quest's end... (museum quest CONCLUSION!)

Location: Auckland

Baskets Left: 1
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i'd failed my mission to dispose of the three kete o te wananga (the tombs of all maori mystic knowledge) baskets... though i'd managed to alert ms. rhonwyn of the situation i didn't think there was much hope of her salvaging my bungle up...

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whiro, maori god of suffering and darkness, had caught up with me in auckland. this was the end of the quest for more than one reason.

the most obvious being with him on my tail (nearly literally) there was no way i could safely hold onto this basket. besides that i had no way now of getting rid of it. i'd hit every spot on the list ms. rhonwyn had given me...

okay all but one. however picton (which i had to skip due to the LAST time whiro caught up with me) was halfway across new zealand. now i was out of tickets and money to get around the country. meaning i was stuck on my own two feet to get me anywhere, and with a tireless immortal deity chasing me down my odds of making it out of auckland, that alone to picton were pretty much 0%.

in desperation at the auckland war memorial museum i'd come up with a REALLY stupid off the cusp plan. one that almost seemed to be working. not that i knew how it was going to actually save the basket... and there certainly was no chance i was going to live through it. that was for sure.

the key to my plan was that whiro chase me. which could only end in him catching me...

the reason i say this is that after running dozens and dozens of blocks through auckland i couldn't run anymore!

i'd done pretty good if you ask me. i'd managed to keep ahead of the immortal whiro, with his seemingly never ending supply of energy, and for a guy with supernatural powers he runs like an edmontosaur! with the speed advantage i had on my ornithomimid-like juvenile tyrannosaur body, i'd nearly lost whiro three times. the problem was that was me sprinting, and i'd of course have to slow back down to regain my energy. at which point he'd catch up...

till i finally reached a point where i couldn't run anymore at all. my legs were dead, and i could hardly stand up because of my gasping for air. the spot was actually pretty cool (though i never did learn what it was called). it was a stadium of some sort, and in front was a polynesian style totem pole. had it been different circumstances this would have been a great spot...

but as craig used to say "this is the way it is." whiro was once again caught up with me, and there was NOTHING i could do about it...

i'd fallen in an exhausted pile at the base of the totem pole which is where whiro caught up to me.

looking at this photo i didn't realize how well i could have camouflaged with the flowers just beside the darn pole!!!

"you have given me a good hunt kauwheke te kura [ancestor of the moa], but you're lack of courage here at the end disgusts me. could my brother tane not find a more brave warrior to be his champion and face me in battle?" whiro seemed to complain as he close in on me. wielding his mere or maori jade stone club he showed his intent to end my existence...

i let out a scream... not that it mattered the stadium was quite abandoned during this dull afternoon.

whiro laughed. "i shall not lie to you kauwheke te kura, i take great pleasure in this deed. not just for the trouble you have caused me in recovering the kete o te wananga i rightfully deserve, but because of this pathetic display of cowardice you give me now!"

he was right i realized out of my fear. i stopped screaming, and suddenly i had an odd calm about me. it was scary people of the web wide world. suddenly i didn't care i was about to die. i'd accepted it as matter of fact, and just started thinking through very detachedly how the last few seconds were going to play out...

"very well," i agreed. though i was exhausted, i stood up before him. "i shall face you at least standing on my own two feet."

whiro made an audible sound of satisfaction. he seemed to take a moment to savour the anticipation of the kill...

however my fight or flight instinct had kicked back in, and for once... my suppressed tyrannosaur instincts must have been stirred... i wasn't opting for flight now. i was going to fight!

it was almost like slow motion, but not really. my brain just registered stuff really fast (definitely unlike normal!!!) as they happened. whiro gripped his greenstone club tighter, and started to draw his arm back for the killing strike. as he started to advance on me i lunged at him. bearing my full killer crushing jaws at his chest...

had he not been made of greenstone himself, and not immortally or magic (i'm not sure which one) invulnerable, my bite would probably have killed him dead as i punctured his chest with my teeth and crushed his ribs with my incredibly strong bite. sadly though he was made of greenstone and he was invulnerable.

i just slammed off his torso as though i'd run into a brick... er greenstone wall (though in my defense i was defending myself. normally i'd never run into a wall). some of my teeth broke... its a good thing that in my case they'll grow back.

whiro stopped for moment. "i'm impressed their is a spirit of warrior buried somewhere within you," he stopped and starred at me. a long penetrating glare as though he was reading my very essence. "yes. under all that pākehā [maori word for european... though i think whiro used it here to mean modern society vs. traditional mysticism fearing cultures] conditioning lies a monster's soul waiting to be unleashed. in fact it is ready to come out any moment."

was he referring to my tyrannosaurid ways i'd been spending my whole life to avoid?

suddenly stopping whiro became very distracted by something afar. he turned to face it. just as i contemplated running again, whatever it was hit me too...

it was as though a shock wave from a nuclear blast had hit me... but yet not. i was unbelievably dizzy. something majorly magic had just happened! i suspected i knew what it was.

indeed my suspicion was correct... for back at the auckland museum part of my plan had panned out in a way i'd never anticipated...

remember that panel i'd been really stressed about in the marae. well there was a very good reason i was stressed about it. take a really close look at the picture...

did you notice the kete basket i'd hidden in the panel? well that's what i did.

the plan had been to hide it there, and hope i could distract whiro long enough for ms. rhonwyn to arrange for someone else to go and retrieve the basket and get it to picton.

only something very unexpected happened...

despite my having spent a few hours in the auckland museum and it doing nothing, now the basket suddenly decided that there was actually enough mana in the marae and that it was going to finally phase out of our reality...

somehow my plan had worked!!!!!!!!!!

i certainly wasn't expecting any of that to work out.

I'D ACCOMPLISHED THE MISSION!

not that i was going to get to enjoy the fruits of my victory.

as the pulse wave from the basket disappearing subsided (i'm thinking it was that much stronger a pulse of magic because the whole set of baskets had now gone) whiro snapped around to me. there was no need to guess what was going through his rock head.

gone was the composed god. before me was a crazed beast. he hunched over in a frightful manner, and emitted a most vicious growl. in this feral stance he advanced on me, mere posed before him.

as he closed, whiro pounced into the air to bring his entirety down upon me for the finished strike...

my life flashed before my eyes... wow had i seriously done so much and yet so little in my nearly five years of life?!?

i can remember in vivid detail, him descending on me in slow motion. my magic sense kicked in as an intense dizziness hit me once more. i thought this was my detecting my mystic natured doom finishing my existence...

little did i know behind me something was materializing...

before i know it a second greenstone figure swung in from over top me, and smashed whiro out of mid air! it was the awesome combat move i'd ever seen! (probably because it saved my life rather than it's kung funess). this new atua's (god i was assuming) hit sent whiro flying back several metres, and his mere flying from his clawed hands.

the comer took up a clearly aggressive stance between me and whiro (i smartly hid behind that statue). "you are to cease this at once whiro, and depart this realm forever!" it commanded in a really pissed off voice.

whiro's voice hissed in reply "so you finally dare to show yourself brother," ah i was right, the new comer was a god... as all the maori gods were related to each other. "this was your doing wasn't it. sending the kete back to the upper heavens. you and you're pathetic champion may have thwarted my reclaiming them, but neither of you shall live to enjoy your victory!!!"

suddenly a loud buzz filled the air as a great shadow fell from the sky to surround whiro. it was a massive army of his minions, the mosquitoes and sandflies, just like the ones that had attacked me in rotorua only there were way more of them here!... for a moment they menacingly, and very intimidatingly swarmed above their master...

than in unnaturally organized columns the legion of bugs charged my defender full on. sending him reeling from their impact. within seconds he was overwhelmed by the pests. though individually they were nothing. as an army their power was incredible. as the buzzing of their efforts grew deafeningly loud one could hear over the crunch and crack of rock... despite his greenstone composition my guardian was literally breaking under their assault!!!

just as all hope seemed lost for both him and me there came from under the buzzing and crunching a echoed voice, that despite being quite inaudible, resounded.

there was a great light, and my magic dizziness went into overdrive, as my defender finished casting his spell or incantation. the swarm of insects ignited as the powerful enchantment simply vaporized them (or something... i'm no wizard, and couldn't tell you the technical terminology for it... all i can say is they weren't there anymore).

my defender pulled himself off the ground. the breaks and fissures in his once smooth flawless greenstone body were now evident as this damage caused him to creak and crack as he moved.

"i warned you whiro," he bellowed in a both furious, but yet sadly disappointed tone. "just as i did thousands of years ago. once again you leave me no choice but to use the kete tuateu against you."

whiro who till now had been amazed and shocked into inaction by the destruction of his minions once again snapped into his bestial state and blindly rushed his brother.

once again my defender began his unearthly echoing chant, and a very very intense spell shot forth... striking whiro...

i could just make out through the humming of the spell, and the loud echo of my guardian's chanting whiro scream "i will not return to rarohenga [maori underworld]!" with this resolve he seemed to shoulder off the blast for a moment, but than the chanting increased volume and whiro started to demateralize!

moments later it was done whiro had been engulfed and swallowed by the blinding energy.

just like that the quest was over. both the kete AND whiro were gone... yet there remained something to remind me of what had just been happening.

my guardian walked over to me as i lay on the ground in a my exhausted, terrorified, and quizzy pile. looking up at him i expected him to speak. yet he said nothing. he just tilted his head so that it was alined with my own.

there we stayed for, what felt like anyway, a few minutes.

than from behind my saviour a bright glow erupted from... well it looked kinda like a crack through... thin air. he started to turn towards it as though to make his exit...

in all the confusion, action, and near death experience i hadn't pondered with my small brain who this might be. suddenly my neurons fired up on the subject, and i figured it out quick! like normal big brained human quick!!!

could this be tane? maori god of the forest. the one who had acquired the kete o te wananga in the first place.

rather than answer my questions about my guardian it simply raised more.

• why had he saved me?
• why hadn't he intervened sooner?
• if he could have sent whiro back to the underworld why hadn't he done that sooner?
  
• if he didn't want the baskets to fall into whiro's hands why hadn't he just taken them?
• why were the baskets going back the higher plains of reality now after being on earth for so long?
• was ms. rhonwyn in on all this?
• could he help me with my new magic problem?
• what was going to happen next? was i going to have to worry about whiro escaping?

as the glow increased, and he started to walk into it desperate for some answers i called out. "tane?"

with his back still turned to me the god stopped for a moment. rather than answer my question it simply said "i thank you."

it than resumed walking into the light which was incredibly intense now. a second later snapped off as though by a switch, and the god (tane???) was gone now just like whiro and the baskets...

THE END...

of the museum quest anyways... my life would go on... and in ways i couldn't possibly imagine. which is saying something considering what i saw today!

(Production Note: So now begins Traumador: Year 1.5)

the legend (museum quest part 14)... oh and some tourist town

Location: Queenstown

Baskets Left: 3

righto. of course next to nothing in my life EVER goes according to the plan! at moment though i'm taking it to an extreme...

so the "simple" job i was supposed to do for ms. rhownyn has lost the plot (that's kiwi slang for gone wrong). i not only haven't managed to get rid of these maori flax artifacts, but now i'm being hunted by a maori deity calling itself whiro who seems to have its heart set on getting the baskets for itself... ms. rhownyn warned me this would be a bad thing. so i've tried my best to lose it not once, not twice, but thrice so far on my new zealand wide trip (i haven't even made it north of dunedin yet though!).

i don't handle paranormal things at the best of times, but of course ancient maori deities rank up there with dragons and ghosts as among the worst one can run into!

i was pretty sure i'd left whiro in my dust (at least for now) i figured it was about time i took ms. rhonwyn's advice and looked up exactly what whiro, and these baskets or "kete o te wananga" are...

fortunantely i'm not a complete peanut brained proto-bird (well actually come to think of it i AM, but you know what i mean). i did pick up a book on maori back during my stop at the southland museum. i just foolishly haven't taken anytime to read it... till now.

(Production Note: Picture from Traditional Maori Legends by Warren Pohatu)

first thing i couldn't help but confirm was that i was definately dealing with something maori!!! one look at the art in the book, and there was no doubt...

having had a close encounter with a living, moving, and well not sure if it was breathing though(?) version of one of these the artist sure nailed what these deities look like...

at first the book didn't have much on whiro or the kete o te wananga... till i suddenly found the entry on the ketes. suddenly the connection between the two came sharply into focus...

In the beginning times Tane the god of the forest looked upon the newly created world, and its population of humans and saw it fit to seek the te Wananga or ultimate knowledge to gift upon humanity. In order to do this Tane would have to ascend the outer plains of reality to gather these knowledges.

He was not alone in seeking the te Wananga however. many darker powers and deities sought them as well. Among these one of Tane's many brothers, the god of evil and darkness, (you guessed it)... Whiro.

Tane embarked on a perilious journey through many of the outer realms in his quest to acquire the ultimate knowledge, and had many side adventures. Finally he discovered the highest of the dimensions where the te Wananga were native. He found there to be three distinct types of knowledge, and possessing no other means to transport their essences back to the corporial realm Tane placed them in three flax baskets or kete (oh man... starting to sound familiar?).

By placing the pure essence of these Wananga in the baskets they were transformed into the ultimate vessels of these forms of knowledge... The kete aronui was of matters that were beneficial to humanity and the whole of creation. The kete tuauri was knowledge of benign magics and the occult. Finally the kete tuateu was knowledge of harmful "black magic" or makutu.

It was when Tane had finally found and secured the kete te wananga that Whiro struck. As Tane made his return to our reality Whiro ambushed him. An army of Whiro's servants; bats, lizards, mosquitos, and sand flies attacked Tane and attempted to overwhelm him and steal the baskets. The battle was furious, and Tane nearly fell before the massive force, had it not been for the knowledge he'd gained from the baskets.

As a finale to this victory Tane used magic from the baskets to send a final mighty attack against his brother. Whiro was hurtled not just into the Earth but right through and into its depths to the underworld or rarohenga. Whiro's minions were hit by shockwave of this blast, and were scattered about the world of man. Despite being banished from the corporial world Whiro was not entirely cut off from it. He still sends his blight of diease, famine, and suffering from his new prison in the underworld.

okay whiro accused me of being a champion of tane's... that is beginning to make sense now. the three baskets are making sense too. finally ms. rhonwyn warning of "The FATE of New Zealand's spiritual and mystic fabric rests in your hands" is really starting to make sense now!

i also now know whiro's servants here in the real world. i even read back at the southland museum how the tuatara was the messenger of whiro, but i didn't make the connection of what that actually meant till right now. that explains how whiro was able to figure out i went south from dunedin... "he" found out from the tuataras i saw in invercargill. the sand flies statues at milford i wonder if they somehow talk to him... have i mentioned lately how much i HATE magic?!?!?

at least i have a much better idea of what i carry, and what i'm dealing with... i definately don't want whiro getting its claws on these the ultimate incarnation of maori knowledge!... wait i exposed myself to them... what is that going to do to me???

when i pulled up into queenstown on the shores of lake wakatipu it was a nice little breather from all the heavy mythic issues of the past couple days...

the lake and the surrounding mountains were really pretty. the whole area reminded me of the okanagan valley. though nice i wouldn't quite call these mountains actual mountains. their more like BIG hills compared to say the rockies of canada.

the most remarkable thing was the shade of blue the lake was. it doesn't show up in these photographs due to the lack of sun... but trust me it was amazing!
there were an awful lot of boats in the lake around town. maybe i'd like this place i thought. i do like boats a lot...

sadly it wasn't quite as nice a town as i'd hoped...

it was very touristy trappy. it was so bad at trying to get outsiders money it took me 30 minutes just to find a non million dollar parking spot! everything and everywhere in town cost, and the prices were high... even for new zealand!

as queenstown wasn't on ms. rhonwyn's list of specified stops i decided this would be a momentary pit stop to take a break, and more importantly swap cars.

remarkably Ridger's suggestion of pretending nothing was wrong with the car worked! (i actually had rented, or sorry "hired" in kiwinese, a SUV but whiro tried to possess it, and so i stole his car... look i know it sounds crazy, but just click the link and you'll see!). so now i have a nice spiffy new car which has no magic residue or signture or whatever whiro has been using to follow me...

despite my relative not liking of queesntown on my way back to my new car i did find two coolish things. showing that had i been allowed to wander the place FREEly there was probably much to see.

first was a statue of william gilbert rees, the first settler to set up a farm in the area (notice the sheep beside him in the statue... ah kiwi's and their sheep LOL). he also was a real stand up guy feeding the first ill supplied gold miners when the gold rush of new zealand began in the area. click on his name to get the full story and a close up of the plague of the statue.

my other find was a WW1 monument. the monument itself is like many throughout the south island, but the slogan on this one reminded me of my current responsiblity and duty

"service above self".

indeed this museum quest was definately now asking me to put a bit on the line now that the maori god of darkness was on my tail... and who knows how many other maori mythic beings?

with that in mind i hit the road again.

as i reached the end of lake wakatipu the sun came out from behind the clouds and reveiled the best part of queenstown. the amazing blueness of the lake... see people of the innerweb i told you it was an amazing blue!!!

it was nice to have had a little breather like this one. not every stop on the trip had of course been so uneventful, and neither were many of those to come...

to be contuined...