Leaving New Zealand

It has been a great trip and I certainly want to return to New Zealand. There is so much to see - I have hardly touched the surface of South Island and have only visited Wellington in North Island for a few hours. On purpose I did not go to Fiordland, nor did I travel across to Dunedin or down to Invercargill and Stewart Island. They can wait for the next time, because this journey has certainly whetted my appetite for another trip.

The last couple of days were spent in the Methven area where something very wonderful happened - I met some relatives. They are relatives from a very long way back, but we are cousins. We know it is very distant because their name is spelled Barlass - with a double s. It seems that the name divided sometime around the beginning of the nineteenth century. The branch of the Barlass family I met owes its existence to William Barlass, who came to New Zealand in 1880 and set up in business as a plumber. That's him in the picture at the top of this posting. His descendants spread out across South Island - William had nine children. I met David Barlass and his wife Julia. David, who is 58, is a farmer and car dealer, the latter profession being something of a very lucrative hobby. He has 800 acres of prime land outside Methven where he runs a dairy herd of 700 milking cows. He gave up sheep years ago when he had heart problems.

David and Julie invited me to lunch and showed me the researchh his uncle did into the family. He traced the Barlass family back as far as the beginning of the end of the 18th century, when William Barlass was born somewhere in Scotland. The tree he made shows a William Barlass was born in 1785 and his son, also William who was born in 1804, is shown without the second s. So it may be that it was at that time the family name split. The extraordinary thing about David is that the family features are still there. There is one of my family members whose photo could be superimposed over David's face to show an astonishing similarity. I've promised to send him what information I have about the Barlas family.

This was rather moving end to the trip and we have promised to keep in touch. Touchingly, their daughter returned to Scotland for a time where she continued her medical training. She is now a hospital doctor in Auckland. Apparently Scottish roots need occasional nourishment back in the mother country.

Now it is off to Australia, to spend some time in fire wracked Melbourne, then back to Sydney, prior to my return to Europe.