Local Focus: Tauranga Arts Fest app - Walking with the rhythm of Mauao/Mount Maunganui

Walking around Mauao (Mount Maunganui) is as good for the mind as it is the body, but a new soundscape app called Te Manawataki o Mauao, created for the Tauranga Arts Festival, lets you experience it like never before.

"It's a meditative soundscape so it's very much about feeling the rhythm and flow of the maunga," Tauranga Arts Festival chair Kathryn Lellman said.

"It doesn't matter where you go, it's all done by geolocators.

"So, whether you go up or round, whichever track you take, you'll get a different music experience.

"It's quite soulful. It's very much about responding to the sounds that you hear and the experience of being on the mountain which is different for everyone."

She said for many walkers the mountain was already a meditative experience.

"A couple of people who did it on the first day, when it was quite stormy and rainy, said that they had the composition running, almost like an undercurrent, and they could hear the waves crashing and feel the wind blowing and it all seemed to meld together.

"There are some storyboards around the track that help people pause and think about the significance and some of the things that have happened there and the significance of that to mana whenua."

Three key components came together to make the app a reality.

"The Mauao Trust Board was really helpful in terms of sharing the local stories, significant places on the maunga with Riki Gooch, who's the composer.

"Obviously, the composition and Riki taking those stories, visiting the Maunga, reading about the background and making music that goes with the rhythm of the mountain. And working with Sonicity, who created the app."

Festival general manager Nikki Hansen said the name meant The Rhythm of Mauao.

She said the app was meant to be live for the duration of the Tauranga Arts Festival this month, but Covid forced new plans.

"A decision was made at the board meeting on September 16 that we couldn't safely deliver the festival as a whole, so we made the heartbreaking decision to cancel all live performances."

"From that, we had to work out what was left and was still able to be safely delivered in level 2.

"The risks were too great around Auckland still being in level 3 and the fact we had over 20 performers coming out of Auckland."

Lellman said the app's availability was extended.

"This was one piece that we felt could continue to be a gift to the community and so we're actually going to run it on through to early winter," she said.

Fresh from trying out the experience for the first time, Otūmoetai resident Ellen Lellman said it was "stunning".

"You can understand why they called it Te Manawataki because you can really feel the heartbeat in the music and of the mountain as you're walking up.

"I liked how it really built. So as you got higher up – I took the four-wheel-drive track to the summit – you could feel it get stronger and stronger."

People can download the app from where you get your apps, or simply scan the QR code at the base of Mauao before you set off.