NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

First contact, 250 years on - Tuia flotilla arrives at Waitangi

By Peter de Graaf
Reporter·Northern Advocate·
8 Nov, 2019 06:02 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Paddlers ready the great waka Ngatokimatawhaorua as dawn breaks. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Paddlers ready the great waka Ngatokimatawhaorua as dawn breaks. Photo / Peter de Graaf

They appeared on the horizon just after dawn, at first as a row of bristling masts and billowing sails.

Next, darting ahead of the wind, came three pairs of triangular sails, the unmistakable signature of Polynesian sailing craft.

It was the sign more than 100 paddlers, some clad in capes of flax and feathers, had been waiting for.

The Tuia 250 flotilla - including, from left, the Endeavour, R Tucker Thompson and Fa'afaite from Tahiti - appears on the horizon just after dawn. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The Tuia 250 flotilla - including, from left, the Endeavour, R Tucker Thompson and Fa'afaite from Tahiti - appears on the horizon just after dawn. Photo / Peter de Graaf

READ MORE:
• Tuia 250: Flotilla heads to Bay of Islands after Whangārei visit concludes
• Tuia 250 fleet calls in at NZ's earliest inhabited site
• Tuia 250: Flotilla to arrive in Whangārei as voyage reaches Northland
• Waka launch marks start of Tuia 250 festivities in the Bay

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

They boarded a line of waka moored in the shallows and bowed their heads as one of their number recited a prayer.

Then, as a conch shell sounded and a haunting karanga rang out from the women on the beach, they dug their paddles into the morning tide and set off to greet their strange visitors.

If you could block out the signs of modernity from nearby Paihia you could almost convince yourself it was a scene from the year 1769.

Temanava Macquarie from Rarotonga and her son watch as the Tahitian waka hourua Fa'afaite lands at Waitangi. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Temanava Macquarie from Rarotonga and her son watch as the Tahitian waka hourua Fa'afaite lands at Waitangi. Photo / Peter de Graaf

It was in fact part of the Tuia 250 commemorations as a flotilla of tall ships and waka hourua (double-hulled ocean-going canoes) arrived at Waitangi early yesterday, marking 250 years — for better or worse — of the first significant contact between Māori and Europeans.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The voyage started at the East Cape in September and reached the Bay of Islands on Thursday via Coromandel, Auckland and Whangārei. Next they head for Picton and Wellington.

The tall ships in the fleet are a replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour, The Spirit of New Zealand, and Northland's own R Tucker Thompson.

Sailors from Tahiti (left, carrying a mauri stone from the island of Raiatea) and Hawaii are welcomed to Te Tii Marae alongside master navigator Jack Thatcher of Tauranga (holding a photo of Sir Hekenukumai and Hilda Busby) and Tuia 250 co-chair Jenny Shipley of Russell. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Sailors from Tahiti (left, carrying a mauri stone from the island of Raiatea) and Hawaii are welcomed to Te Tii Marae alongside master navigator Jack Thatcher of Tauranga (holding a photo of Sir Hekenukumai and Hilda Busby) and Tuia 250 co-chair Jenny Shipley of Russell. Photo / Peter de Graaf

One of the waka hourua, the Tahitian vessel Fa'afaite, started its journey months earlier by retracing the route taken by the ancestors of Māori when they left eastern Polynesia.

The other waka hourua are Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti, built by the late Sir Hekenukumai Busby, and Haunui. Sir Hek is credited with reviving Māori ocean voyaging traditions.

Yesterday's on-water welcome for the flotilla was all the more poignant because it was the first time since Waitangi Day 2018 — and the first time since Sir Hek's death — that the great waka Ngātokimatawhaorua had been in the water.

Warriors issue a challenge at Te Tii Marae to more than 300 manuhiri (guests) from the Tuia 250 flotilla. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Warriors issue a challenge at Te Tii Marae to more than 300 manuhiri (guests) from the Tuia 250 flotilla. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Once the visitors were ashore they were welcomed to Te Tii Marae with a series of powerful challenges.

They were led by master navigator Jack Thatcher of Tauranga, carrying a photo of Sir Hek and his wife Hilda, and sailors from Hawaii and Tahiti. The Tahitians carried a mauri stone from the island of Raiatea, regarded by many as the ancestral home of Māori.

Some of the most significant interactions between Captain Cook, his Tahitian interpreter Tupaia and Māori took place on Moturarohia Island near Russell, hence the Bay of Islands focus of the current leg of the Tuia 250 voyage.

The tall ships will be open to the public at Opua wharf from 10am-3pm today and tomorrow.

Tuia a 'rebalancing' of history, ex-PM says

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Among those watching the flotilla's arrival at Waitangi was Tuia 250 co-chairwoman Jenny Shipley, a former prime minister now based in Russell.

One of the aims of Tuia 250 was to rebalance history by making sure New Zealanders' dual heritage was ''evened up and properly represented'', she said.

''Wherever we've been we've tried to ensure the encounters [between Captain Cook and Māori] are honestly explained, good and bad ... That hasn't always been the case.''

While Tuia 250 had attracted controversy Shipley said the commemorations had always allowed room for different opinions.

''A small but important group still feels very keenly that Cook's arrival changed everything. This [Tuia] is who we are 250 years on. Some feel a lot has yet to be done, others that progress is being made. Both are right in their own way.''

Shipley said a highlight for her so far had been seeing the launch at Russell of a waka started by Sir Hekenukumai Busby and Tahitian carver Puaniho Tauotaha, then completed by Tauotaha's son Freddie 27 years later.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She hoped Tuia 250 would prompt New Zealanders to think where they wanted to country to be in 20 years' time when the Treaty of Waitangi was 200 years old.

A bigger than usual police presence was visible around Waitangi yesterday but there was no trouble or sign of protest.

Instead, the event felt like a joint celebration of two ocean voyaging traditions — one by sailing ship, the other starting centuries earlier by waka hourua.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

'Life or death': $900 surgery needed for blind rescue kitten

16 May 07:00 PM
Premium
Letters to the Editor

Letters: The standard of behaviour in Parliament is increasingly appalling

16 May 06:00 PM
New Zealand

Meet the first husband and wife to represent NZ at world 8-ball champs

16 May 06:00 PM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

'Life or death': $900 surgery needed for blind rescue kitten

'Life or death': $900 surgery needed for blind rescue kitten

16 May 07:00 PM

Hastings miracle kitten survives alone and blind, before SPCA intervention.

Premium
Letters: The standard of behaviour in Parliament is increasingly appalling

Letters: The standard of behaviour in Parliament is increasingly appalling

16 May 06:00 PM
Meet the first husband and wife to represent NZ at world 8-ball champs

Meet the first husband and wife to represent NZ at world 8-ball champs

16 May 06:00 PM
On The Up: Hawke's Bay winery turns noble rot into sweet wine success

On The Up: Hawke's Bay winery turns noble rot into sweet wine success

16 May 06:00 PM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP