After spending two days at sea, yesterday those onboard the Te Matau a Maui waka confronted the world's largest seismic survey ship to protest against its search for oil off the East Coast.
This comes after the Government released 49,630 km² in the East Coast offshore area as part of the Block Offer 2017 last month, and as the Hawke's Bay Regional Council propose prohibiting oil and gas exploration activities on land.
On Saturday the Ngati Kahungunu-owned waka left Napier with Ikaroa Rawhiti residents and descendants bound for the Amazon Warrior - which is contracted by oil companies Statoil and Chevron to conduct seismic surveying.
Yesterday, it converged with the Greenpeace vessel Taitu to deliver their message to the seismic survey ship - said to be the world's largest.
In a statement Te Matau a Maui spokesman Raihania Tipoki - who was onboard the waka - said they had warned the Amazon Warrior numerous times to stop surveying, but it was "now time to do this our way, kanohi ki te kanohi, face to face".