Occupiers from Ngā Hapu o Ahipara moved onto a property on Ahipara’s Wharo Way in October 2021, saying they wouldn’t budge until they were confident the land and tree are protected. That has now happened after an agreement with Far North District Council.
Occupiers from Ngā Hapu o Ahipara moved onto a property on Ahipara’s Wharo Way in October 2021, saying they wouldn’t budge until they were confident the land and tree are protected. That has now happened after an agreement with Far North District Council.
The owner of land at Ahipara that has been occupied for the past two years after a significant pōhutukawa was partially felled hopes an agreement by Far North District Council to buy the land will finally end his “nightmare”.
Members of Te Rarawa and the Ahipara community moved onto the land at Wharo Way on October 2, 2021, after the property owner, Cecil Williams, partially felled a pōhutukawa. Many locals believed the land the tree was on to be a reserve — and the pōhutukawa protected — and were shocked when it was chainsawed because it had not received the protection they say was promised when the land was subdivided for development.
Williams abandoned his plans to build a house on the section soon after the outcry over the pōhutukawa and said he just wanted to sell the section, ideally to local iwi Te Rarawa, and recover his money — it had cost him about $500,000 once later expenses were included.
At its meting last week, the district council agreed to negotiate to buy the land and turn it into a reserve, and protect the tree for ever.
During Thursday’s meeting, Kahika/Mayor Moko Tepania acknowledged that historic actions had seen undertakings to protect 1 Wharo Way broken. While the council would never be a default Office of Treaty Settlements, it had acknowledged there were special circumstances that saw the motion for council to negotiate the purchase of the land supported, he said.
This motion will also have protections put in place for the pōhutukawa tree and comes following a resolution of the Te Hiku Community Board in 2021 to purchase the land for use by the whole community, Tepania said.
Williams said the past two years had been like a nightmare at times for him and his wife, with abuse and threats made against them, despite them not doing anything wrong.
Williams said he will finally believe that the matter, which has caused huge stress to him and his wife, will be over when the money is in his bank account.
He said the couple were the meat in the sandwich of a major administrative stuff-up from the authorities and he had yet to receive official confirmation from the council that it would buy the land.
Kaitāia GP Cecil Williams hopes an agreement by FNDC to buy his land at Ahipara that has been occupied for the past two years will finally end his nightmare.
“The thing is we three times went to the council before cutting the tree to ask if it was a protected tree and three times they said it wasn’t.
“So in good faith we went ahead with cutting it back and then three days later all hell broke loose. Now if it was land worth say $50,000 I would have happily given it to them and said put a plaque up there in my name, but $500,000 is a lot to be out of pocket. As it was we couldn’t sell the land as it was occupied,” Williams said.
He said he would be delighted if this meant the saga was finally over for him, his wife and the wider community.
“We did nothing illegal at all here, but we’ve been suffering from all the stress this has caused. I’ve been a doctor up here for 29 going on 30 years, and this is the one thing that has made us consider packing up and leaving.”
Williams said the situation has been the worst time for him in the Far North and at one stage the couple were looking at selling up and moving to Dunedin to be near their grandchildren and to get as far away as possible from the district.
“I’m very pleased that the people came to this conclusion with the council. We didn’t want to cause any of this upset and we thought everything was kosher. We just wanted to build a house on the site and went about that the right way, but there was something that went wrong over how the land was designated and we were caught up in that.”
He said it was bizarre that in a First World country, when people come onto your property, nobody would do anything to remove them and it could tie up the land for so long.
“This [agreement] would give us a big sigh of relief. I work for Te Hiku and Māori health providers and I would have quit if this couldn’t be sorted out, and that would only add to the GP shortage we face in the Far North,” Williams said.
Occupation leader Reuben Taipari (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Tūhoe) said the council agreement was great for the local community and the wider area.
“We recognise this [agreement] as a sign of what we have achieved [by the occupation and research into the land and how it was converted from a reserve]. It’s amazing for us to now have this relationship with the council,” he said.
“We see this as an investment in the community — and the reserve is for the whole community to enjoy, including the many thousands of visitors who come here from around the globe every year.”
Taipari said it should serve as a model for how such disputes can be resolved amicably and for the good of the whole community.
