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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... shoulder , a small backpack on the other and attempts to walk away but a beagle blocks her way , brushing against her leg then sniffing her and her luggage . She knows it means business and resists a temptation to pat the dog as it ...
... shoulder , a small backpack on the other and attempts to walk away but a beagle blocks her way , brushing against her leg then sniffing her and her luggage . She knows it means business and resists a temptation to pat the dog as it ...
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... shoulders , he begins to walk gingerly around the rim . For a tall man , he moves nimbly in his well - worn hiking boots ... shoulder . As a column of steamy vapour hits him in the face , he reels back , choking . ' Fuck , that nearly ...
... shoulders , he begins to walk gingerly around the rim . For a tall man , he moves nimbly in his well - worn hiking boots ... shoulder . As a column of steamy vapour hits him in the face , he reels back , choking . ' Fuck , that nearly ...
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... shoulder , catapulting him over a small ridge . He had crawled beneath an overhanging rock shelf where he lay for four hours , drifting in and out of consciousness , until eventually a rescue team arrived and airlifted him to hospital ...
... shoulder , catapulting him over a small ridge . He had crawled beneath an overhanging rock shelf where he lay for four hours , drifting in and out of consciousness , until eventually a rescue team arrived and airlifted him to hospital ...
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... shoulders and starts packing away the equipment . The two men are as different as they are alike . As he's got older and especially since his near miss during the eruption when the lake had disappeared altogether , Theo has been won ...
... shoulders and starts packing away the equipment . The two men are as different as they are alike . As he's got older and especially since his near miss during the eruption when the lake had disappeared altogether , Theo has been won ...
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... shoulders flex as he leans over to yank him out of the cold water . ' Bugger , that was a Rolex - cost me a bundle ! ' Denis Brown's normally booming voice is reduced to a splutter . ' Well , dive back in and get it , Denis , ' the ...
... shoulders flex as he leans over to yank him out of the cold water . ' Bugger , that was a Rolex - cost me a bundle ! ' Denis Brown's normally booming voice is reduced to a splutter . ' Well , dive back in and get it , Denis , ' the ...
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