Te Rarawa lifts roadblock to Shipwreck Bay in Far North

Te Rarawa's blocking of the road to Te Kohanga - Shipwreck Bay - was respected by most, visitors and locals alike.

Te Rarawa has opened the gate that had been blocking the road down to Te Kohanga - Shipwreck Bay - on Sunday evening.

The iwi is satisfied that its message - that those who visit the beach and the coastline to the west, and the environment in general, should treat it with respect - had been heard loud and clear.

Spokesperson Tui Te Paa said the public response had been very gratifying.

"There were lots of positive outcomes," she said.

"Ninety-five per cent of people were great."

There had been exceptions - the police were called on Sunday afternoon after a confrontation with two local men became "pretty ugly", she said, but apart from that it had been a valuable and rewarding experience.

The men told police that they wanted to go down to the beach to take water from the stream, but Te Paa said it wasn't clear what they were after.

"The important thing is that we now have dialogue with user groups, and at least the bad part came right at the end, not the beginning," she said.

Earlier in the week a party of surfers from New Plymouth had accepted that the road was closed, and were told that they were welcome to access Te Kohanga and the coastline beyond via the foreshore.

No one had claimed responsibility for felling the pou. Photo / Tui Te Paa

And there had been a bonus, in the catching of two local men who drove past the gate, heading for the gumfields, where they planned to contribute to an illegal dump.

"We saw the rubbish bags in their vehicle so a couple of the boys followed them," Te Paa said.

"They went to a place where the council had just cleared a pile of rubbish, but the boys persuaded them to take it away with them. Video of it went on to a couple of social media sites. There were a lot of comments. A lot of people were furious.''

The kaupapa, however, had been to make people aware of the need to show respect for the area, and that had been achieved.

The closing of the road had been prompted by the felling of the pou that had marked the boundaries of the iwi-imposed rahui, designed to protect the paua beds west of Te Kohanga.

Te Paa said the past week had made it clear that there was widespread support for the measure.

Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi had led karakia to make removing the pou from the shoreline safe.

No one had claimed responsibility for felling the pou, erected almost a decade ago, so no one knew why they had done it.