Henrik in New Zealand 2001

Henrik in New Zealand, September 2001

New Zealand in Norwegian literature

Norwegians know very little about New Zealand. Until I was invited to speak at the NZTWA conference in Auckland, I myself knew next to nothing. And I know quite a lot about unimportant things.

I asked friends and acquaintances, but only a few knew a little more. A woman I know told me that her late husband, a whaler, used to say that when he retired, they'd emigrate to New Zealand - "the most beautiful country in the world". Unfortunately, he passed away before they had a chance to go.

All of this added to the excitement of going there - and turning a deaf ear to anyone who suggested I should see Australia when I was down there.

I found New Zealand described in three very different - but relatively unknown - Norwegian books. In fact, the books are so unknown that the author of the last one did not know the first one.

The adventures (factual or fictional or both) of a Norwegian sea captain among the Maori (ca. 1920).

A Norwegian hitch-hiker’s tour of New Zealand in the 1990s.

A wonderful historical novel from the late 1990s based on facts about Norwegian immigrants to New Zealand in the 1870s. Also contains facts and documentation, especially the English version.

This is a hilarious book that will never be translated into English. It was, however, translated into German in the 1930s, with drawings by a leading Norwegian artist at the time (who had been nowhere near New Zealand). It’s a very entertaining account of how this captain ends up as a Maorie de Pakia, as he calls it, and survives all kinds of strange hardships. In addition to his other ships. Documentation-wise, it’s fascinating that when he leaves Norway as a rookie sailor, his parents give him a bundle of pre-written letters for him to send home from every third month, in order to show their friends and neighbours that their son is a reliable letter-writer.
Captain Hansen includes a description of how Maoris make a canoe. It’s typical for his approach to life to include some song and dance even here:

"When the Maoris made a canoe, they first burned a hole in the tree. Then they used sharp stones to carve out the burnt wood. Then they burned again. A lot of work, but they just kept going. Or they stopped for a while to sing and dance. After a while, the tree had turned into a canoe."

A caption to one of the drawings (which makes you suspect that the artist had never seen a Maori) says: "Always singing and dancing, these were happy people!"

Captain Hansen eventually returned to his native city of Arendal in Norway to create "my own New Zealand".

He failed miserably.

Unlike myself, he didn't have NZ videos, NZ music, NZ books, NZ photos and NZ wine to fall back on. Not a soft fall, but it helps.

This author knows his facts, and learns the rest from people who give him a lift to most parts of New Zealand. And since it's much more fun to throw stones in a glass-house than anywhere else - I feel the book lacks some humour. And some style. And there's no map showing where he actually went - which would be useful for people who don't know New Zealand, i e more than 99,9% of the Norwegian population.
Anyway, he saw a lot more of the country than I did, so who am I to criticize?

Øystein Molstad Andresen's novel is based on several years of research, both in Norway and New Zealand. But even if you can read it as kind of a history book/ documentation of the immigration, the author has created characters with interesting personalities and a plot that keeps you turning the pages to learn more about their fates.

I looked for Johanna's World in most bookstores I visited around New Zealand, and was amused to see it placed in a different section in each store: Fiction, New Zealand fiction, Biographies, History, etc.

In Upper Norsewood you'll find a small museum with items from the immigrant days, and a cemetery with the graves of several of the people who the characters are based on.

They were the poorest of the poor, who could not even afford to emigrate to America. In the early 1870s, the New Zealand Vogel government borrowed an enormous amount of money to hire people to work in New Zealand. They offered a free journey and cheap land, and there was even wood on the land to build houses from. Reality was slightly different - even though there as in fact plenty of wood on the land. More wood than land, actually.

During my stay in Parua Bay, I wrote a little song based on their lives.

Back to Napier