Too hot to stay inside, too hot to be outside… so have found a coolish airy spot in the shade amongst the fernery, to spend a couple of hours reading the third book in a series I’ve had for a while now, but still haven’t completed, due to their immense, time-consuming size.
Moa Sightings; lovingly, (or more appropriately, ‘obsessively’) written by Dunedin based, Bruce Spittle, is a book of three volumes, giving an account of all Moa sighting claims in New Zealand.
His work is an epic publishing endeavour. Three beautifully produced hardcover volumes; each with around 450 or so pages, covering a total of 153 chapters!
In this vast and exhaustively researched piece of work, Bruce has thoroughly documented every eye-witness account describing the possible survival of Moa since the early 1400’s, devoting an entire chapter to each such report, and including 151 reports in total. Important details like the year, sighting location, a detailed account of the sighting, interviewee quotes… all interspersed with fully detailed maps of the location and both colour and b/w illustrations. Highly recommended to anyone fascinated in the world of mysterious and elusive creatures.
Paua Press, Dunedin, 2010 (ISBN: 9780473153564, 9780473153571, 9780473153588)
