Waka Practice at Haruru Falls

Posted by & filed under Travel Country: New Zealand.

5/2/2012

Breakfast was at 7.30am. There was cereal, porridge, fruit, toast and some leftovers from last night’s dinner. It was strange to be eating kumara (sweet potato), lamb roast and the like for breakfast but it was very nice. After breakfast there was a group of fifty or sixty guys practicing their waka moves. They stood two abreast, all in a row, with their hoe (paddles) in the air, being led by their kaihautus (leaders). More waka paddlers joined the camp this morning from Auckland, Taurangi and other places.

Joe took Jacob, Patrick, Anne-Wiebe, Annerie and I to the Waitangi Treaty grounds. He explained a few things about some of the chiefs, their ta moko’s (tattoos) and told us about some of the medicinal purposes of the trees and plants in the little forest by the Treaty house. I’d been to Waitangi before but it was good to get information from someone like Joe who knows his stuff about all of this. He also showed us the waka Te Aurere (a double hulled voyaging canoe), which has been sailed by his brother Stan nearly all over the world. Navigation on voyages in the Te Aurere is by the traditional way of using the stars, moon, sun, wind, wave patterns and birds.

At 2.30pm, all the paddlers went down to Haruru Falls to practice for a few hours in the smaller wakas. Annerie, from the Dutch crew, was part of one of the ladies waka crews and they were practicing too. There were a good few people staying at the campsite near the falls and they got treated to a display of the haka and the practice launch of the wakas. It was impressive, I must admit, seeing thirty or forty paddlers practising their stuff. That went on till about 5.30pm and then everyone headed back to the camp.

Anne-Wiebe’s brother Jello arrived. He was traveling around New Zealand for four months and was here for the celebrations too. It was chill time after dinner until 9pm when there was a powhiri (welcome ceremony) for another waka group that arrived late. There was a karakia (prayers) and a quick explanation by Martin, one of the other kaupapa waka leaders and Joe, who was as hoarse as a brush, about what was happening tomorrow. He said breakfast would be at 6am because they had to be down by Haruru Falls and ready to leave there by 7.30am. So we all headed to bed straight after.