Post by Deleted on May 9, 2010 13:24:13 GMT 10
America has the bigfoot. The Himalayas the yeti. Australia the yowie.
Less well known is a hairy hominid alleged to stalk the ‘land of the long white cloud’. According to witnesses spanning centuries, New Zealand is reputedly home to the moehau – an enormous and slavering beast, every bit as mysterious and terrifying as its more northerly cryptozoological cousins.
Considering New Zealand is a mountainous, forested wonderland, so abundant in curious wildlife, it seems odd it boasts not one single land-dwelling mammal. Apart, of course, from man. And perhaps the moehau…
First Reported by Maori
The first stories of the existence this creature emerged from Maori folklore. To tribes of the South Island it was known as maeoreo, or ‘wild man of the woods’, sporting shaggy yellow hair and large tusks, and supposedly dragging women and children off into the forest with its long sharp claws.
European Settlers Spot the Beast
The maeroro was largely considered Maori myth, until reports began to filter in from European settlers as well – the first, oddly enough, emanating from the North Island of New Zealand. According to renowned Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy, a pioneer farmer in the deeply vegetated Corramandel Peninsula in the early 1900s stumbled upon a tall, grey, hairy creature stealing from his vegetable patch.
More encounters followed. In the 1930s a woman named Jane Wilcox claimed her father and uncles killed an ape-like creature. In the 1940s an entire family alleged to have come face to face with the hirsute biped.
Moehau Hits the Papers
Reports reached fever pitch in the 1950s – so much so they hit the headlines of the Taranaki Daily News. The mystery beast was appropriately named after the epicentre of its sightings – the Corramandel’s Moehau Range. The sobriquet stuck to this day.
First Expedition
But is the moehau flesh and blood or figment of imagination? In 1969 another Australian, J.P. Grey, after a visiting Sydney woman claimed to have been accosted by a silvery haired two metre tall ape-like creature with long dangling arms and short skinny legs, launched an expedition to track down and capture what he called the ‘moehau monster’. His efforts failed to bear fruit – furry or otherwise.
Nevertheless, crypto-tourism was launched in the area, when publican Les Lisle offered moehau-spotting helicopter joy rides aimed at Japanese tourists, who called the creature the ‘Kiwi Godzilla’.
Cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy Joins the Search
In 1994 Rex Gilroy finally mounted his own search – in the Corramandel’s Karangahake Gorge. He reported that he and his wife Heather discovered both fossilized footprints (potentially belonging to a biped three meters in height) as well as megatool of a size proportionate to such a beast. Hardly irrevocable proof – but possibly another piece in the moehau puzzle.
The untouched wilds of New Zealand, one of the most densely vegetated areas on the planet, contain many mysteries. Could the moehau prove the most spectacular of all? Only time will tell…
Less well known is a hairy hominid alleged to stalk the ‘land of the long white cloud’. According to witnesses spanning centuries, New Zealand is reputedly home to the moehau – an enormous and slavering beast, every bit as mysterious and terrifying as its more northerly cryptozoological cousins.
Considering New Zealand is a mountainous, forested wonderland, so abundant in curious wildlife, it seems odd it boasts not one single land-dwelling mammal. Apart, of course, from man. And perhaps the moehau…
First Reported by Maori
The first stories of the existence this creature emerged from Maori folklore. To tribes of the South Island it was known as maeoreo, or ‘wild man of the woods’, sporting shaggy yellow hair and large tusks, and supposedly dragging women and children off into the forest with its long sharp claws.
European Settlers Spot the Beast
The maeroro was largely considered Maori myth, until reports began to filter in from European settlers as well – the first, oddly enough, emanating from the North Island of New Zealand. According to renowned Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy, a pioneer farmer in the deeply vegetated Corramandel Peninsula in the early 1900s stumbled upon a tall, grey, hairy creature stealing from his vegetable patch.
More encounters followed. In the 1930s a woman named Jane Wilcox claimed her father and uncles killed an ape-like creature. In the 1940s an entire family alleged to have come face to face with the hirsute biped.
Moehau Hits the Papers
Reports reached fever pitch in the 1950s – so much so they hit the headlines of the Taranaki Daily News. The mystery beast was appropriately named after the epicentre of its sightings – the Corramandel’s Moehau Range. The sobriquet stuck to this day.
First Expedition
But is the moehau flesh and blood or figment of imagination? In 1969 another Australian, J.P. Grey, after a visiting Sydney woman claimed to have been accosted by a silvery haired two metre tall ape-like creature with long dangling arms and short skinny legs, launched an expedition to track down and capture what he called the ‘moehau monster’. His efforts failed to bear fruit – furry or otherwise.
Nevertheless, crypto-tourism was launched in the area, when publican Les Lisle offered moehau-spotting helicopter joy rides aimed at Japanese tourists, who called the creature the ‘Kiwi Godzilla’.
Cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy Joins the Search
In 1994 Rex Gilroy finally mounted his own search – in the Corramandel’s Karangahake Gorge. He reported that he and his wife Heather discovered both fossilized footprints (potentially belonging to a biped three meters in height) as well as megatool of a size proportionate to such a beast. Hardly irrevocable proof – but possibly another piece in the moehau puzzle.
The untouched wilds of New Zealand, one of the most densely vegetated areas on the planet, contain many mysteries. Could the moehau prove the most spectacular of all? Only time will tell…
Read more at Suite101: Moehau - the Bigfoot of New Zealand cryptozoology.suite101.com/article.cfm/moehau---the-bigfoot-of-new-zealand#ixzz0nOnZihYU