Daily Photo – Kapukataumahaka / Mount Cargill

Long before Europeans arrived on the shores of New Zealand and set about naming everything after themselves, their friends, or somewhere they’d left behind in England, Māori already had perfectly good names for pretty much everything.

Here in Dunedin, the prominent mountain we now know as Mount Cargill was known to Kāi Tahu as Kapukataumahaka. While the name doesn’t lend itself to a neat, literal translation, it carries the meaning of a place where food was gathered, particularly where birds such as weka and kererū were hunted and snared while feeding on the berries of the kapuka, or broadleaf tree.

So, long before Mount Cargill was Mount Cargill, it was a place where people went looking for dinner. Which, when you think about it, is probably a far more useful name for a mountain.

Daily Photo – Cactus Garden in the Winter Glasshouse

Today I bring to you the cactus, which allows me to share a story that I can assure you is absolutely true and fits neatly into the “idiot has a gun” category.

In February 1982, an Arizona man and his friend headed out into the desert to engage in a little “cactus plugging”. For the uninitiated, cactus plugging is a rather simple activity. All you need is a gun and a giant cactus and, like many activities involving firearms and questionable decision-making, it generally goes well until it doesn’t.

On this occasion, the pair came across a cactus reported to be between seven and eight metres tall, which would have made it well over a century old. Now, the thing about this particular cactus that features in our story is that this type doesn’t grow arms until they’re around 70 years old, and the monstrous specimen the pair had chosen had side arms later estimated to weigh around 230 kilograms, making the cactus somewhere between 150 and 200 years old. Well, the pair happily fired away at the cactus, repeatedly shooting into the base, naturally weakening the trunk. When their target didn’t immediately fall, they continued firing in the hope of toppling the mighty beast.

What happened next, I can only imagine, was one of those moments in life when time seems to stand still while everything happens in slow motion. As they continued firing, one of the massive side arms suddenly broke free, falling directly on top of one of the men and pinning him to the ground. The now unstable cactus, no longer able to support its own enormous weight, then collapsed on top of him.

Faced with his friend being crushed beneath a giant cactus, the other man ran several miles for help, but by the time emergency crews reached the remote location, he was already dead.

There are, I imagine, countless ways to leave this world. Being flattened by a cactus in the Arizona desert, has to rank among the more unusual.

This is my latest writing project, it’s called Tales from the Devil’s Half-Acre, stories from Dunedin most infamous quarter. You can find it here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/tales-from-the-devils-half-acre/

Tales from the Devil’s Half-Acre: https://fromasmallcity.nz/tales-from-the-devils-half-acre/

Daily Photo – Evening in Dunedin’s Exchange

I’d spent the early part of the evening having dinner with a group of long-time friends, an occasion that quickly confirmed to everyone present that, despite the passing years, I hadn’t changed one bit. I’d arrived carrying a camera and tripod, immediately reassuring the gathering that there was every chance I’d disappear at some point in search of a photograph. With that expectation firmly established, I did what any sensible person would do and went in search of the first round of beers to get the evening underway.

Dinner itself was a complete success, if your definition of success involves dripping food down the front of your top while simultaneously scattering the rest in an impressively constructed semi-circle around the edge of your plate. Not content with that achievement, I rounded things off by leaving a trail of beer drips that started at the bar and led all the way back to our table, courtesy of the pint I was apparently meant to be in control of.

Having made what I felt was an entirely suitable impression, and reassured everyone that I remained exactly the same slightly chaotic person they’d known for years, I said my goodbyes and went in search of a bus home. Naturally, the camera and tripod came with me. After all, there was no point carrying them around all evening if I wasn’t going to stop somewhere on the way home and take a photograph

Daily Photo – Rain Across Otago Harbour

There are mornings when the weather seems unable to make up its mind. This was one of them. I was driving back from Port Chalmers to Dunedin when a curtain of rain swept across Otago Harbour, turning the familiar view into something altogether more theatrical. Dark clouds hung low over the hills while shafts of sunlight found improbable gaps, pouring through as though someone had quietly opened a door in the sky.

I pulled over because some scenes deserve more than a glance through a windscreen. They ask for a little patience.

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Daily Photo – Sunlight in the Window

Here’s an image I grabbed on a stroll through Dunedin’s inner city. On this occasion, I’d been looking at some of the older buildings in the area, trying to find different angles and interesting points of view. That’s when I noticed the sun reflecting off one of the windows of a nearby office block. When the light caught it, I liked the contrast between the modern glass and the older architecture that surrounded it.