesn’t have too many meaningful points on the board as we head down now to the next general election.

The foreshore and seabed debate is about property and legal rights – something you’d think the National Party would be solid on. It’s not about access to the country’s beaches - that right – within reason – is beyond doubt.

But National is no keener than Labour to see Maori retain any of their traditional and customary rights developed over the centuries we occupied these islands prior to the arrival of the Pakeha. And that tells me this is a Maori Pakeha issue not one about law and justice and people’s inherent rights. Labour even took away the right of Maori to go to court to see if we had a right – National will restore that but will so tightly prescribe how that right may be determined that it will all but be negated.

So the foreshore and seabed that my tipuna held sway over as a result of hundreds of years of co-existence with our iwi neighbours, will be taken away by the government. On the other hand 12 and a half thousand separate parcels of foreshore and seabed – overwhelmingly held by Pakeha - which have somehow passed into ‘freehold’ title -will be sacrosanct. You won’t be able to go to those beaches and have a swim or a barbie, certainly not without permission and maybe a fee?

So once again it is Maori who have their rights legislated away.

Labour and now National both claim that one of their reasons for moving in this way is to ‘protect’ the foreshore and seabed from sale – nothing would give it greater protection that customary title - after all it’s endured for a thousand years until now.

Another looming punch-up in this process is the hoops that Maori will have to jump through to establish their limited customary right. They will be required to show ‘exclusive and continuous use and occupation’ of their foreshore and seabed rohe. If the land has been subdivided that test will fall down. But what if the only reason that hasn’t occurred is because a previous pakeha government stole the land or it was acquired by some other Treaty breach?

John Key last week joined Helen Clark in showing that he too is not able to treat fairly and justly and in good faith with Maori, the pull of his blood and the baying of his supporters is too strong.

While Fox has some harsh words for the government we think that after listening to Chris Finlayson this morning on Q and A , we are more confident that the agreement provides a good framework to allow Maori to exercise their customary rights.

We, in particular, are expecting Ngai Tahu to lodge a claim get title for the former crown muttonbird (titi) islands which are now under the guardinaship of a Trust. And the beneficial owners of the other titi ( privately owned ) islands will also be able to make a claim for theirs.

There is also a fair bet that the Waitutu and Rakiura Maori Lands Trusts will also be taking a close look at the new rules as there will be some expectation they will have a good claim as well.

Interesting times ahead.

FEATHERS FLY -

We have had about a dozen emails and texts today asking if  we were involved in the stabbing on  the muttonbird islands on Monday. A bloke ( yes we know who he is ) was stabbed by another bloke ( and we know him as well and we dont like him. ) 


Guns  and often alcohol are banned on most islands. But as knives are pretty integral to the processing of the birds  - its no surprise  that they would be used as weapons in an argument. The island where the altercation occurred is about an hours journey by boat from our island.

It was apparently an argument about muttonbirds.  We laughed out loud at this statement by an Invercargill copper.

He was flown directly to Southland Hospital where he underwent surgery and was expected to be released today, said Detective Dougall Henderson of Invercargill police.

Access to the isolated islands is restricted to Rakiura Maori, who harvest muttonbirds - also known as sooty shearwaters - there, but police were granted clearance to fly to the island and a boning knife was recovered, he said.

A 49-year-old man was arrested and now faces serious assault charges.

The men had been muttonbirding together, but had a falling out over birds.

"Muttonbirds, not the other type," Mr Henderson said.

Hell, over the years  birders have fought over boundaries, catches, and just for the hell of it -   but women??? Nah. Never.


It will be interesting if the prize  wanker who was arrested will be allowed back on the island.

BIRDS OF A DIFFERENT FEATHER

During the past two weeks in the bay of a little muttonbird island at the entrance of Pegasus Harbour on the south east Coast of Stewart Island, we managed to get a few hours dingy fishing with a green line. We caught a few trumpter and a few more blue cod. But the biggest joy proved to be the mollymawks, as we know them, who sat about three feet from the dinghy waiting patiently for us to dong bony kelpie fish on the head and sling them overboard. The three or four birds that tracked the dinghy argued and scrapped over the titbits. But at the closing of the day, with drops of sea water on their silken feathers, the dying sun amplified the majestic beauty of the birds

FAT ASS CHICKS

We have been asked by quite a few people what the muttonbirds are like after a disasterous year last year.

Well our cuzzy Storm Wardrop, a star of Million Dollar Catch reckons they are big assed mommas. An average season means you get about 20 to a bucket - At this stage of the season if they are really big they would be about 15- 16   a bucket as they fine down as they lose their chick fat - so by the time we get there you should average about 20 a bucket..

However Storm says the birds are very big - the birders can only fit 13 in a bucket!... Yikes.....

TWO WEEKS OF CHICK CHATTER

This is  the noise we will hear at the muttonbird islands every night. You get used to it. It mainly occurs in the evening and the morning  as the parent bids communicate with the chicks. For the record we do not eat the eggs. Muttonbirds only lay one.  We harvest the chicks at night. This video, apart from the the error about eating eggs is cool. Sort of an avian Blair Witch project. 

HOOKERS

We share our muttonbird island with these smelly noisy beautiful majestic big buggers. They live in the bush as much as on the beach and will literally scare the crap out of you if you come across them in the dark. On land they are very aggressive. At sea they play. We have hand fed them mussels from a rock - they are highly intelligent and an endless source of amusement. They can clean out a gill net full with about 20 green bone in a matter of minutes. Video courtesy of Stewart Island Helicopters

COOL CHANGE

This is the boat that will take us to the muttonbird island and that's the helicopter that will take Ma and Pa down. It not our island shown but its very similar. And that's how we get our gear ashore. In the old days it used to take about ten dinghy loads.

Make a change from staring at a computer in my 5 x5 public service cubby hole every day.

IN DEEP

In about three weeks we are going to be here.

Its Ernest Island which is a  short swim to Stewart Island, one of the southern most and isolated muttonbird  islands and on a good day with the sun shining on the ebb tide and the fish biting, its kinda paradise. When the southerly comes up and your words are thiefed by a gale to disappear forever - its  hells next door neigbour .
And yes, those waters are so clear you hang over the end of the dinghy and watch the blue cod commit suicide on a rusty hook baited up with the arse of a muttonbird.


We have been commissioned to write a story on this years trip , which we will be taking with our 73 year old father, 69 year old mother and 28 year old son.

The story will be in a magazine called New Zealand Today - and the editor is an old work colleague, Allan Dick.
We will be without  a cellphone and there is no internet coverage. We can talk on  a VHF and in the past we have taken down a Satellite Phone, but it costs a bit  - last time it was $600 for 2 weeks.( if anyone wants to sponsor us  - please let us know!)

It will be hard work,  and fun and always brings us closer together as a family. We work and live together in very confined quarters - Our power is a generator, we have a coal range that needs all the love an attention of an expensive mistress to keep us a warm and fed.

We have a long drop  but we have a good shower. Well we did two years ago. The first few days are always spent gerry rigging the things that have broken or deteriorated without constant maintenence. Its one of the joys and challenges of the place. Getting by with what you have got at hand.

We will take our computer  and blog when we can  and then we will put them all up on Roarprawn when we get back about the 14th of May. We will be taking a video as well.

And yep we sell the birds we catch to defray expenses.  It will cost  the four of us over $2500 to get down  by boat and chopper from Bluff  and thats is not taking into account the $1000 dollars for me and the son to fly Air New Zealand. But its worth every godamn hard earned dollar it costs to get there.
The boat we are travelling on is skippered by Jack Topi, he is  the grandson of Peter Topi, my Uncle who along with  a bunch of our cousins was tragically drowned on the Kotuku back in 2006. "Big Teep"  as my Uncle was affectionately known, would be bloody proud of his grandson, in fact his whole family have done him proud. 

We are alos looking for some guest bloggers to keep the Roarprawn feeding the masses while we are out of range.
And if you want to buy some birds then contact us on [email protected]

KAPAI KAI FIT FOR A KING

It seems the mother country is all a lather over poor wee pwince william having to endure a traditional Maori feast on his visit to NZ.

The 27-year-old will dine at a traditional Maori barbie or "hangi", where the food is cooked in a hole in the ground, and is expected to swallow every single mouthful or else risk offending his hosts, reports the Daily Star.

William is expected to be nibble on the Titi bird, the fatty chicks of the storm-petrel, raw seaweed, kina sea eggs and fiery pepper leaves.

He could also be asked to try chopped eels and the giant-sized hu-hu grub, served lightly grilled and said to taste of strong, chewy chicken.

A source close to the prince said: "During his military training, William had to try all sorts of food during his survival tests, so not much fazes him.

Well the Titi is not a storm petrel - its a shearwater and if the prince eats sushi he will know all about raw seaweed and horopito is now recognised as a pretty impressive condiment.

As for the huhu grubs, well they aren't bad either.

Over the years we have had many many british born lovers of muttonbirds as regular customers. They buy the birds because they remind them of kippers.

So we reckon that William will be just fine. However we expect the Hangi is more likely to include some fish - maybe eels, pork and chicken and some stuffing and there will be a bloody big steam pud as well!

BACK TO TIKANGA

We have been in Hamilton this weekend - a world away from Wellington and two worlds away from the South Island and Ngai Tahu.

We have had time to take stock and we think we have set out to achieve what we wanted to do - get Ngai Tahu focusing on their leadership and the tribes performance and make people think and act on who they want to represent them - and we have already seen the signals , with the election of Wally Stone and Tahu Potiki, that the people want a change of direction.

We have come under fire for moderating the debate on various posts - its simply because both the supporters of Mark Solomon and his detractors have indulged in some personal mudslinging the likes of which we have never, ever seen before on any issue we have ever run on this blog.

We reckon that we have done a good job of stoking the fires of a very important issue for Ngai Tahu rank and file. We think that we were pretty well known for plain speaking on the Marae so we have taken that approach on this blog. We have done what we have done here on Ngai Tahu issues on Roarprawn, with the help of many from one end of the country to the other. We thank them. For many Ngai Tahu, Roarprawn is not something that ends up in your puku - it a noisy little fish that embeds in your brain and makes you think.

But now it is time for the focus to shift from the virtual marae we have created here to the real one.

It is now the turn of the people, face to face, to sort these issues through.

So until the Hui A Tau which is being held at Oraka Aparima Colac Bay Riverton, on the weekend of the 20-22nd of November is over, we wont mock, prod, slap, dig, cajole, criticise or praise anything or anyone in relation to the elections.

We think that this way everyone can take a breather and think very, very wisely about the best part they can play in the future of the tribe that will serve the best interests of us all.

That sort of talk is best done without heat in quiet rooms.

It's time for all the tribe to turn up to the Hui A Tau and voice their concerns and support for the people they want to lead the tribe.

It is time to take the business back into the House of Tahu for a while. There is going to have to be an orderly transition in leadership - as Ngai Tahu is not just important to its people, it has an important role to play in the South Island economy. Ngai Tahu can also join with other iwi to get the economies of scale required to advance new business ventures to benefit all Maori.

And for those who have contacted us and asked if we are interested in being involved in the elections down home in Awarua, Bluff. Yes and no. We have no interest in standing as a representative. We are fervent devotees of Ahi Kaa. That is - that those who are at home are the best to manage the home affairs. But maybe we will put our hands up to be on the panel to select the local delegate. We will consider that option in due course.

We walked away from active involvement in tribal affairs 10 years ago, when we moved to Wellington, after being heavily engaged in runanga, marae and runanga business and the titi committee. The only tribal business we ever really wanted to be actively involved in was the management of fisheries but that opportunity never came our way.

Many of the skills we learnt at home have stood us in good stead all these years.
We have run our own successful little business without a drop of financial support from anyone, so that has been pretty satisfying.

And its good to look back and see that a lot of what we help initiateback home has survived today. So we look back with some pride. And its those experiences and understanding that has kept us forever interested in tribal politics - albiet at a distance.

So to you , leaders and followers all - it is time to put aside the egos, the family disputes, the jealousies and for humility to reign and for The Table to serve up the feast of social and economic riches for all us to share.

So for now we will stay quiet and concentrate on other things.. Just for a while mind you, just for a while..

GLORIOUS FOOD

The Australian has a great yarn on the worlds best food experiences from readers.

this is our particular favourite

"While tootling around the far-north Japanese island of Hokkaido, one morning my husband I found ourselves on a windswept wharf, the fishing boats and trawlers tantalisingly empty. My husband, who possesses the food instincts of a gourmet bloodhound, pointed at a nondescript door, through which a few people came and went: "Let’s go in there". We entered a shopfront where glistening fish was piled high on ice – tiny, brilliant red prawns encrusted with bright blue roe, dinner-dish sized scallops, the prized starlight squid. After much pointing and gesturing, the fishmonger unfolded a card table, plonked it in the middle of the bare room, tipped some soy and a smudge of wasabi onto paper plates with a great pile of the prawns, and offered us tea made from the local, dried seaweed. The moral of the story? For one door to open, you sometimes have to knock on it."

For us, the following food memory is enduring.

On the coldest and windiest of nights over 45 years ago we would be sitting in the tiny "pluckhole" on the muttonbird (titi) island - a small square room in the workhouse, that fitted about 6 people all pulling the first layer of feathers from the fat titi. Occasionally the men would stop for a quick swig from a big bottle of beer, the women pausing for a sip of sweet tea from enamel mugs. All the time the men and women wove tales of the past to clothe us for the future.

With the last of their down still on the birds, they were passed out of the pluck hole and another group of men and women dipped the birds into hot water .With an ancient rhythmic swipe, the last fluffy undercoat disappeared from the titi leaving them clean naked . They were then hung from the rafters to dry.

In another corner of the workshed on an old range, a Kerosene tin rocked as it boiled away - full of muttonbirds simmering in nothing but a seawater broth. Its rangetop companions were an old black boiler of mussels steaming away, in their own juices. In a third pot, cod heads peeked out - looking like they were fleeing their only companion - an onion.

After a hundred or so birds had been plucked clean and hung to dry, old Maxy Skipper would pull down the pail of oily titi, the mussels and codheads putting them on the floor, the heady scents driving us crazy and we generations all, would sit around on beer crates and apple boxes, wipe our hands of the last of the feathers off on our overalls and dip in and grab a piece of bird or mussels or a cod head.
Faces and hands grease smeared, we grinned at each other in shared delight of the sublime and subtle flavours. Us kids loved to watch Maxy. He played the boiled birds like a harmonica - in one side of his chubby moosh went the oily legs of a bird and out the otherside came the cleaned white drumstick - all in the blink of an eye and the lick of his chops.

Poetry it was - poetry.

CALAMITY - AND PESTILENCE.

We have been blogging on this for a while.

It is arguably the worst muttonbird season in 45 years.

It affects many of our larger whanau.

It is a significant environmental event. Not unprecedented but significant.

MUTTONBIRD SEASON NOT GOING TO BE GOOD

One of the most unique harvests in New Zealand is about to get underway on Wednesday but the news is not all that good.

Hundreds of Rakiura Maori, those with a blood right to exclusively harvest muttonbirds, are on or on their way to over 25 islands around Stewart Island. However the early signs are that this is not going to be a good season.

It is nature - and it happens at least once a decade. And the fluctuations are well recorded.

The crook seasons are cyclical as we have blogged before. Our family has a policy of not harvesting muttonbirds if the season is not looking good. I suppose some would call that conservation - we just call it common sense.

Some birders will go to the island's to check on their properties and make any repairs others will stay away . They only good thing is that a bad season with low numbers of chicks or chicks in poor conditions is always a precursor to a bloody good season. So if the early information is correct then next year will produce a bumper crop.

And while we may not go to our island this year our favourite Hooker Sealions will have the island all to themselves.

OF BIRDS, FAMILIES AND BUSINESS

We made a decision a couple of days ago to head to the muttonbird island with Ma and Pa - Dad is 72 and mum is coming up 69.

We love the island - it has a white sand beach , more often than not occupied by Hooker's Sealions and has some really good Blue Cod fishing patches. We can set a net for a feed of greenbone and dive for a feed of paua.
And then of course there is the muttonbird harvest itself - An ancient hunt that is locked into our genes despite the fact that the last full blood Ngai Tahu was 6 generations back. Go figure.

Anyway after all the crap between the factions who are fighting for supremacy at the Ngai Tahu governing body Te Runanga O Ngai Tahu we think that for the last ten years TRONT, as it is known, has done bugger all for us. Then again we never expected it to. We receive regular monthly newsletters about what each runanga is doing and we find that a good way to find out just what the cousins are doing at home. They are the Ahi Kaa - the ones who keep the home fires burning.

And we get the less frequent Te Karaka - which is a glossy mag that looks at some of the achievements of the tribe. There are some good ones.

And then there is Whai Rawa the Ngai Tahu Superannuation Fund. It will be interesting to see how this is managed in these financially troubled times.
Oh and dad gets a few hundred dollars at Xmas for being an old Ngai Tahu bugger - and being on a pension he looks forward to a wee bit of spare cash.
So not a lot in it for us really. But back to the muttonbird islands.

Our business is strong enough that we can afford to take ten days off and fly there and back in a chopper.

We have worked long and hard to get to that position. We have often wondered if Ngai Tahu would come calling for our business expertise but they never have - we reckon its because we don't do sychophancy very well.

Our focus of the next 6 weeks will be getting fit for the Muttonbird season, that is going to be a very big ask because , not to put too finer point on it,we are way too big.

It may well be the last year for us - Mum and Dad will probably put our little family hut and work house up for sale. So despite all the things the tribe is doing the only real payback we have had from being Ngai Tahu is that it has allowed us to go the island, harvest muttonbirds, practice all the things that have been handed down over generations, and build up a very small asset.
And its for the likes of the two boys in the top picture - one is son of BB and a helicopter pilot/instructor and the other is cousin Storm a young fisherman - one of the stars of the Million dollar Catch.

Both of them have got to where they are without the help of the tribe.

Somehow that seems so much more impressive than building $52million dollar office blocks with money that was given by the government for the wrongs perpetrated on a previous generation.
This generation didn't earn it and now it cant even play with it nicely.

Maybe its time for those at the table to go out and spend some time making money in the real world where the only dollar you get to spend is the one you earn.

BLOOD RIGHTS

We southern natives have a comprehensive set of rules and regs that protect our harvesting rights to take muttonbirds.
This story was first broken by TVNZ. Now the Southland Times has gone digging


A simplification is that a bunch of chiefs did a deal with the government to sell of Stewart Island and most of the surrounding islands. They kept a few muttonbird islands for their relatives. They are known as Beneficial Islands. Their descendants were effectively given a property right. While they were doing the deal, many others were actually on the islands catching birds - so they came back to find in many of the islands they had traditionally birded had literally been sold without their knowledge. Those people petitioned the government who saw the injustice and allowed the birders to use the wrongly sold islands in perpetuity. They are known as the Crown Islands. Then when Ngai Tahu completed its treaty settlement deal with the government , a core part of the settlement was the return of the Crown Islands. Once both sets of the islands were administered under one body - now there are two.

Family feuds and arguments over rights to the beneficial islands have festered for generations.
Whakapapa must be proved and it appears now that there are some issues over just who is descended from whom.

This issue is not small, it affects about 100 families who guard their rights with passion.
It is to be hoped that wise and benevolent heads of the new leaders of Rakiura Maori can chart a way through what will be be some very stormy waters.

Kia Kaha cousins.

ROUND UP

• Which top journo who tried PR and was good at it, decided after a particularly amoral decision by his employers to return to the side of the angels?

All we will say is power to the people.

• Which Ex MP is up on fraud charges?

• Is it true that Paula Bennett has been offered a fight for life contract?

• Who else wants to say "no we f****kn wont" every time they hear Barry Obama say "Yes we can?"

• While everyone is worrying about access to beaches some Maori are having trouble agreeing amongst themselves who has rights to the land and harvests in the deep south

Watch that space - its all about who was here first, who dares and who wins.

WHALE OIL THINKS GOOGLE IS CLEVER - WE THINK MUTTONBIRDS ARE

Whale oil waxes on about how cool it is that Google data is now so extensive it is being used as a tool to predict flu epidemics.

It is clever but muttonbird harvest also provide us with unique predictions on weather patterns.

You see Titi ( muttonbird) harvests fluctuate . some years they are fat and abundant - and other years skinny and scarce. A birder had a diary that went back 50 years that recorded the harvest and it showed a clear correlation between the arrival of El Nino and El Nina Weather patterns.

This is all I could find on the Net - its from Otago University who have been studying Titi for about 15 years.

Climate-related patterns in titi harvest rates: Birders' diairies have been

analysed for trends in harvest rates and practices. Analysis of a 20-year plus

record of harvest information from a birder's diary led to the very significant

discovery of a strong link between titi harvest rates and ENSO weather

patterns. This statistical analysis was corroborated by birders' traditional

knowledge regarding long-term trends in titi abundance. Other diaries and

data sources are being examined to confirm the large-scale nature of this

finding.

Since then the correlation has been corroborated further.

So wee fluffy yummy birdies are just as good as bigger than big google at prediction.