The Story of a New Zealand River


Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan

(4.5 stars; 10 reviews)

"This is the land of the lost, one of those happy spots where no questions are asked. Of course, the fact of a person's being here is usually all the explanation necessary."

The Story of a New Zealand River is a romance set in the Northland region of New Zealand, in the time when the forests of New Zealand's grandest tree, the kauri, were being logged for their exquisite timber. The novel begins as Alice Roland and her free-spirited daughter Asia are being rowed in a black punt by handsome and cultured David Bruce up the Kaipara harbour to their new home at a raw kauri logging settlement in a bend of the Kaiwaka river. Tom Roland, a rough colonial and the boss of the settlement, is Alice's husband of a few years. Alice is a beautiful but tight-laced, proud, puritanical Englishwoman whose mismatch with Tom Roland is not a happy one. They arrive with Alice's piano among their belongings to find a half-built cottage, a strange collection of inhabitants, from gentry to scoundrels, and a place that is beautiful and challenging.

Jane Mander was a New Zealand novelist and journalist. As well as New Zealand, she also lived in Sydney, New York and London. There is a superficial resemblance between The Story of a New Zealand River and the Jane Campion film The Piano, which is principally the setting and the piano. (summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan) (0 hr 24 min)

Chapters

CHAPTER I 37:21 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER II 23:33 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER III 20:29 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER IV 31:46 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER V 19:58 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER VI 14:06 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER VII 9:50 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER VIII 29:47 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER IX 31:00 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER X 21:58 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XI 43:18 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XII 21:48 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XIII 11:51 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XIV 30:33 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XV 19:53 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XVI 19:32 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XVII 16:00 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XVIII 8:27 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XIX 21:10 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XX 17:13 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXI 13:00 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXII 4:00 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXIII 7:07 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXIV 29:42 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXV 20:30 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXVI 25:26 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXVII 34:21 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXVIII 24:40 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXIX 18:26 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXX 30:50 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXXI 20:55 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXXII 17:28 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXXIII 20:54 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXXIV 12:53 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan
CHAPTER XXXV 14:23 Read by Gail Timmerman Vaughan