The bridge links Titirangi/Kaiti Hill with the Cook Landing site across Kaiti Beach Rd, and has been named after the ancestral waka Te Ikaroa a Rauru. Photo / GDC Facebook
The bridge links Titirangi/Kaiti Hill with the Cook Landing site across Kaiti Beach Rd, and has been named after the ancestral waka Te Ikaroa a Rauru. Photo / GDC Facebook
Gisborne’s waka bridge was officially dubbed Te Ikaroa a Rauru with its opening this week.
The footbridge over Kaiti Beach Rd links Titirangi-Kaiti Hill with the Cook landing site now known as Te Whare Wananga o Puhi Kai Iti.
Karakia was delivered by Tumanako Kururangi and the mihi whakatau byAlbie Gibson at a ceremony on Thursday morning.
Te Ikaroa a Rauru was tīpuna Maia Poroaki’s waka, which landed nearby according to Ngāti Oneone.
The walkway has been fashioned and adorned to resemble a waka through the artwork of Nick Tupara.
The view from Te Ikaroa a Rauru, which officially opened this week. Photo / GDC Facebook
Ngāti Oneone chairwoman Charlotte Gibson said in a statement that the project was “a visual reminder and a reference point for storytelling of the navigational history of the first peoples of this land”.
“Finishing this work completes our commitment to completing the upgrades to Te Whare Wananga o Puhi Kai Iti, and we’re very pleased with the overall result.”
Mayor Rehette Stoltz thanked Ngāti Oneone, the funders, Lotteries Significant Projects Fund and Trust Tairāwhiti and the many contractors, designers, artists and council staff “who helped bring this taonga to life”.
“We’re so proud to deliver the bridge in the right way, complete with the narrative of mana whenua – it has always been more than a pedestrian bridge – it’s a legacy that connects our people, our place, and our past to the future.”
The bridge was externally funded by a Lottery Grant of $3.1 million and a Trust Tairāwhiti grant of $343,000.
The council had allocated $100,000 for the design, fabrication, application and installation of a puhoro (spiral designs) and rauawa (boards attached to the hull of a waka).
Storyboards will be installed at Te Ikaroa a Rauru and Te Maro in the coming weeks.
