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 The Victorian is the name of an occasional return train trip between Dunedin and Oamaru. I took that day trip yesterday with my family. It was well worth it.

Along the way, I learned various facts about the region's history. Blueskin Bay is named after a Maori chief whose entire face was tattooed. The site of Johnny Jones's whale station at Karitane was pointed out. Waikouatiti means receding water. Seacliff Sanctuary was the largest building in New Zealand at the time it was built. 

And when I wasn't looking out the window, I read from the second in the autobiographical trilogy by  Mihipeka Edwards - Nga Wa Raruraru (Time of Turmoil).

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 In Mihipeka: Call of an Elder (Karanga a te Kuia) by Mihi Edwards i read:

 Because we didn't have a written language, all words spoken by a kaumatua were automatically absorbed by the brain, the most wonderful organ of the body, the human computer. My kuia was careful to remind me when I was young to respect the mahunga (head) of the man, and never to pass food over that part of his body because it's so tapu. So many times the elders said our history and whakapapa are stored in the head.

To me this "automatic absorption" is reminiscent of massive comprehensible input. 

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Mihi Edwards wrote a trilogy. I own the first two books, and Dunedin Library has the third. I read the first book a few years ago, but I haven’t the other two.

Mihi sprinkles Maori words and phrases throughout her work. It is an autobiography. She was born in 1918, and three weeks later her mother died of the flu during the epidemic at that time. 

An activity I plan to do is make a count of all the Maori used in at least the first book: Mihipeka—Early Years. I’ll use Excel for that. I made a start yesterday.