Weeping WatersOn Christmas Eve 1953, shortly after 10pm a lahar (torrent of water) gushed out of the crater of Mount Ruapehu and swept down the valley, fatally weakening a railway bridge, minutes before a packed overnight express train nose-dived into a river at tangiwai, in the centre of the North Island. Many of the 285 passengers, mostly families and young people, were asleep and 151 perished in one of the world's worst train disasters. For Maori the tragedy was inevitable. the train track should never have been built across the volcano's path . . . tangiwai means weeping waters and was known as the place of torrential flows and death. In Weeping Waters, the memories of tangiwai drive those who live there fifty years on to look for ways to tame Ruapehu, where another deadly lahar is building. Set between 1953 and the present day the novel is based on events surrounding the tangiwai disaster and the conflict that still exists. While the characters and incidents are invented, many of the 1953 survival and rescue stories are based on true events. When a young Vulcanologist comes to research early warning systems on the mountain, she finds herself in the middle of a raging debate between local landowners, iwi and government agencies. With a hidden agenda of her own she finds herself torn between two men, each on opposing sides of the argument. |
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... close friend , ' there's not a lot of traffic around there this time of year and we get a lot of tourists drifting over to the right - hand side of the road . We lost two Swiss people last year and two Germans this year . Cleaned up ...
... close friend , ' there's not a lot of traffic around there this time of year and we get a lot of tourists drifting over to the right - hand side of the road . We lost two Swiss people last year and two Germans this year . Cleaned up ...
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... close. She hears it first, the unmistakable chop-chopping of a helicopter, and returns to the window in time to see it rising out of the cloudy summit's jaws like a dragonfly in search of its prey, hovering uncertainly for a few seconds ...
... close. She hears it first, the unmistakable chop-chopping of a helicopter, and returns to the window in time to see it rising out of the cloudy summit's jaws like a dragonfly in search of its prey, hovering uncertainly for a few seconds ...
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... close shave had done nothing to dim his awe of volcanoes , just notched up his respect levels . ' I'd rather die on a volcano than in a road accident , ' he had told his wife Sue , who didn't care for either option . ' At the end of the ...
... close shave had done nothing to dim his awe of volcanoes , just notched up his respect levels . ' I'd rather die on a volcano than in a road accident , ' he had told his wife Sue , who didn't care for either option . ' At the end of the ...
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... close . He's keen to do some more fishing alone , without interruption . He steers his shiny 8 - metre charter boat with all the bells and whistles into the marina at Taupo . Just two years old , the vessel still gives him the same kind ...
... close . He's keen to do some more fishing alone , without interruption . He steers his shiny 8 - metre charter boat with all the bells and whistles into the marina at Taupo . Just two years old , the vessel still gives him the same kind ...
Contents
Chapter Nine | |
Chapter Thirteen | |
Chapter Sixteen | |
Chapter Nineteen | |
Chapter TwentyOne | |
Chapter TwentyThree | |
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Common terms and phrases
arrived Beverley Bill's bodies breath bridge bulldozers carriage catch Cedric CHAPTER Cheryl chopper Christmas climbing close crash Crater Lake Damon drive early warning system eruption eyes face fish Frances feels Frances says geophones hair hand happened head hear Hemi inside kiss lahar Lake Taupo laughs leave looks Luke Maori Mata Moana Mount Ruapehu Mount St Helens mountain move Ngati Tuwharetoa night pulls quickly remember river road rocks Ruapehu Sam's seismologists Shona shoulder side sister smiles sorry starts steam stop suddenly summit sure Taihape talk Tangiwai Tangiwai disaster Taumarunui Taupo tell tephra Theo there's things tiny Tongariro Tongariro River Tori says train trout trying turns Uncle Eruera voice volcano Waiouru waiting walk watches Whangaehu River whispers woman worry Yeah young Zealand