Up to 700 paddlers will take part in a waka display off Tii Beach tomorrow as part of the 175th Waitangi Day festivities.
At least 15 waka and 500-700 kaihoe (paddlers) are expected to take part, making it one of the biggest gatherings of recent years, Nga Waka Federation chairman Robert Gabel said.
Most of the waka hailed from Northland, but one was from Te Arawa while Tainui was sending a waka hourua (double-hulled canoe) called Haunui. Master navigator Hekenukumai Busby's waka hourua Ngahiraka mai Tawhiti was on its way back to Northland from Tauranga to join in, Mr Gabel said.
The kaihoe were camping at Waitangi's Bledisloe Domain. About 300 had arrived by Tuesday with numbers building each day. They included half a dozen members of the oldest student rowing club in the Netherlands, Njord Royal Rowing Club in the city Leiden.
The club sends a group of rowers to Waitangi every year to learn waka drills and protocols, part of an exchange that began in 2010 when the Dutch national ethnographic museum commissioned Mr Busby to build a waka taua (ceremonial canoe). Several paddlers of the Suquamish tribe from Washington state in the US will also take part.
