Rahui response at Cable Bay 'not appropriate'

Cable Bay, where the rahui imposed after the death of Wairongoa Renata confused some but was respected by most. Photo / Rosco Pennell

Aputerewa Marae kaumatua Glen Larkin has apologised for the aggressive reaction to a holidaying family who were accused of breaching the rahui at Cable Bay (Rahui takes a nasty turn, January 11).

Mr Larkin, who was one of the elders who imposed the rahui, which was lifted after five days, said those who had confronted the visitors had not been "official" people, and their attitude, as described, had not been at all appropriate.

The holiday-maker said he did not have an issue with the rahui, imposed after the death of 54-year-old Wairongoa Renata, who had gone to the rescue of his children, but there had been no information about what it allowed and what it did not, or what part of the beach it covered.

When his family went to the beach for a game of touch they were approached by a man and two women, who filmed them with their phones and told them to "clear off." They were told they could not swim, fish or play on the beach.

Two days later his wife took their two children to play in the stream at the eastern end of the beach (which was not covered by the rahui), where they and four other children were again told to leave by a man who threatened to have them removed if they did not go voluntarily. The man had got "right into" his wife's face, he said, and smelled as though he had been drinking.

Mr Larkin said none of that those efforts to enforce the rahui were proper, or sanctioned. He accepted that there had been a lack of information for the public, but rahui in response to a death could not be planned.

Signs had been put up for five days, as a gesture of respect for Mr Renata's whanau, during the period of the tangi.

Mr Larkin thanked the great majority of people, many of them overseas but including locals, who had respected the rahui.

"We cannot monitor everything," he added, but the behaviour complained of "makes it bad for all of us."

The great majority of people had been "awesome," but clearly there was work to do to get the message out to the wider community about the cultural significance of rahui and the detail of what they did not permit.