The sale of a luxury resort on the Karikari Peninsula in the Far North does not mean an end to the local iwi's long-running court battle to stop development on what it says is an ancestor's burial cave - at least not yet.
Since 2009 Te Runanga-a-iwi o Ngati Kahu has been fighting Peppers Carrington Resort's previous owner, US billionaire Paul Kelly, and the Far North District Council over plans for a dozen new homes near Karikari Beach. Following a series of financially draining legal victories and losses, the iwi was last month granted permission to take its case to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
Chief executive Anahera Herbert-Graves said the sale of the resort did not change the runanga's determination to stop development at Te Ana o Taite, the burial cave of Ngati Kahu ancestor Taite.
Iwi leaders were hoping to meet the new Chinese owners soon. "We'll see where we go from there," she said.
"The issue is that the consents still stand, so we still have to knock those consents over."