Being a champion of the unknown and the unidentified, especially creatures in deep seas and lakes and desolate forests and frozen wastes, I was delighted to receive a note from Dannevirke historian Phillipa Nelson last week.
She had spotted my words a few weeks back about the unknown creatures of lochs and lakes and it rang a bell.
For the Dannevirke Gallery of History had received a transcript, through the Friends of Colenso group, of a letter the wandering reverend had written to a close friend by the name of James Hector in 1894.
Here is part of the transcript.
"I had very nearly troubled, or surprised you, with a letter while here (Dannevirke) re a living taniwha! I closely examined the young man who saw it, and who fired at it to save his dog swimming after a duck shot in the lagoon - but as it occurred in the shooting season of '93 - and had not been seen since - I dropped the enquiry. I may however mention, that the young fellow's story was a very coherent one, he too, being respectable, quiet and of good report."
Good report ... I like that.
So anyway, as Colenso continued ... "He had told me the tale last year at the time, and now with the shooting season coming on it was revived, to warn sportsmen concerning that spot.
"It is a lagoon, or deep swamp surrounded by high cliffy banks with an outlet to the river Manawatu and not far from the bridge over that stream - the road leading to the Weber district."
On this note of location, Phillipa wonders if the "lagoon" was in fact the Kaitoki Lake which is off the Weber Road.
Locals, she said, had long spoken of a taniwha in the Manawatu Gorge, but this was a different story altogether.
Now this is where it becomes intriguing fellow creature unearthers.
For Colenso went on to describe how two other chaps, who had been out riding the same area some time before the young duck shooter had gone there, had come across a "beast" in the water.
All that poked out above the surface was a dark grey head, about 18 inches long - that's close to half a metre.
The young shooter who also sighted it said he got one shot away at it, and believe he may have struck it "about the angle of its mouth."
"It retreated to the raupo on receiving the shot, and the dog returned in fear ... sans duck."
Many people in the area had heard about it - among them (quote from Colenso) "the Rev. E Robertshawe (stout and strong), Hill the inspector of schools and Bamford, solicitor, went hither to the said haunt in search - they had a time of it!"
The intrepid trio scrambled down steep cliffs to get to the area, arriving home late. They all agreed they would never go back there again.
All very colourful and intriguing, and I am delighted to learn that there be monsters in our own backyard. Pound to a penny though - the Aussies are likely to claim it as one of their's that lost its way from a billabong up Mullumbimby way.
The aborigines spoke of such creatures - bunyips.
Only last year a strange shape was spotted, and photographed, up Darwin way in Lake Alexander.
Oh yes, there be monsters and they be everywhere ... even down CHB way.
Anyone out there also heard the stories of the sightings Colenso was on about? If you have, drop me an email. If we can pinpoint the spot then I be going monster hunting!
Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist for Hawke's Bay Today and observer of the slightly off-centre.a
