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Witi Ihimaera, Gisborne Author
Whale Rider; Pounamu, Pounamu; and many others...
"Most of my short stories, novels and plays are set in Gizzy or Te Karaka, Whangara and Tolaga Bay, mainly because that's where Mum and Dad came from.
In Pounamu, Pounamu, for instance, there is one story called "The Other Side of the Fence" which is about a Pakeha family which comes to live next door to a Maori family in Haig Street, Te Hapara.
In my novel, The Rope of Man, there's a scene set on top of Kaiti Hill; if you feel like it you should go up there and read the relevant chapter to yourself!
The Whale Rider is of course set out at Whangara, where the original Paikea landed, but there's also scenes set in Sponge Bay and on Wainui Beach. Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies is set in Waituhi;
I'm really looking forward to film adaptation which Lee Tamahori is directing. And in my next collection of short stories, The Thrill of Falling, the title story takes place in Tolaga Bay.
And why do I keep on writing about Gizzy? Well, as friends say to me whenever I do anything not quite urban-Auckland and stylish, "You can take the boy out of Gizzy, but you can't take Gizzy out of the boy!"
Witi
'Witi Ihimaera's The Whale Rider, Pounamu, Pounamu, and other books
are published by Penguin New Zealand.'
Witi Ihimaera's Books >>> 
