View From A Mountain

Replica waka hourua
cruising up the Whakaraupo ki te !anga
by the Naval Point

seems indifferent
to the semi laden bulk carrier
on its way
to Somewhere Else
with the rest of its ammonium sulphate
caking in the holds

Tēnā waka
has auxiliary power
reminds me of the old Rangatira
remembering his boyhood visit aboard
Te waka o Tupaea that we call HMS
Endeavour these days

And how his Rangatira father first
saw iron and asked for nails
to which a tall fair man of
apparent mana said
‘Of course’
or words to that effect
and gave the old fella a bucket full

That old Rangatira father
can’t have heard about Te Maro
or he might have asked for something
more substantial
Anyway

me karanga au ki tēnā waka
I gotta call out to the waka eh

‘You’re too late fellas
by a few hundred years.
But never mind just tie up
at the yacht club
cos the bar is open soon’

Te Ahu Patiki
off the port beam
observes my irreverence
with a silent rebuke
and that’s okay
the maunga may think whatever it likes
and who am I to argue

My son and I
climbed it ages ago
when he was ten years old
and it was more than I could do
to keep up with him

He shot up there like a mountain goat
while I wheezed regret every step
of the way at every single
cigarette I ever bloody
smoked

But up there on
te Tihi o te Maunga
the view as they say
is to die for

Ben Brown
from This Imperfect Light, Dead Bird Books, 2026

Ben Brown (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Korokī, Ngāti Pāoa) is an award-winning children’s author, poet and freelance writer. He has written over twenty children’s books as well as short stories for children and adults, general non-fiction, memoir, freelance articles and reviews. His poetry has been published in various anthologies around the world, and in May 2021 he was made the inaugural Aotearoa Reading Ambassador for Children – Te Awhi Rito. He is also a father of two, which he considers his best work to date.