Pulpy Love

Yay! A long last it's time for a Pulp Redux post! My son got out of hospital 5 nights ago after a 3 week admission. Time sure goes a lot faster here on the 'outside' lol. I'm not sure how long he'll be home for but every day at home is a day to recharge and I fully intend on doing that! On the first full day home in forever I created...and then for a few hours last night... and a few more today...yay! I am happier already!

Here's how you last saw my "Battle of Gate Pa" page in Kim's book.

And how it looks now... 

 I love the addition of red to the page. I cut up an old silk scarf I found in the second handshop and also added a string to close the fabric door. It dosn't make a lot of difference visually but atleast the papers can't fall out now!  I'm really happy with the way this page has turned out.

Open the door...

The Maori warrior was a magnificent, brave and fierce fighter. Their strong spiritual ties to the land led them to fight with passion and vigour.

This is the story my pages are based on, The Battle of Gate Pa.

The Battle of "Gate Pa" is probably the battle which made the greatest impact in the history of the New Zealand Wars.

In an effort to cut off reinforcements and food supplies which where filtering through to the Maori rebels in the Waikato area, the British sent their troops to Tauranga, in order to attack the fortress. The word Pa means ‘fortified settlement.’

Around 200 warriors from the Ngai-te-Rangi tribe were in place one side of the Pa, and around 35 warriors, mainly from the Ngati Koheriki tribe, reinforced the other side.
On 29th April 1864, the 43rd British regiment attacked the Pa. 1700 soldiers armed with a strong artillery train : 8 mortars, 2 howitzers, 2 naval canon and 5 Armstrong guns. The soldiers opened fire on Gate Pa, and during a short time bombarded it heavily. The following day the troops bombarded again, for a longer period, and this time succeeding in breaking opening a large point of entry to the pa.  An elite Brittish assault force was sent to penetrate the breach opened up during the bombardment.

The British had thought their previous heavy bombardment had taken effect, owing to the fact that there had been little response fire from within the Pa. However, on entering via the breach, the British troops found themselves being fired on at very close range from Maori in hiding.

A reinforcement group of soldiers was sent to relieve the trapped assault force in the Pa. However, the reinforcements found themselves caught up in the retreat from the pa by the first assault force. From two separate areas of the pa, the Maori were firing on the two groups of troops, who were by this time caught up in the deadly crossfire....

Depsite being signficantly outnumbered and under-armed the Maori won the battle and caused the Brittish troops to rethink the battle plans for other parts of NZ. Never again was the threat of a fortified pa under-estimated.

The above close up is a sneak peak of the page I have planned for the Brittish soldiers.

The story has pretty much been told on the 'Maori' page in the pile of papers found bundled behind the door but the Brittish soliders left a lasting impact on Tauranga and that story is still to be told.

The 3rd part of this story is that of the missionary's who befriended both the Maori and Brittish troops. I've almost completed this page which is dedicated to Archdeacon Brown and his wife. It's not ready for it's reveal yet but here's a quick preview...

If your not all 'pulped out' yet then make sure you check out the Pulp Redux blog and see the utterly amazing work done by Kim on Lisa J's book (Roots- beneath the layers.)  My book ' Labyrinth' is currently in the very capable hands of Alicia Caudle and she posted a pic on her blog a side profile pic of my book on her blog. You can see it here- look how FAT it is! Bulging (litterly) with layers of lovely texture and fibre! Wahoo!

Now, my turn to surf! Can't wait to pop in on ya'll over the next few days!

 *See you soon.*