Meteria Tapsell. Photo/Andrew Warner.
Meteria Tapsell used to think it was "life-threatening" to go without a hot shower.
Now she thinks it's "life-changing".
Fear was the 17-year-old Tauranga Girls' College student's initial reaction when her aunt gifted her an eight-day trip on a traditional Polynesian voyaging waka.
"I should have been grateful - but I was as scared as hell. Definitely when I found out there was no shower."
Tapsell discovered that swimming in the ocean was as good as any shower.
"Life-threatening" turned out to be not giving up her body scrub, but reefing the sails on a 22m boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as deadly ex- tropical storm Debbie tore across the Tasman to unleash its wrath on New Zealand.
"I feared for my life . . . we were hearing the warnings from New Zealand - they were going into a state of emergency and here we were out on the high sea at the mercy of the winds.
"It felt surreal as the days before had been really nice sunny weather and perfect conditions, then suddenly we got lashed by the most hard-out rain I have felt in my life.
"Some of the kids belted down the hull. The crew stayed calm as. They had pre-planned what to do and the safest route to take to get everyone home to land safely.
"Even though I was scared, I stayed on deck and helped. When you are on the waka you learn that the waka is full of trials . . . and it leaves you stronger. I am definitely a different person after being on the voyage. A better person."
It's a sunny May morning on Pier A at Tauranga Bridge Marina, with a soft wind.
Down a long jetty awaits the majestic double-hulled voyaging waka, Hinemoana, the Maori goddess of the sea.
Tapsell looks out to the stretch of blue ocean past the rows of yachts and beyond Mauao.
It is "a good day to be on the water".
She confidently greets the strangers - other voyagers - with a hug, kiss and kia ora.
While eight nervous teenagers line up in puffer jackets while hugging huge backpacks, Tapsell leaps around in shorts and a simple cotton shirt, and carries little luggage. She wears no make up, and piles her long black hair in a tousled bun, "just to keep it out of the wind".
It seems a long way from the self-confessed vain girl who liked her creature comforts.
If Tapsell now seems more like crew than passenger, that is because she is.
This is now her sixth waka voyage since that first gift from her aunt last November, and not even stormy weather has dampened her new-found passion. She is training to be a crew member, which she hopes will lead to employment with the Hawaiki Rising Voyaging Trust, the not-for-profit charity which takes groups of young people from 14 to 17 on the eight-day waka adventure voyages.
More than a youth-development programme, Tapsell says they are "life-changing" journeys of discovery that uniquely combine culture with learning, and weave ancient tradition with new technology.
A chance to learn "the old ways" was what drew 16-year-old Huia Rika to Hinemoana. At school - she is deputy head girl at Reporoa College - she says there is not enough in the curriculum about Maori traditions.
"I want to learn more about my ancestors, about the ocean. People should know more about it, it is an important part of who you are. I don't know what I am going to do when I leave school, if I will move away from Reporoa, to go somewhere with more opportunities. I just feel like I need to know more about myself, my past."
Rika had seen a video about Hawaiki Rising, but on hearing the trip would cost $1600, she thought it would be impossible.
"My dad has always tried to give me all the opportunities he can but I am not from a rich family . . . at all. I don't have much. I could never ask my dad for that sort of money, even if he paid it off, we couldn't do it."
Sensing Riki's yearning, the trustees scrambled to find her a scholarship, and just two days before the journey she had received a phone call saying she was funded to go, by the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust.
What Hinemoana has to reveal to this girl from Reporoa remains unknown, but Rika is ready.
"I am scared of a storm. I don't even know where they wash or go to the toilet. But I don't care. I feel already a sense of adventure, like something big is going to happen."
That sense of something big about to happen is intuitive, says waka captain Pat Mohi, who firmly believes journeying on Hinemoana "transforms lives".
"The experience of living and working together on a waka creates connections and bonds that can last a lifetime. It changes your perspective forever."
On their voyage Mohi says they will often encounter seals, sharks, dolphins, stingrays and sea-life.
"They will learn how to fish from the sea, dive for kaimoana, sail with the wind, how to navigate with the stars, respect and discover our marine environment and Aotearoa's cultural heritage."
Mohi and his wife Gina have a long history of working with Polynesian and Maori youth and in social services. As well as skippering the waka, Mohi has his "day jobs" - for the past 10 years he has worked with the Department of Corrections using Maori paradigms as a tool for inmate rehabilitation.
Currently Mohi is involved in a court-referred youth programme for his iwi, holds multiple trustee positions, and is a member of Rotorua Police Advisory Board.
He has delivered kaupapa Maori programmes to tertiary institutions, schools, special education providers, marae and prison, and so brings all this experience, combined with knowledge of traditional sailing and te ao Maori (the Maori world) to the kids he leads on Hinemoana.
"The waka is an extension of mediums we've worked with in the past to help youth," he says.
While the voyages can include at-risk youth, Mohi says the power is in the mix of people from all walks of life.
"We don't restrict the voyages to any one type of young person. We want everybody to be exposed to the ocean voyaging lifestyle. Whether you are Maori, Pasifika, Pakeha or any nationality - when you are on this waka, you work on ground level.
"It doesn't matter to the crew whether you come from a wealthy background, or have nothing, or whether you are a star pupil or gone off the tracks a bit. All we ask is that we all get along. Team work - and the stars - will get us where we need to go.
"On board we are brothers and sisters. We are a family, and Hinemoana is our marae."
Mohi says sometimes it takes a while to get the kids into this mindset.
"The crew have rules, because health and safety is paramount. You have to respect the ocean. We encourage the kids to try out things, but we don't force them. There might be resistance.
"You might get a kid who has never lifted a finger, so when we all do the dishes, he doesn't help. Well, I wouldn't force that kid to do the dishes, but I would talk to him. Not even about the dishes. But about him, where he comes from, what he wants to achieve out of life, and how he might get there.
"And you know what . . . that kid . . . that might never have respected authority or dropped out of school, halfway through the journey we might be on mid-ocean, I might catch a sight of him down the hull. You know what he is doing? The dishes. No one forced him. He is doing it because he wants to be part of the group, to contribute."
Mohi says for many of the kids, doing things as a team is the first time they have experienced camaraderie, even a sense of family,
"Some might not have come from a great background, and not had that support, or even anyone to talk to who listens."
There are sea tales of transformations - and tears.
"Oh yeah, all that cheesy stuff. Ask the girls about that. Look this is not the Love Boat cruise. There's no hot spa and wide screens. What the kids will experience is challenging.
"If you have not been on a waka before . . . going back to traditions can be scary when kids are used to their phones and modern ways."
Each waka journey has its story: the girl who only wanted to stay in the hull cooking and was afraid of the ocean. On the night shift, one of the crew asked her to hold the hoi (the wooden waka paddle and main steering mechanism). She said she couldn't, but he said he needed to check something urgently. He took his time doing it, but keeping her in sight to check she was okay.
After a while he returned to sit beside her. She didn't hand him back the hoi, and steered the waka on course till dawn, him teaching her to navigate.
There's the boy who by 15 had already had several run-ins with the police, in minor crimes - thefts and altercations. His dad was in a gang and his mother a prostitute. After going on one waka journey, Mohi and Gina took him under their wing and asked him to help with Hinemoana's upkeep.
Most days he would turn up to the marina and quietly paint and sand the vessel under Mohi's watch. He would sit bent over, and when people spoke to him he would look down, and never make eye contact.
He got an opportunity to sail the waka to Fiji and learn more about traditional voyaging.
When he came back, he stood up tall in front of Mohi, looking directly into his eyes, saying: "While I was away I learned something. My life is not about what I have to take and get, but about what I have to give."
He now has a job, a partner, and a child.
Mohi says it's showing the kids that someone believes in them, that helps them believe in themselves.
"For many kids - particularly Maori or Pacific kids -they only hear bad things about their culture. Like oh those Maori, the prisoners, the poor, the homeless. How can you grow a sense of pride in your culture and yourself if you only hear bad things? No one talks about your history. No one speaks your language, and you don't either.
"But you know what, those people who sailed to these islands years ago were strong, fit people, who had many skills and ways of doing things. They were the best of the best who came here . . . they knew how to sail, fish, hunt, make things, heal, and all from the natural world. When they sailed here to New Zealand on that waka, they were proud people. And when these kids sail on Hinemoana, she gives them back that pride . . . it is a special thing."
A young person standing on the deck of a waka, feeling the freedom of the wind and seeing possibility in the ocean ahead was the vision of the man who started Hawaiki Rising Voyaging Trust in 2014, Katikati entrepreneur, philanthropist and 62-year-old father of eight Simon McDonald.
"I imagined myself as a young Maori standing on deck of waka, similar to what ancestors travelled on years ago, when they travelled 1000 miles across the sea. How proud would I feel? I would really feel part of something great."
The idea for Hawaiki Rising came to McDonald after one of his sons went on The Spirit of Adventure, which was set up in 1972 to provide young New Zealanders with a character development programme in a maritime environment.
When McDonald's friend, author Andrew Crowe, asked him to review his unpublished manuscript of a book about Polynesian ocean voyaging, McDonald became impressed about the extraordinary feats and "can-do" of the early waka voyagers who travelled vast distances across the Pacific.
"It fascinated me how far they travelled - New Zealand pounamu has been found in the Kermadecs, and an axehead 1500 nautical miles from here. School-book history claims that Maori came here by accident, but the truth is Polynesian waka sailors had so much skill and knowledge that they were able to sail back and forth. I think we should all be proud of that."
When an opportunity came up to purchase the waka Hinemoana, McDonald saw how it presented an opportunity to combine culture and youth development to help young New Zealanders on a productive life path.
"I wanted to do something to give back. I have always been really interested in youth welfare and I felt that young Maori and Polynesian were particularly in need. Through no fault of their own, because families had moved around looking for work, many young people have become disconnected, with no sense of belonging."
"If you have been dealt not a lot in life, there's a risk young people fall into this 'life sucks' mentality and, for some, the disconnection and lack of belonging means they slide into destruction and bad choices . . . this can lead to destructive social behaviour, crime, family violence, and addictions. And, for some, tragically the lack of connection leads to tragedy - youth suicide."
The importance of helping youth belong and be part of a wider group, a type of "family" is heartfelt for McDonald who remembers his teenage years on England's south coast as very lonely. Both his parents suffered mental illness at a time when mental illness was a stigma.
"My mother suffered chronic anxiety and it wasn't understood then - she spent a lot of time in mental health institutions, back when there were things like electric shock treatments."
His mother died in a mental hospital and, by the time McDonald was 22, both parents were dead.
"I didn't feel I belonged at all. I clearly remember that 'life sucks' feeling and it could have gone the destructive way."
Instead he began to read widely, learned how to sail, went to university and trained as a dentist, then moved to New Zealand 28 years ago. He had his own dental practice in Katikati and then "gave up the day job" to become a serial inventor in dental technology and a multimillionaire.
McDonald said when he met Pat Mohi, he knew he had found the right leader for his waka project.
Experienced waka sailors are not easy to find says McDonald - there's few globally. Mohi had been sailing waka for more than 20 years, including spending time in Hawaii which, along with New Zealand, leads the world in sailing traditional craft.
Mohi has sailed more than 50,000 nautical miles so far on various waka and leads an expert crew which includes his wife Gina, Ani Zhou Black, wife of the late Awanui Black, Fijian sailor Angelo Smith, and sailor-in-training Tapsell.
It is this crew that gathers the voyagers for this May trip on to the deck of the Hinemoana, inviting their families on board too for a look around before they embark.
Black greets everyone with a hug and kiss while Mohi leads the mihi, where voyagers say what brought them to the waka.
One mother asks Mohi to "bring my boy home safe".
Mohi assures her: "Your moko are in safe hands and we will bring them back to shore."
There are some tears as goodbyes are said.
Not only can whanau trust the crew, but Hinemoana is salted with history and mana.
"Hinemoana's been everywhere throughout the Pacific, from Costa Rica through to Tahiti, the Galapagos Islands to Norfolk Island and everywhere in between," said Mohi.
She was the flagship of the "Te Mana o Te Moana" fleet of seven which made a two-year epic voyage of the Pacific Ocean in 2011-2012, crewed by indigenous people from all over the Pacific - including Mohi. Built with a combination of traditional knowledge and modern materials, Mohi says Hinemoana is an authentic experience,
"Solar panels allow her electric motors to be powered entirely by the elements. While traditional waka hulls were carved from one big tree trunk, Hinemoana's hulls are made of fibreglass and all beams are connected to the hulls through traditional lashings
"They require no use of fossil energy as they are purely wind and solar powered. All in all what you get is a very tactile experience on the waka. It's fun, empowering and, without realising it, you're learning about our past and the future."
Carvings represent all the islands she has sailed to, with motifs on her hull reflecting her pan-Pacific origins. Her body is painted with designs by leading Rotorua artist and sculptor Hohua Mohi, which symbolise her status as the deity of the ocean.
Mohi checks the weather. There has been talk of yet another cyclone. Mohi is not worried.
"Nah, we are good. If we are lucky we will get up to Whitianga. There are islands on the way. It is a maritime playground."
Mohi says while the waka tests the kids, a big part of it is also having a good time, laughing and learning.
"It's immensely rewarding seeing these kids try new things. On our maiden voyage one of our students got to dive for kina for the first time in her life. Then she ate it. She was talking about it for days afterwards."
Mohi says one of his favourite parts of the voyages is when the groups reflect on their journey.
"At the end of the journey they are capable of so much more than before and they have a stronger sense of self, of belonging and of potential
"We stand up together and we talk about what we got out of it. We thank the waka for keeping us safe. We thank the crew. Often the kids cry, some don't want to go home.
"Some are overwhelmed by the powerful, life-changing stuff."
Does he cry?
Mohi laughs.
"Only on the inside."
As Hinemoana raises her sails, Rika, our girl from Reporoa, sits on deck looking out to the ocean in wonder. Her cheeks seem wet from tears or maybe it's just the spray from the water, because she is smiling.
Mohi tells the kids to get into their swim gear. They are heading to Baywave for a pre-voyage swim assessment.
It is the first of many things they will do as a team over the next few days, says Tapsell.
"I love how we start out as strangers, but by the end of the week we have made life-long friends. The work we do and the trials on the waka bring us together as a family."
It is this sense of family that draws Tapsell from her Maketu home back to the ocean.
"Before my first waka trip, I was a bit lost. I was so inflexible, everything had to be just so and I would have tantrums if not. My parents had me when they were really young - dad was just 17 and still at high school. They grew up finding their place in the world and have just had their 18th anniversary. Going on the waka has matured me, made me respect and appreciate my parents."
She wishes all teens could experience Hinemoana's magic.
"There are lots of teens in New Zealand who just don't know where they are going. How can you know where you are going if you don't know where you came from? The waka gives you back yourself."
Hawaiki rising voyaging trust depends on fundraising and sponsorship
• It is currently looking for a primary naming sponsor.
• It also seeks sponsors to fund waka journeys.
• The Ladies Charity Luncheon at ASB Arena, June 9, is raising money for the trust in a charity auction.
• If you would like to help the trust through sponsorship or donation, please contact Wendy Robertson at wendy@hawaikirising.com.
Hawaiki Rising Voyaging Trust
• "Hawaiki" the source and homeland of Maori and Pacific people and culture.
• "Rising" the empowerment that arises from knowing who you are.
Hinemoana
• One of seven modern-day traditional Pacific voyaging canoes built in 2009 by Salthouse Boatbuilders to traditional lines, using mostly modern materials.
• A kitchen, oven, bench seats and navigation station are located inside the cabin.
• Its eight-day voyages are on the east coast of New Zealand from Tauranga northwards.
• At 22m in length with expansive decks, there are sleeping berths for 20 crew or passengers and plenty of storage space for 4 tonnes of food, water and other supplies.
• The average sailing speed within the two years when they were crossing the Pacific twice was about 7 knots or 168 nautical miles per day.
• Mainly operated by celestial navigation. For safety reasons there is a back-up compass, GPS or similar navigational installations. However, to ensure safety it is equipped with VHF and AIS as well as safety equipment such as life rafts, lifejackets, flares, etc, following international safety regulations.
This summer will be critical to discover if the sharks have started returning.