Maurice Manawatu (Ngai Tahu, Ngati Kuri) is a man who cares deeply about his Maori culture. He is defined by it and he is passionate about giving visitors a deeper insight into how Maori have adapted to a modern world. Kaikoura is home to Maurice and his wife, Heather and their family and both were previously employed by the highly successful Whale Watch operation for thirteen years. They decided to set up their own tourism operation – Maori Tours – in 2001 to offer an authentic and personal Maori experience based around the Ngati Kuri people of Kaikoura. “We wanted to do it in a way that was real – a conversation-based, non-performance, behind-the-scenes look at what life is like for Maori, what struggles they face, what it is like for a pakeha to be married to a Maori. A lot of pakeha want to understand more about Maori traditions and Maori have an obligation to share that,” they say.

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You don’t usually associate the South Westland climate with the cultivation of peppers, strawberries and bumper harvests of tomatoes but at Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio’s Te Tauraka Waka a Māui Marae at Bruce Bay, four hours south of Hokitika, hard work on the marae gardens have paid off. In their second season, the two tunnel houses and four planter boxes have produced enough to keep the Makaawhio whanau in fresh vegetables and herbs throughout last summer.  Along with all the regulars – carrots, silverbeet, herbs, capsicum, salad greens, courgettes and tomatoes, they’ve had a bumper crop of kamo kamo (also called kumi kumi, or Māori squash) and traditional Māori potatoes.

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Kutai or Toretore = Mussel
One of the favourite traditional Maori foods.
I wrote about mussels and their traditional harvest at Tutehuarewa Marae at Koukourarata -Port Levy on Canterbury’s Banks Peninsular, for Te Karaka several ago but it’s always interesting to revisit the valuable memories of local kaumātua. The marae, a cluster of buildings on a grassy slope, is perfectly placed overlooking a stony beach and a pretty jetty.

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Looking down on Kaitorete Spit on Banks Peninsular from a plane, always sets me to thinking about the activity that took place there in ancient times. It’s a place that intrigues me because of its fascinating history and its associations with early Maori. And it was here, back in 2004, that one of the country’s most significant textile finds was unearthed – tiny fragments of a Maori cloak carbon dated at around 1500AD, making it two centuries older than any cloak ever before found in New Zealand.

The oldest known cloak prior to the Kaitorete Spit find was a 17th century example unearthed in a Fiordland cave. Kaitorete Spit is around 6000 years old and is known to be one of the most ecologically and culturally important sites in New Zealand.

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Nā Adrienne Rewi
All Images Courtesy of Whale Watch, Kaikōura

The sleepy little east coast South Island town of Kaikōura hasn’t looked back since the day five local Maori families set up Whale Watch back in 1987. In the business’s first year of operation (1989) they carried 3,000 passengers with just one boat. Today they operate more than four boats and they take over 100,000 people a year out on the changeable Kaikōura waters in the hope of spotting one of the visiting whales. On paper it may have seemed like a long shot but today you have to admire the original Māori families who put their homes up as collateral to secure enough money to get started. They raised $90,000 and most of that went on the boat. Today they still own 51% of the company as a charitable trust, with the balance of shares held by Ngāi Tahu. Whale Watch expanded rapidly and keeping pace with the explosive growth has been their biggest challenge.

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Nā  Adrienne Rewi

Phillip Smith (Ngati Mamoe, Waitaha, Ngai Tahu) can be found at the helm of his boat, MV Wildfire almost every day of the week. Based at Oban on Rakiura (Stewart Island), Phillip – a fifth generation islander – runs the kiwi spotting operation Bravo Adventure Cruises at Little Glory Bay in Paterson Inlet. He’s been doing that since 1990 and in that time he’s introduced over 20,000 people to one of our most precious birds in the wild. Before that he focussed on fishing and hunting charters around the island; and he’s also had a stint working at the island’s salmon farms. Suffice to say he knows Stewart Island like the back of his hand. There isn’t a bay, a beach or a stretch of land on this large southern island off the coast of Southland that he hasn’t explored.

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