Pungathingwhalingatjies

About

All our products are created by hand in our Tokoroa Studio in the South Waikato using New Zealand's Black Mamaku Tree Fern

Story

Long before cell phones, computer games and even ice creams were around, a mysterious creature native to New Zealand was discovered by a little girl and her dog on a walk through the Fernwood forest.

Today the creatures, now known as Pungalingmadingatjies or Pongalings for short, can be found in most scenic reserves although they can be very hard to spot at first mainly due to their excellent eye sight. If they see you first they hide behind the leaves! It does help to whistle softly as they are very curious and love musical sounds and if you're lucky you might hear them whistle along!

They start off their lives as tiny Spoortjies. If you turn a fern leaf around you will sometimes find one between the spores on the back of the leaf. They are slightly bigger than the spores and each one has a unique tattoo that grows with them.

After a year a Spoortjie turns into a Pungalingmadingatjie (Pongaling), its first chore is to slowly unroll the new fern fronds of tree ferns a little bit every day. When they mature, each Pungaling is responsible for copying its unique tattoo into the wood of it's tree fern. This takes them more than 10 years to do but depends on the size of the tree and how hard they work.

They are happy friendly little creatures and they love to travel around. You can buy wooden artifacts that look exactly like them in some shops but you need to take you time to identify them as they are masters of camouflage and they have a strange habit of trying to look like innocent pieces of wood. This is how they often manage to hitch a ride to the next town.
If you find one the best place to keep it is in a little nest. They like the ones with lids on so they can sleep in the day. If their eyes move there is a good chance you might have a naughty one that does not like bed time!

These little critters love to travel and they love to brag about their adventures!

You can help them keep in touch with their mates by posting on their Fernwood facebook page. You can also download the app and play fun games with them which they absolutely love

Products

Fernwood Jewelry, Keepsakes, Gifts, Tea-lights and Pots