Te Aniwanawa

Set in New Zealand in the late 1970s, “Te Aniwanawa” tells the story of a young teacher and sportsman, who arrives in the north of New Zealand for his first teaching assignment. Chance sees him participate in a game of volleyball. He is befriended by Franko, the team leader, and begins a relationship with Erana, one of the women who as a Department of Conservation Ranger, cares with her dog, Savage, for the fairy terns and dotterel which inhabit the local estuary of Te Aniwanawa.
School life is problematic for David: the students warm to his enthusiasm and novel approaches, but his relationship with his superiors, focussed on standards and methods, soon deteriorates.
However his relationship with Erana, despite cross- cultural differences, blossoms. They travel by motorbike to the Hokianga, visit her grandfather, and then continue to Te Reinga. After a poignant visit to Ohaeawai, the scene of the battle site between Maori and British forces, they return home. Xmas visits separate them briefly, but they return to their roles in the New Year. Their professional lives initially flourish, but they both suffer disappointments, and they are forced to weigh a different future.