“We’ll have to think how to get down the lake,” I said to Jak. He leapt and barked until a hawk flew out of a gully, cried, “Kek! Kek!”.
For some reason it reminded me of that time on Marn Island when Taur hid on top of the knoll and barked until Jak and Jess were so excited they did not know whether they were barking back at him or at their own echoes. When the Bull Man was there, something was always happening, I thought, and found myself laughing and crying all at once.
“I wonder what Taur would have done to get down the lake?” I asked Jak, and he put his head to one side as if wondering, too. “Do you think there might be people there?” A leaf blew across the beach, and Jak pounced on it with both front paws, tossed it up with his mouth, jumped, snapped, and caught it as it floated down.
About the Author
Jack Lasenby was born in Waharoa, New Zealand in 1931. During the 1950s he was a deer-culler and possum trapper in the Urewera Country. He is a former school teacher, lecturer in English at the Wellington Teachers’ College, and editor of New Zealand’s School Journal.
Jack Lasenby held the Sargeson Fellowship in 1991, the Writer’s Fellowship at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1993, and was the Writer in Residence at the Dunedin College of Education in 1995. He is the author of many novels for children and young adults, including award-winning books The Lake, The Conjuror, The Waterfall and The Battle of Pook Island. He has been the recipient of New Zealand’s most prestigious children’s fiction awards: the Esther Glen Medal, the Aim Children’s Book Award, and the NZ Post Children’s Book Award.
Because We Were the Travellers, the prequel to Taur, received an Honour Award in the 1998 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards.
Also by Jack Lasenby
Charlie the Cheeky Kea 1976
Rewi the Red Deer 1976
The Lake 1987
The Mangrove Summer 1989
Uncle Trev 1991
Uncle Trev and the Treaty of Waitangi 1992
The Conjuror 1992
Harry Wakatipu 1993
Dead Man’s Head 1994
The Waterfall 1995
The Battle of Pook Island 1996
Because We Were The Travellers 1997
Uncle Trev’s Teeth 1997
Copyright
I am grateful for the assistance of Creative N.Z. – The Arts Council of New Zealand. Their grant in 1996 made this novel possible.
I also wish to thank Paula Boock for an excellent suggestion at an early stage of the work, and Noeline Stoops and Des Kelly for their helpful comments on the manuscript.
Published with the assistance of
Jack Lasenby asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
© Jack Lasenby
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in publication data:
Lasenby, Jack.
Taur
ISBN 978 1 77553 227 9.
I. Title.
NZ823.2
First published in Australia in 1998 by
Hyland House Publishing Pty Ltd
Hyland House
South Melbourne
Victoria 3205
First published by Longacre Press 1998
9 Dowling Street, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Book design and map on pages 6-7 by Jenny Cooper
Front cover photograph of ice by Lloyd Davis
Printed by Australian Print Group