Where the Day Begins

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Martin Bettinger is a German novelist and short story writer. He spent several years living in New Zealand, principally in Golden Bay, and this collection of 61 ‘shortcuts’ as he calls these short prose pieces, is a collection of writing that came out of this experience. In Golden Bay he found an intriguing mix of people: expatriates from many countries, mavericks, bach owners, alternative life-stylers and those down on their luck, most of whom were drawn to the Bay to build a new life. But so often he found that this land of promise provided no new answers, just another opportunity to make the same mistakes anew. Wry, laconic and deeply poetic, this is a fine collection of writing, brimming with the fresh insight that only an outside perspective can bring.

I don’t know. I don’t need to know. I find enough jobs to live from, I find peace for the night and enough hustle and bustle during the day. The salvation seekers still don’t interest me, but this bay has room for all sort of eccentrics. The boat-builder Ron provides me with books, with Rudolph, the piano-player, I go for a swim, and neighbour Tony takes me fishing sometimes. I see pinpricks of the sun in the water, evenings I see spectacles of clouds, and sometimes, in the middle of summer, I see snow on the Cobb Hills. And for the very unusual, the Golden-Bay-Energy, I keep to Harvey.
At the end of the bay, where the tide deposits what the sea does not want, Harvey has built a hut. At my last visit, two small crystals lay on his window sill.
“Harvey”, I said, “are you starting to believe in that sort of thing now?”
“Shit, no,” said Harvey. “But, I heard that these crystals work even if you don’t believe.”