Biggest Waitangi welcome in 30 years for Lions

Te Kauri McPherson (centre) at a training night at Kerikeri High School for a powhiri welcoming the British and Irish Lions to Waitangi. PHOTO / PETER DE GRAAF

A welcome by hundreds of Ngapuhi warriors for the British and Irish Lions will be the biggest staged at Waitangi in almost 30 years.

The Lions are due at the Treaty Grounds on June 4, the morning after they play their opening match against the Barbarians in Whangarei.

Treaty Grounds visitor experience manager Mori Rapana, who is organising the powhiri along with a team of volunteers from as far away as Kaitaia, Auckland and Sydney, said 500 or more men and women were expected to take part. A large contingent of national and international media was expected to cover the welcome.

It would be the biggest powhiri at Waitangi since 1990 when about 2000 people took part in a welcome marking the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi and a national kapa haka competition.

"It's a chance to showcase Ngapuhi to the world, on a positive note. I'm really excited," Mr Rapana said.

"It's an honour to be part of something this auspicious."

The Lions would arrive at Hobson beach on foot from the Copthorne Hotel, where kaihoe (paddlers) would come ashore in a fleet of waka to start the welcome. After the first challenge in front of the great waka Ngatokimatawhaorua the visitors would be guided up the track with the second challenge at the flag pole and the third at Te Whare Runanga (the carved meeting house) where the ceremonial speeches would take place.

Mr Rapana said welcoming a British team to Waitangi had special significance.

"They could even include descendants of the representatives who were here in 1840 when the Treaty was signed," he said.

The Waitangi National Trust first approached the NZ Rugby Union about hosting a welcome six months ago, when the trust learned the first game was to be in Whangarei. The NZRU only accepted the invitation in April, giving the trust just six weeks to organise it.

However, Mr Rapana said he had received a huge response from Ngapuhi and other iwi keen to show their manaakitanga (hospitality) and had a core group of people helping him. He was grateful to schools in Kaitaia, Kerikeri, Kaikohe, Kawakawa, Moerewa, Kamo and Auckland which had made their halls available for practise nights.

A large contingent from Nga Uri o Rahiri a Sydney was paying their own fares from Australia to support the kaupapa, he said.

■ The second and third challenges, on the upper Treaty Grounds, will be open to the public. The welcome starts at 10.30am on June 4 and runs until about 12.30pm. People keen to watch the spectacle are advised to arrive before that time and park at the sports field opposite the Treaty Grounds.