Taking a dip into a deep cultural divide

The Tasman: Biography of an Ocean, Neville Peat Penguin, $60.

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SOMETIMES YOU see a new book released and you ask yourself how come nobody ever wrote it before. This "biography" of the Tasman is one of those.

It seems such an obvious topic, but the Tasman now is not even a "sea that separates or connects", as author Neville Peat writes, but simply something you fly over on the way to somewhere else. Few people sail it any more – it's simply too dangerous. Many even baulk at swimming in it.

But it should not surprise that a New Zealander chose to tackle this subject. As Peat points out, there is undoubtedly more awareness of the Tasman in New Zealand than in Australia, partly because our largest neighbour is across that sea and partly just because it's where our weather comes from.

Peat is a good writer and a thorough researcher and he turns up all manner of obscure facts (the Tasman could be a carbon sump courtesy of iron dust being blown into it from Australia) and peculiar stories (such as the Invercargill theft, Tasman crossing and wrecking of the 9m motor yacht Seabird in 1942).

The book is split in three, with geology and nature first, the people of the Tasman next and a tour of the coastlines and communities surrounding the sea last.

There is more detail here than you will ever want on Tasman currents but, apart from that, I have few gripes and lots of praise for the content. This is a book you can read cover-to-cover or dip into as you please.

Peat touches on some telling cultural differences in the way New Zealanders and Australians perceive and have been affected by the sea that separates them, but then fails unfortunately to really explore the nuances of those insights.

One is that both countries effectively face east – but what does that mean or imply, if anything, for our culture and our politics?

And the book is somewhat let down in production. Clearly Penguin was aiming for a quality volume that stands out on the shelves, but too often pictures are printed dark or with odd colour balances that detract from that.

- © Fairfax NZ News