Let's put pollies and protesters on island

Banning protesters and political talk from Waitangi Te Tii Marae might just shift the problem next year, but it will restore protocol.

Rihari (Dick) Dargaville is right - the current scenario at Te Tii is not tika; it's not correct or right.

The marae can be a forum for robust debate, but the mana of the welcome, the importance of coming through Te Tii before visiting Waitangi Treaty grounds or taking part in other Waitangi Day ceremonies needs to be reinforced.

Some years ago, I only half-joked about not sending reporters and photographers to cover Waitangi Day. Year in year out, the politicians are there for photo opportunities, the protesters are there for the same and it becomes somewhat tiresome.

Sure, they have a right to be there but I'm with Rihari - keep the political stuff off the marae. And I have the solution - put the protesters and politicians on Motuarohia (Roberton) Island.

Leave them there for six months and go back and see who's left. Sort of like a cannibalistic game of Survivor. I suspect that life would go on.

Speaking of islands, let's not dwell on it for too long, but some poor naval chap has failed navigation 101.

The rocks that the Navy's Royal barge (a clumsy name for a quite, in her own way, beautiful vessel) hit on Wednesday morning near Tutukaka are well known to locals.

"It's a bit of a shortcut," we're told. But only in the right conditions, at the right tide, I suspect.

The Navy experts are in good company - I have been in a boat that struck rocks near the Tutukaka Harbour entrance.

The "bang" and "thunk" of aluminum scraping the rocks was a frightening experience. We were trawling for kahawai and strayed too close to some barely submerged rocks. It was easy enough to do.

We got the hell out of there pretty quickly - no one was too worried we didn't catch any fish, we were alive.

It would seem, at first glance, that on Wednesday a piece of equipment has failed.

Time will tell whether the failure was a navigational aid or neurological.