A 10-day hīkoi on horseback has been completed by a Hawke’s Bay iwi who hope to raise awareness and funds to buy back a landmark that was once sacred Māori land.
For the last 100 years, the more than 1000 hectare Kahurānaki Station, which included Mt Kahurānaki, has been a working sheep farm.
However, now it is up for sale and Ngāti Kahungunu hoped to buy it back.
The group first began their journey in Mahia, traversing rugged East Coast farmland.
Today, after 254 kilometres, they arrived at Kahurānaki Station and were met with a pōwhiri by iwi and local supporters.
Trek organiser Kelly-Aroha Huata said the journey had been emotional.
“Two reasons why we done it: One, to show our people why it’s important to reconnect with our land and our value to us and to trek all the other maunga under private ownership; and to make it here and show our people we can, yes, raise money to put in a good offer and, yes, we can do hard thing.
“Hearing all the different whānau story around land loss and it was a privilege to trek on all those maunga and just grateful we made it here safely.”
They raised nearly $60,000 through a koha page.
Whānau young and old came out in support and walking alongside the horses to the peak today.
They were steps whānau proudly made as, for some, it was the first chance they’ve had to reconnect with the ancestral land.
“[It’s the] first time for me and my pepi, and yes it’s important to us because this is our whenua and this is our maunga,” one walker told 1News on their journey.
At the top, the group met cold and wet conditions but this was all part of the journey, Ngāti Kahungunu iwi chair Bayden Barber said.
“That’s all you have to have — a desire to be at the top —and then do the work to get there so it’s a special moment for Ngāti Kahununu to arrive here. But this is only the first step, we’ve got a big amount of work in front of us and that’s raising enough money to get this maunga back.
“Kahurānaki has always been the number one highest peak in Hawke’s Bay and we have it in our pepiha there’s a lot of korero a lot of wāhi tapu on top and we even have marae named after it,” Barber said.
The current owners were also on site to welcome the group through.
“It’s lovely to see the people connecting with the mountain. As for buying it back, we really don’t know, it’s due to go to tender but I think we all agree we don’t want to see it into pine trees,” said current landowner Caroline Greenwood.
It was also a special day for elders watching on as the younger generation made a stand. Ngāti Kahungunu elder Jerry Hapuku said he felt proud of the group.
“To stand proudly on my own marae and say my pepeha and have more importance in terms of how I can express it, in relationship to the maunga because my marae is named after the maunga, I come from Kahurānaki which is very special marae.”
