By ANGELA GREGORY
WAITANGI - A Ngapuhi elder has condemned the "foolish and dangerous" decision to take the country's largest Maori canoe out in poor weather at Waitangi on New Year's Eve.
The 35.7m waka, carrying 43 men and children, was swamped in stormy conditions and forced to head for the nearest
land.
All those on board Ngatokimatawhaorua were evacuated by emergency helicopter with mild to moderate hypothermia. The craft was refloated at 4 pm on Saturday and returned to its waka house for repairs.
Ngapuhi kaumatua Graham Rankin said he never favoured children on waka, but it was ridiculous to take them out in bad weather.
"It might be all right in very, very safe conditions, but this was foolish and dangerous. Lives could have been lost."
Mr Rankin said it was a smokescreen to suggest children traditionally travelled on waka.
It was fortunate the canoe had not snapped in half, he said.
"It is not one log but carefully spliced sections. They could have lost the largest waka in the world."
The ceremonial war canoe, made from two giant kauri, had taken two years to build for the 1940 centennial Treaty of Waitangi celebration, he said, and had carried royalty.
The waka captain, Hec Busby, said Mr Rankin was ill-informed.
"He's never been on a boat."
Mr Busby said the waka was about 30 paddlers short and he had not realised how bad the weather was beyond Wairoa Bay.
But he denied that there was ever any danger.
"They [the paddlers] just ran out of steam ... So we brought the waka on to the rocks. That was the only option."
Although the waka leaned on its side when it hit the shallows, no one fell out, he said. The children were carried to shore in knee-deep water.
Mr Busby said that if waka were forced to carry lifejackets as were commercially operated boats, the canoe would not be used again.
"We'll just park it up in the shed where it had sat for 33 years after 1940."
Northland Ambulance area manager Grant Pennycook said more than half those on board were children or teenagers.
"Some of the kids were just clad in a pair of shorts. The smaller ones were extremely cold ...
"It very much had the potential to be a huge disaster."
The director of the Maritime Safety Authority, Russell Kilvington, said the authority urgently needed to investigate the incident.
By ANGELA GREGORY
WAITANGI - A Ngapuhi elder has condemned the "foolish and dangerous" decision to take the country's largest Maori canoe out in poor weather at Waitangi on New Year's Eve.
The 35.7m waka, carrying 43 men and children, was swamped in stormy conditions and forced to head for the nearest
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