Nature puts things in perspective
Life just seems to get busier and busier, that’s why the simple act of looking up helps – looking up from your desk, as you go about your day, whatever you’re doing – to get some perspective.
At Whenua Awa – our vineyard in the upper Awatere Valley, Marlborough – we have a constant reminder of the ‘big picture’ in the majestic Tapuae-o-Uenuku, the maunga (mountain) bears the name of an ancient chief, Tapuae-o-Uenuku. It is Marlborough's highest peak and the tallest mountain in Aotearoa outside the Southern Alps. Rising 2885m above the Awatere Valley; it can be seen from all over Marlborough and – on a clear day – from Christchurch, Taranaki and Wellington.
Maunga are places of great awe and spiritual presence. Nearly every range and prominent peak in the country is linked to local Māori identity and mana. Māori revere mountains as ancestors, and this mountain ancestor is central to the climatic conditions of the entire valley. He stands as a sentinel over our lands and people.
The constant presence of this special maunga is a reminder to lift ourselves out of the day-to-day and the here and now, and to think beyond ourselves and to the future.
Our role as kaitiaki is to honour our tūpuna, our ancestors and what they have left for us, to care for the gifts we have and pass on our knowledge to the next generation.
Toitū te whenua, whatu ngarongaro he tangata. As people disappear from sight, the land remains.