Mountain will cast its spell on special day

By LOUISA CLEAVE

MT HIKURANGI - Listening to Amohaere Houkamau run through the millennium celebrations planned for Mt Hikurangi sends tingles down the spine.

She understands the feeling and says she received the same reaction from the Government's Towards 2000 Taskforce members when she presented the plans to them.

Ms Houkamau is chief executive of Te Runanga o Ngati Porou, organisers of the Hikurangi Maunga Dawn Event.

Through the window behind her, the mountain in the far distance is shrouded in cloud - something runanga members hope will not be hanging around on the morning on January 1.

While the Chatham Islands lay claim to be the first inhabited land to welcome the dawn, and Gisborne the first city, Mt Hikurangi will be the first place on the mainland to see the sun rise.

The celebrations are open to all members of Ngati Porou and invitations have been extended to Government leaders, VIPs, other iwi and representatives of spiritual mountains of the world.

Numbers are being restricted to 2500 people because of the size of the site.

Access to the mountain will close at 5 pm on December 31 and the young and fit are expected to make the four-hour walk to the specially cleared plateau just below the summit.

The elderly and disabled will be taken by four-wheel-drive.

Visitors must be prepared to stay there until after 5 am the next day.

Ms Houkamau says a medical unit will be set up, as well as marquees for shelter, and tea, coffee and toilet facilities.

Cooking is banned, but people will be given a guide on what food and clothing they should take.

Ms Houkamau says people will be asked to pause as dawn approaches and wait for the Hikurangi dawn chorus - the local term for the cacophony of song from the resident birds and insects - to signal the sky is about to light up.

It is a sight Ms Houkamau has witnessed many times during ceremonies to welcome the start of previous years.

"Every time is special, but it's going to be extremely special in the sense that all the key elements that are giving this event its true significance will be in place."

Eight minutes of the Mt Hikurangi dawn will be televised worldwide and watched by an estimated one billion people.

Ngati Porou has worked from an existing script for its event - the legend of Maui fishing up the North Island from his canoe, Nukutaimemeha, on top of the mountain.

Before sunrise the Maui Whakairo sculpture, 11 carved figures arranged within a 35m circumference, will be dedicated to the mountain.

At the centre of the sculpture will be a 10m-tall waka with the image of Maui carved on the front.

"The whole notion of having Maui in a physical form on the mountain will add that extra dimension, and also having the representatives of the many mountains of the world come to acknowledge Hikurangi.

"It is [having] all the spiritual, the emotional and the cultural dimensions that is going to be the magic."