Hole in the Rock protest well received

MAKING A POINT: Motu Kokako Ahu Whenua Trust members set up a table in central Paihia and told people how the Maori owners of the Hole in the Rock were being ripped off by boat operators running tourists through the scenic icon without payment. PHOTO/MOTU KOKAKO AHU WHENUA TRUST

A passive protest campaign to alert people to the Maori owners of the Hole in the Rock being ripped off by boat operators running tourists through the scenic icon without payment got a good reception in Paihia.

Rau Hoskins, chairman of the Motu Kokako Ahu Whenua Trust which owns the island, said five of seven trustees had been among protesters who set up a table offering drinks and snacks in central Paihia on Monday and approached locals, NZ visitors and tourists to explain the exploitation.

"It was encouraging - we got a good reception. People were hungry for the cultural information we gave them," he said.

Mr Hoskins said the next step would be to step up the visibility of the protest in the New Year.

Motu Kokako, also known as Piercy Island or the Hole in the Rock, is at the northern tip of Rakaumangamanga (Cape Brett) in the Bay of Islands. It is Maori freehold land, administered by the trust for the benefit of 600 owners.

The island is of great cultural significance to Ngapuhi. It was the landing place of the canoe Tunui-a-rangi before it went to Ngunguru and Whangarei.

Passing through the natural hole in the island is the highlight of many tourist boat trips in the Bay of Islands and the trust believes tourism operators should pay a fee to go through the hole, in the same way companies pay a concession to cross private or conservation land.

But the High Court has ruled against the trust because maritime law says that access to the open sea cannot be impeded.

Trust member Richard Witehira said said tourist boats had carried about 360,000 passengers through the Hole in the Rock in the early 2000s, The fare for the trip was now $99 a person and if boat operators paid $3 a passenger to go through the hole it could provide $1 million to help free the "dirt poor" people of Rawhiti from the "shackles of the welfare state".

Welfare dependency would end if the Rawhiti people had the finance to develop the tourism assets they owned.

"And I don't mean just swinging poi and singing songs. We want to be the bosses of our own show on our land," he said.

Trustees had no problem with private boaties having free passage but if tour boat operators were making money out of it then the Maori owners wanted their share.