The Ondwa project

This second novel by New Zealand writer, Donald Armstrong, explores the idea, suggested by recent rat bone research, that people lived here before the great Polynesian migrations of around the twelfth century - people who, given the unstable nature of the land, disappeared leaving little or no trace. "Suddenly there was an earsplitting crack, like five times five spears of white light hitting the earth and a huge boulder split off the side of Yudri's Rock and crashed into the back of the Spirit Dwelling, making the whole roof bounce up and down on the walls. Then momentarily the rolling stopped and then there came two enormous jolts, and then another and another - and then nothing."