“Our Kahungungu teams today with their legs painted in mud to signify the struggles their whānau are going through in the Hawke’s Bay rohe was awesome,” Douglas said. “You could tell that while they were physically in Tamaki Makaurau for Te Matatini, their hearts are elsewhere with their whānau.
“They painted their legs in mud to symbolise how their homes are looking at the moment. There are many marae covered in knee-deep mud and they painted their legs to signify the struggles the iwi is coping with. I thought that was a beautifully symbolic way to say we are here but our thoughts are at home.”
Whānau at Wairoa had given the group an emotional farewell earlier in the week. But things don’t always stick to a schedule.
Manukura Tānē, Edward Karauria, told Radio New Zealand when the cyclone hit and Wairoa was cut off, they were not sure they would make it.
“Firstly, we had no type of contact, no phone lines, no media, no anything. So we actually didn’t know there was anything on, due to having no contact. (We were) just living life and trying to help our families with the silt,” he said.
Getting to Auckland was a mission in itself.
The brakes failed on their first bus and the second was slow going, over the just reopened road via Gisborne, through the Waioeka Gorge, to Ōpōtiki.
Tauranga’s Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Ranginui came to the rescue, providing vans for the final leg to Auckland.
Manukura Wāhine, Joylene Rohe-Karauria, said they had to entertain themselves during long hours on the road. “We came on a school bus from home to Whakatāne. We played ‘I spy’ at one part of the trip because it was so slow . . . safe, but slow.”
In normal circumstances, whānau would have gone to Auckland to cheer them on, but this time they had to watch from Wairoa.
About 100 people gathered at the Gaiety Theatre, in the centre of town, to cheer the group on.
Lah Tipuna helped set it up, and said there was so much emotion in the room. “So the nannies that did come, tears, (they) cried right through the whole thing. The whole crowd were just blown away,” Tipuna said.
“(It’s) something good for our town as well . . . something positive for our town.”
Rohe-Karauria said members of the kapa had been doing what they could for their home town, even before outside help arrived.
“We’ve got maybe eight rangatahi from our wharekura at home, that was their first stand today. And two days before we came they were on the streets and cleaning silt out of the marae and on horses and trailers . . . and today they stood for the first time at Te Matatini.”
She said the hardest part was leaving their whānau in still-damaged Wairoa.
She paid tribute to their support.
“We love you and you were our fuel for today, you gave us the strength,” she said. “We left on Monday morning and we had a big whakamoemiti (thanksgiving), and it was hard. That was the hardest day, leaving and knowing what we were leaving behind.
“And a little bit of . . . anxieties about whether we would get home, because there were still slips at Te Karaka and Waioeka. I mean anything could happen between now and us going home. Us not being able to get home will just not be good.”
Karauria said everything the kapa did was for Wairoa: “We love you Wairoa. For us, for Wairoa, forever.” - NZ Herald/Radio New Zealand
