Clearing weather gives waka chance to sail

Tahi Neera from Tangoio and Ruiha Bryant-Toi from Raglan were ready to sail on Monday until the weather stepped in - but all going well they will help raise the sails today. Photo / Paul Taylor

If there is one weather term that causes the leading hands aboard the Napier-based Te Matau a Maui waka to shake their heads it is "El Nino" - the weather phenomenon that creates plenty of wind driven in from the west and northwest.

On Monday the waka had been all prepped and readied to make a voyage south to Waimarama.

The same sort of preparations that had been carried out back in October for a planned voyage to Castlepoint off the coast of Wairarapa.

But strong winds and choppy, unpredictable seas at the time caused that voyage to be postponed.

It was a case of lightning striking twice as Monday's voyage was also postponed - although the trust and waka crew are hoping to get away today.

"No, no, the weather's not been going our way," the waka's navigator Piripi Smith said.

"It looks like an El Nino summer coming."

Mr Smith said while the waka was capable of battling rough conditions there were two issues that caused the latest postponement.

One was that many of the crew were young people who would be taking on the waka experience for the first time.

"We want their first waka experience to be a good experience - not a seasick experience."

Secondly, the forecast conditions earlier in the week indicated a rising surf, which meant a planned beaching of the waka at Waimarama would not to be able to take place.

The alternative, anchoring offshore, meant getting local whanau out to it for planned sailings would be tricky.

"Friday's conditions are looking a lot better so we'll look at sailing [today]," Mr Smith said.