Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • 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 / Bay of Plenty Times

Bayfair motorway tunnel mural transformation

Hunter Wells
By Hunter Wells
Writer·Bay of Plenty Times·
6 Apr, 2024 09:12 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

Stuart McDonald. Photo / John Borren/SunLive

Stuart McDonald. Photo / John Borren/SunLive

Overhead there are four lanes of State Highway 2 traffic thundering by at 50 km/h.

But just below, in a quite different world, in the dimness of a pedestrian subway that just about never was, the artists are oblivious.

They’re transforming the walls of the Bayfair motorway tunnel into a 30 or 40m storybook. A mural.

“The theme is the species of animals that once inhabited the area,” Stuart McDonald says – ‘leading hand’ of a team from the family owned and run Ahipoutu Collective, which has been commissioned by the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi to paint the tunnel.

“Animals that were special to our people, and some that are still special.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Like the tītī, the muttonbird, or sooty shearwater, that adorns the Matapihi entranceway to the tunnel. Muttonbirds at Bayfair? Really?

“Yup, there used to be a lot of muttonbirds round here, but now the only place you might find a few is Karewa Island,” McDonald said.

Karewa Island is a small predator-free wildlife sanctuary 6km off Matakana Island.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Taught and learned

The storybook will also teach us Matapihi was renowned for its rich water resources. “Where we’re standing was a river that flowed out to the sea.” So here’s knowledge to be taught and learned about Matapihi and its people.

There’s a bluetooth speaker booming out rap beats in the tunnel.

But it’s the meditative state that comes with mural painting that’s medicine for this artist.

Picasso Amouta is the collective’s tattooist, carver and painter, living out one of his passions in the pedestrian subway beneath the new Bayfair flyover. Photos: John Borren/SunLive.
Picasso Amouta is the collective’s tattooist, carver and painter, living out one of his passions in the pedestrian subway beneath the new Bayfair flyover. Photos: John Borren/SunLive.

“I lost a son to cancer seven years ago, but the artwork puts me in a state of calm,” McDonald said.

He’s in that zone right now. “Happy to chat but can I carry on painting?” And he does.

Art and artists

Inside the tunnel, Picasso Amouta is at work on the wall. Yes Picasso! Not the influential Spanish 20th century co-founder of the Cubist movement but Picasso the tattooist, carver and painter out of Tokoroa.

“Dad loves art and artists,” Amouta said.

Hence the name. He has a sibling called Dante and another called Degas after other famous artists.

Picasso’s passion

But our Picasso is an accomplished artist in his own right. “Never got into tagging or graffiti – was no good at it. This is my passion.”

He’s four years into his ‘apprenticeship’ with McDonald. And also just starting out on his tā moko journey.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“I try to put the young ones into the space where they feel they might want to do it too,” says the boss, the teacher and artist.

“I started my moko 17 years ago. I still have living and learning to do. So no! Not finished yet. Still some to go.”

His grandmother was the first in the family in a long time, to get the markings, the moko kauae or chin tattoo. “When I asked her if I could get one, she said as long as I smiled.”

Right on cue, the finely tattooed face explodes with a trademark grin and he heaves with laughter. Grandmother would approve.

Stuart, with the four street artists, two full-time carvers and five tattoo artists in the collective, are quietly but very visibly transforming the landscape of Bayfair, Baypark and Matapihi – one mural at a time, one tā moko at a time, one pou whenua or carved land post at a time.

“Ahipoutu is the name of our collective and also the name of our whenua, our papakainga just up the road from here. We’re all from Matapihi, all born and raised around here. We are proud of who we are and want to engage.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

People listening

And they’re making a bold visual statement – like the three imposing pou whenua installed on the Baypark roundabout, like the murals on the noise wall along the rail corridor at Bayfair.

And there are more pou whenua planned – for the Bayfair roundabout right above our heads.

“You will see our work going up especially around road developments – part of an agreement between Waka Kotahi and tangata whenua. We are given the opportunity to tell our story through our art.”

And people are listening to that story.

“We see some of the locals two or three times a day going back and forth through the tunnel. They stop, they chat and they really like it. It’s cool.”

- The Weekend Sun

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.



Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Sport

'My moment': NZ-born boxer becomes first Māori to be crowned undisputed world champ

12 Jul 03:58 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Puchner makes history with silver at U23 canoe slalom world titles

12 Jul 03:37 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

One taken to Tauranga Hospital after SH29 crash

12 Jul 02:27 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'My moment': NZ-born boxer becomes first Māori to be crowned undisputed world champ

'My moment': NZ-born boxer becomes first Māori to be crowned undisputed world champ

12 Jul 03:58 AM

In her debut at Madison Square Garden, the 30-year-old produced a 'total beatdown'.

Puchner makes history with silver at U23 canoe slalom world titles

Puchner makes history with silver at U23 canoe slalom world titles

12 Jul 03:37 AM
One taken to Tauranga Hospital after SH29 crash

One taken to Tauranga Hospital after SH29 crash

12 Jul 02:27 AM
Landslide sparks evacuations, roads closed, homes flooded after storm

Landslide sparks evacuations, roads closed, homes flooded after storm

12 Jul 12:43 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

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
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • 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