‘I’m coming,’ Grandmother said to me next morning. ‘It’s my turn to see the world,’ she said. ‘I’ll stop off in Hawai‘i to see who there is left to see, and meet those who’ve taken over the running of the business – changing everything – but I suppose that’s the way of the world.

‘After that I’ll pay a visit to Switzerland before trotting about Europe while I’ve still got my trotters. That’ll fill up my days, save me from sitting round here outliving everybody. What a fate that would be. I’ll take Binnie with me, your mother too, once we reach Switzerland.

‘And when you’re settled, my dear grandson, we’ll come and spend time in Japan. While there I intend visiting Japanese gardens. There must be books on the subject. There must be tours. If you find my Chappy’s birthplace, we’ll go there.

‘I’ll get Toby and his family to come and live in the house while they’re preparing to move on to the land with their uncle.

‘I’m going to rent out the tearoom space. It’ll probably become a second-hand furniture shop, maybe an op shop, or a place that sells local crafts – you know, wooden toys, hand-painted trays, baby clothes, knitted slippers, net bath cleaners, sack oven cloths, covered coathangers, paper roses. Pre-loved clothing maybe? Or antiques? They could have all my metal teapots and sugar bowls. Maybe your wife will be Japanese. Daniel, Grandson, I mustn’t die. There are things …

‘And, Daniel, what about Father Jimmy’s questions?

‘Ko wai tōna maunga?

‘Ko wai tōna awa?

‘Ko wai ōna tīpuna?

‘Ko wai tōna ingoa?

‘Ko wai ia?

‘I know my husband had his own reasons for secrecy, but there are children, grandchildren and a whole whānau who would be intrigued if answers were found after all these years.

‘All time becomes one,’ she said. ‘Everything’s a search for light.’

Acknowledgements

Thanks to friend Susan Najita of the University of Michigan for sending me her paper entitled ‘Annexation and the Environment: Reading, Writing, Reanimating ‘Āina’, and for time spent answering my emailed questions. I am grateful to Captain Mike Pryce, Regional Harbourmaster at Greater  Wellington  Regional Council, for an enlightening telephone conversation regarding working conditions aboard ships in the 1930s.

Various institutions were important to my research: the National Library of New Zealand: Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, the Alexander Turnbull Library, Archives New Zealand: Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Porirua Public Library, Pataka Museum in Porirua.