Compass exalts navigators' skills

Jack Thatcher studied the ancient form of navigation in Hawaii and has put it into practice while journeying for thousands of miles through the open Pacific on expeditions. Picture / Alan Gibson

A Tauranga harbourside park now holds a large celestial compass showing how Polynesian travellers once navigated the Pacific using the heavens for guidance.

It is a first for New Zealand, although a smaller but similar project is planned in the Far North.

The dream of experienced waka voyager Jack Thatcher, the compass was blessed by local kaumatua at 5.30am yesterday, as night merged into day and the stars made way for the sun.

It is located at the northern end of Marine Park at Sulphur Point with four poupou (carved posts) facing north, south, east and west.

Mr Thatcher lined up the poupou by calculating the cardinal directions using conventional compass. He returned at night to check his bearings using the long-ago technique which requires no instruments. The carved posts lined up exactly.

Between the poupou, plain posts represent the 28 Polynesian "houses" that comprise the full horizon.

Mr Thatcher and Piripi Evans of Kaitaia are the only New Zealand graduates in celestial navigation, having learned the ancient art from a Hawaiian master navigator.

For the last 10 years or so, Mr Thatcher has been teaching about the sun, moon, stars and planets and how to plot an ocean sailing course by them.

At the same time, he has learned himself how to apply the techniques while journeying for thousands of miles through the open Pacific on expeditions.

The new celestial compass, said Mr Thatcher, was "a public art work, for anybody". It is now a centre for waka training.

This weekend, he will start teaching several waka groups both how to sail and how to navigate. He concedes, though, that "only a handful" of people will be dedicated to learning and practising celestial navigation.