Buses and Trains, What About Boats?

It's becoming clear to me that boats are going to become a really important part of transport and trade between communities in these islands as the world goes down the other side of the fossil fuel bell curve. The other day a few of us were poring over a map of Aotearoa, looking at Karamea, Golden Bay, Marahau, Motueka, and even Wellington, and how they could all be linked much more closely by boat than by road or rail. Water transport could even help to link Wellington with the Hutt, Kapiti, Wairarapa etc if the roads were to become impassable.

In pre-European times, the waterways were the main highways. That's why many of the iwi and hapu that stake a claim on Te Tau Ihu, the top of Te Wai Pounamu (south island), also have claims on the areas around Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Taranaki, and other parts of Te Upoko o te Ika, the bottom of Te Ika a Maui (north island). Without the wheel, and smoothed roads, it was much easier to jump in a waka and paddle from one island to the other, than it was to walk across the mountains from one side of an island to the other. In some of the narrower parts of the islands, such as Hokianga in Te Tai Tokerau (Northland), waka crews could cross the island by paddling into harbours, up rivers, and carrying their waka between waterways with all their gear inside.

I would highly recommend anymore involved in TT, especially those in coastal areas, to start learning about boating, and sailing. Another project for the permageeks, especially anyone involved with open GIS (Geographical Information Systems), would be an equivalent of the Open Street Maps (OSM) project, with information about coastal currents, undersea geography, navigable terrestrial waterways, and other details that can help us choose the best boating routes. Perhaps this data could even be incorporated into OSM.