An eye-opening visit to China

The master of Ningguo Buddhist Temple (centre), flanked by Anahera Herbert-Graves (left) and Margaret Mutu (right), hosts the Ngati Kahu visitors at the Shanghai temple. Photo / Supplied

"Lovely humble" hosts with "exquisite manners"showered a Ngati Kahu team of 12 people with hospitality during a week-long cultural exchange visit to Shanghai.

The group, led by Te Runanga-a-iwi o Ngati Kahu chairwoman Margaret Mutu and chief executive Anahera Herbert-Graves, made the visit as guests of the new Chinese owners of Peppers Carrington Resort on the Karikari Peninsula.

The runanga leaders were accompanied by three kuia, two kaumatua, three rangitahi aged 20-35 plus a kaumatua and kuia who paid their own way.

Group members are all to report in detail to their hapu early next month, but Ms Herbert yesterday described the visit in glowing terms with particular praise for the hosts and the hospitality they provided for the visitors.

The cultural exchange, which will take place annually, was part of an agreement signed in February between Ngati Kahu and Shanghai CRED after the Chinese real estate firm had bought the resort from Paul Kelly, of New York.

The agreement ended two decades of costly effort by Maori to prevent Mr Kelly building above the Te Ana o Taite burial cave, effectively protecting the wahi tapu site from future development.

The pact set up regular meetings. It covered employment of about 40 local people at the resort and runanga involvement in any changes affecting the environment.

Resource consents obtained during Mr Kelly's ownership, including plans for the construction of about 800 single-storey guest dwellings in pockets near the resort, will proceed, although Ms Herbert-Graves said light pollution would need to be managed so the peninsula would continue to be a prime spot for stargazing.

She said Ngati Kahu had been vilified at past public meetings for raising issues that delayed Mr Kelly's development plans.

Some people now anticipated the worst from the Chinese purchase of the resort, but Ms Herbert-Graves said Ngati Kahu had found Shanghai CRED behaved honourably and kept their promises.

"This is not to say we are pro-development. We favour leasing rather than sale of land to foreign investors, but we are not into denying the rights of people based on their race," she said.

The flight to Shanghai took nearly 12 hours.

But the tough arrival settled into a routine where the visitors started each day's activities with visits to impressive gardens before exploring the city of 36 million people.

"I relaxed. I never had to explain or defend myself as I often have to do in New Zealand," Ms Herbert-Graves said. "Our hosts were lovely humble people wanting to be hospitable." They had "exquisite manners".

The Ngati Kahu group was shown poorer areas where people were being rehoused in high-rise apartments. Streets were cleaner than in New Zealand as "everything is recycled", but water was dirtier and smog created air-pollution problems.

She had learned to use chopsticks to deal with eight-course dinners each containing four dozen different dishes that were laid out for the visitors. "The only things I didn't like were the chicken feet and ducks' tongues," she said.