First sunrise shows Chathams to world

By THERESA GARNER

on the Chatham Islands

On the rugged hillside of Mt Rangaika, Chatham Islanders sat wrapped in blankets amid the gnarled ake ake trees and stared out into the chilly blackness.

No rain had fallen, but cloud obscured the light of the stars.

This was the scene after about 300 people made the four-wheel-drive trip on a rough mud track up the hill on the main Chatham Island for a vantage point looking out over Pitt Island in the east.

The grassy ledge where the ceremonies would take place had a film-set feeling, in keeping with the television nature of the event being broadcast around the world.

Cables ran through the bush to generators, and unnatural light bathed the hillside. Expectation hung heavy in the air. Some groups partied and sang, but most were quiet.

The television crews, the photographers and the islanders who were to take part in the dawn ceremony were nervous.

As a band of light began to separate the sea and sky, a Chatham Island cultural group rehearsed the traditional Maori observances, prayer, challenges and haka that would greet the rising sun.

High above, six skydivers leaped from a plane at 2500m and landed without a hitch in the waters off Pitt Island.

It became apparent that a thin band of clear sky visible beneath low cloud would give the watchers at least a few minutes in which to view the first sunrise of the new millennium to hit inhabited land.

On cue from the TV3 floor manager running the television filming, the acknowledgment of the occasion began and children dressed in the costumes of native birds mimed while the culture group sang its own dawn chorus.

Seventeen-year-old Andre Day welcomed the dawn by blowing into a conch while his father, George, led the culture group.

"It was an amazing feeling," Mr Day said later. "To be singing and watching the sun steadily rise. The singing gave voice to the feeling in all our hearts."

Nerves forgotten, the culture group looked past the cameras and into the orange ball which hung briefly in the gap before disappearing behind the low cloud.

The hillside was awash with hues of pink and yellow and the emotion of the crowd spilled over into cheers, whistles and spontaneous song.

Locals say they have seen a thousand better sunrises ... but this one was the most special.

Chatham Islanders want to use their new-found fame to support a tourism industry that will create jobs and give young people a reason to stay on the island.

Val Croon, who runs Hotel Chathams, has no doubt an influx of tourists will occur.

"I feel the Chathams is just in its infancy in terms of tourism," he said.

The island's crayfish industry was in decline, and visitors were more readily accepted than in the past as islanders recognised the potential they offered.

"We lose our young people to New Zealand because there is nothing for them here, particularly for young girls," he said.

Ten years ago, the Chathams had fewer than 10 tourists a year. But the island's profile rose in the build-up to the millennium celebrations, and last year 2000 people made the trip to the remote island, 860km east of Christchurch.