Forkhill meets Maoris

I am just returned from a trip to a speck of land on the bottom of the globe as near as possible to the exact opposite (its antipode!) of Forkhill, where I hail from!

Auk !!!

The actual point is in the sea but my wife Betty and myself landed on the uninhabited island of Campbell Island where we walked among nesting albatrosses with wingspans of nine feet – who had no fear of us – and sea lions so big that we certainly had fear of them.  We used New Zealand as a staging post and had conversation with some of the locals.

The Europeans know they are a fairly recent addition to the islands but the Maoris are “ancient”!

Imagine their surprise when I told them about the Kilnasaggart stone which was put up by someone with the same family name as myself – but who died over a hundred years before the first human (maori) set foot in New Zealand. 

AND that stone is very recent compared with the really old stuff – the Clontygora Court Cairn nearby, for one example. They struggled to comprehend.

I wonder if we were the first people from around Newry to go there?

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