KEY POINTS:
An 1100ha block of prime publicly owned Coromandel land worth more than $10 million has been occupied by Maori opposed to plans to sell it by tender.
The sale, which could attract foreign buyers given the price bracket, is one of several Landcorp properties put on the market.
The Government entity has sold two properties in Taupo, while a block in the Far North, also occupied by local iwi, is also up for sale.
The two occupations accompany rising opposition from iwi leaders to Government moves to sell land contested in outstanding Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Hauraki chairman Toko Renata and senior tribal kaumatua were among more than 20 protesters yesterday to occupy Whenuakite Station, between Whitianga and Cooks Beach, in a bid to stop the sale of the land, expected this week.
The tribe wants the land handed back as part of outstanding treaty claims, but the Government has refused, and is in the final stages of selling the property, understood to be worth more than $10 million.
Tenders for the land, which includes views of Whitianga Harbour, Hot Water Beach and Cooks Beach, closed on February 13.
Landcorp's board will meet this week to choose a successful bidder.
The tribe has lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal and will lodge a court injunction against the sale this week.
The tribunal has ordered a judicial conference for early next month - too late to affect the sale.
Spokesman John McEnteer said Hauraki, which has more than 12,000 beneficiaries, would call on hundreds if need be to ensure the sale was stopped. "Landcorp are money-grabbing squatters.
"It has always been our land. They have been in temporary possession and we are repossessing it."
And the tribe has powerful allies. Hauraki is a key member of the Tainui confederation, one of the country's largest and wealthiest tribes.
The New Zealand Maori Council has also backed the occupation, and is meeting tomorrow to discuss how it can help.
Council chairman Sir Graham Latimer said he spoke with Hauraki leaders at the weekend and had offered any co-operation they required.
The Coromandel development follows the reoccupation by Far North iwi Ngati Kahu of Landcorp's Rangiputa station, on the Karikari Peninsula, last week.
Hundreds of people marched through the Far North town of Kaitaia on Friday to protest against the plan to sell 9ha of the station, under claim by Ngati Kahu.
The land was loaned to missionaries on the understanding it would return to Ngati Kahu, but it was never returned. The tribe says the Waitangi Tribunal has indicated it should be returned.
Ngati Kahu fear that if it is sold and developed for holiday homes the value will skyrocket, putting it out of their reach forever.
Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly said the sale of the block on the Coromandel would go ahead.
The state-owned enterprise had followed correct process, and was within its rights to sell the block.
Mr Kelly said a caveat would be placed on the Coromandel sales warning purchasers that the Government could buy back the land for a future treaty settlement.
But this does not reassure Hauraki Maori.
Mr McEnteer said the tribe had lost faith in Government assurances, and demanded the sale process be stopped until the claim was settled.
He said the block was one of just two within the tribe's boundaries that offered a real financial base.
He said the Government had land-banked around 60ha of "rats and mice" sections, land scattered throughout the tribe's boundaries, for settlement.
A Waitangi Tribunal report into the Hauraki claim last year found the tribe were due "substantive restitution" as a result of being marginalised by the transfer of land and resources to others.
