About

The Pohutukawowl

Curious and on a mission The owl flies out to explore.
Meeting a Kotuku In over it's head and sitting on top of another.

The Story behind the book

Book info:
Launguages: The book is available in English, Luxembourgish and Danish.
Buy the book: Published by Éditions Phi and on iTunes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pohutukawowl

Since 2003 when I first went to New Zealand to compete in the ITU triathlon World Champs in Queenstown, I have been extremely fond of New Zealand, it's nature, it's birds and it's people. I have spent quite a lot of time training in New Zealand and have a number of Kiwi friends.
In 2008 I had my first long training stay in New Zealand and was totally confused by all the Maori place names, how they were spelt, and how they were pronounced.
My special relationship with the Pohutukawa tree began 500m off the coast in the Tasman Sea doing open water training in the very rough waters around the town of New Plymouth together with Clark Ellice and a youngster named Daniel. Since it was the first time I'd actually been scared in open water and because the guys were fast swimmers, I was terrified of getting separated from them and so I asked what point we were swimming towards. Clark replied that we were aiming for "Those Pohutukawa trees over there."
Of course, I had no idea what a Pohutukawa tree was and after killing myself trying to keep up for another kilometer, I angrily stopped the groupe and demanded to know what on earth a "Pohutituti tree" was, causing the others to crack up at my ignorance.
This insident started my fondness for making fun of New Zealand place names - Auckland became "Land of Orks", Wellington became "Rubber Boot", Moukau became "Mooh Cow" and so on.
As for the Pohutukawa tree I tried finding ways of making it even longer and more difficult to pronounce and thus the Pohutukawowl - a little fictional owl that lives in the tree - was born, first as a lot of small pencil sketches that made the owl look like it had just received an electric shock and since in it's final version in the childrens book that I have written about it. The book is dedicated to my late coach, friend and mentor, Jack Ralston, and his lovely grandchildren.