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Karangahia ngā pū nunui e mā anō ai ngā wai o te takiwā. Kāhore he huarahi kotahi e tika ai ngā hē onamata.
E mea ana, he uaua te haere. E tumanako ana kai te pūare kau ngā hinengaro, ngā whatumanawa o tātou katoa kia kāua tātou e hoki ki te wā e hamuti nui ana ngā roto moana. Engari e tika ana e paru ana.
Kai ngā pakihiwi o tētehi pahi nui tēnei mana. Koia ko Te Arawa Lakes Trust (TALT) rātou ko te kaunihera o Rotorua, te kaunihera o te moana a Toi me Te Papa Atawhai. Kua whakahono atu rātou ki te iwi, ki ngā hapū nui me ngā whānau huhua whaihoki ngā pāmū hoki e tika ai tēnei raruraru.
Kai te mōhio pū ahau ki tēnei āhuatanga. I tupu ai a hau i Te Whakarewarewa, i karangangia ai mātou ko te hunga ruku kapa koi au e mohio ai ki te maeke o Puarenga me te painga o ngā waiariki. E rua, e rua.Ko ngā puna kai te tihi kai te Rahui ko ngā puna 'oil' ēnei kī katoa i ngā painga o te whenua, nā reira i kahukoreko ai te tapeha o te tangata.
Ki Te Hirere he āhua kiwikiwi te wai nā te waiparu tonu, he mea whāngaia e te puna rakiraki. Whoi anō ko ngā puna kai te Rahui me Te Hirere ngā waiariki kai te kaha kauria ināianei.
Tae mai te manene me te whānau i Tamaki Makaurau ki Te Whakarewarewa nei he kaukau noa, he ahakoa kāore i whakaaengia, e hoki ana ngā māharatanga ki ngā wā o mua, ka pēnātia mātou ka kōnihi atu ki ngā wai, e kaukau ana, kātahi ka hāmamangia mātou e nga pou arahi tūruhi.
Engari anō ko te Puarenga e kaukau ana mātou, nā wai rā kua hakihaki katoa te tapeha nā ngā waiehu o te Mīrā o Waipā. Ko te wā tuatahi i rangona ai e ahau ki te kupu "eutrophication", nā tetehi o aku hoa, ko John Gunn tōna ingoa, nō te tau kotahi mano e whitu tekau mā rua te tau, whoi anō he mātanga ahuwhenua e tuhi ana mā te Timaru Herald, ka tae ki Rotorua nei – e hika āhua e rima tekau ngā tau ki muri tangi ana ngā pere whakatūpato kai paruparu ngā roto moana.
E ai ki te tikinare ko te tikanga o te kupu eutrophication;" Ka taumaha ngā roto moana i ngā taiora whenua e mātotoru ai te tupu o te petipeti". Nā te mea kai te wētini o te kurutao a TALT e kakari ana ko te pouwhakahaere taiao ko Nicki Douglas tētehi o ngā tangata mana nui.
Ko te whakarauora i ngā rohe kōreporepo tētehi wāhanga o te whakarauora rauemi roto moana e ora anō ai ngā rohe kōreporepo i te Waiariki nei.
E iwa ngā rohe kōreporepo i Rotorua nei kī pai ki ngā whenua toiora ko te rautaki kia haria atu kia rima tekau tana o tēnei whenua. E mea nei a Nicki he waimārie kua kanohi atu rātou ki te iwi, ngā hapū me ngā whenua taratī hoki.
Ko te painga o te rohe kōreporepo he tātari i ngā kino e tika ana kia whakarauorangia ēnei taonga. Nā reira e whakapau kaha ana ngā tangata mahi kia tupu rearea ai te aitanga a Tānemahuta ki a Māori noa ēnei wāhi. Nā reira kua whakatū whare kōhanga rākau ki Maketu kia kāua e pau katoa i a rātou ngā rakau.
Mō te hunga noho tāone pēnei i ahau kāore e tino mārama ana ki te hāngaitanga o te rohe kōreporepo ki taku oranga, kia kītea kētia tētehi hāngaitanga ka mārama kehokeho ai. Pēnā i te wā nō mātou e itiiti ai, kapi kau ana ngā awa i te kōwhitiwhiti hai kai mā tātou katoa i Ngapuna, e hoa ka kitea pū he kēwai e kaukau ana i Waingaehe, ka tae ki te mātiti o 8-mile ki Waipā pūhakehake ana te kōwhitiwhiti.
Ka nui te whakangākau ki Te Puarenga i ēnei rangi. Te moumou hoki. Waiparu, wai-māngere hoki. He ahakoa he tokoiti noa ngā tamariki me te turuhi, engari rā e hakoke ana ngā pākura me ngā ngeru hōhā. Kātahi nei ahau ka kite i ngā pākura i te pā taunaha whoi anō i aua taimā e whitawhita ana te pā, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. Kua tata ki te kotahi tekau o ngā tau tēnei whakaaro ko te rohe kōreporepo, engari kātahi ka tino tāti i ngā tau tata nei, tona āhua e rima o ngā tau.
E mana ai tēnei kaupapa mātua me noho me te iwi, ngā hapū me ngā whānau katoa. Ka tū ngā hui ki Te Pōhue, ki Te Ruamata tae atu ki Ōkawa ki reira e wānanga tahi ana me Ngāti Uenukukopako me Ngāti Pikiao e whakarongo pīkari ana ki ngā kōrero tuku iho a te hunga toutou.
"E tika ana ki a haere mātou ki ngā marae huhua, me te nanao atu ki ngā mātanga kia noho tahi mai i a mātou nā reira e tika ai tēnei waka". He ahakoa he mahi ataahua, he nui te utu. Nō te tau e rua mano e rua tekau i waimarie mātou i tētehi pekanga o te Kāwanatanga ko te huarahi mahi mā te taiao, nā ka whai huruhuru ngā waewae.
Nā tēnā ka rewa ake ngā kaupapa tiaki taiao i Maketu me Holden's Bay.
Nā tēnā hoki kua tū ngā hui -ā-marama ki runga pukamata he whakaaro nā te hunga rangatahi ake.
Nō reira te whakapā atu ki te hāpori nui tonu, me ngā reanga rahi hoki. E tika ana mā te pūtea e ora ai te taiao, e ora ai te mātauranga e ake tonu ai ngā pūkahukahu o Papatūāhuroa.
E pūare ana ngā pūkoro hohonu o te Kāwanatanga ināianei. Nā reira tēnei waka ka tere ai. Kua tata ki te kotahi rau tau te roa i whakaturia ai tētehi kāhui hai pahi atawhai i ngā roto moana.
I whakatūria ai a Te Arawa Lakes Trust Board i te tau kotahi mano, e iwa rau, e rua tekau mā wha.
Ae, he nui rawa atu ngā whakahuringa mai i taua wā ki naianei a tangata nei , a wai hoki.
Nā taku whakawhitinga kōrero i a Nicki me ētehi atu o ngā poumahi mā TALT e māuritau ana te whatumanawa o tēnei kuia ka whitia ngā wai karekare o Kahumatamomoe e te ringa poipoi o Tanemahuta. Mauri ora ki a kotou katoa. —Na Raimona Inia i whakamaori.
We need to pull out the big guns to get our lakes and waterways pristine again.
There is no one step to put to rights what generations of us have squandered and spoiled.
No easy fix.
Hopefully, at this time, our collective minds and hearts are more open to prevent even more paru going into the moana.
Charged with that task is a combined force that includes Te Arawa Lakes Trust (TALT), Rotorua Lakes Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, and the Department of Conservation. They are on board with iwi, hapu, whanau, land and farm trusts, looking to navigate through what is a natural consequence of modern living.
As a penny diver growing up at Whakarewarewa, I was surrounded by water ranging from an icy cold Puarenga in winter to scalding hot ngawha and many variations in between.
The water at the top or "oil" baths in the Rahui was soft and full of minerals, it made your skin soft.
At the Hirere the water was gray from the mud underneath. Then there was the duck pond
that fed into the Hirere.
Only the top baths and the hirere below the road are in use now.
Our tamariki and outsiders from as far away as Auckland sneak into the Whaka Thermal Valley and play around in the Blueys, a natural formation beneath Pohutu Geyser. They are not supposed to be there and when we were kids we used to get turfed out by our mothers and aunties who were guides.
I remember sometimes getting rashes from the river when treatment ponds at the Waipa Mill used to spill.
I first heard the word "eutrophication" in 1972, when a former colleague of mine, John Gunn, who was agriculture editor at the Timaru Herald, came to Rotorua for a major conference. At that time, 50 years ago, the alarm was already sounding for the state of our Rotorua Nui a Kahumatamomoe.
Eutrophication, to give it its dictionary definition, is "excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to run-off from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life".
As TALT is at the forefront of the battle, environmental manager Nicki Douglas is a key player.
Wetlands restoration is part of the Lakes Restoration Resource for restoring wetlands in the Lake Rotorua catchment.
There are nine wetlands around Rotorua with enriched nutrient catchments and the strategy is to remove 50 tonnes of enriched nutrients.
Nicki says one of the side benefits has been the kanohi-ki-te-kanohi contact with iwi, hapu and trusts.
Because wetlands filter out chemicals and other impurities their health and restoration is imperative.
This means propagating the flora and fauna formerly found in healthy, thriving wetlands. To that end the partners have set up a nursery at Maketu.
To a townie like me, things such as wetlands don't mean much until I start associating the term with things I do understand.
Like, how when the wetlands round Ngāpuna were green, getting a feed of watercress from the pristine streams was easy.
You could spot koura in the Waingaehe and go up to the 8-Mile peg at Waipa to pick watercress.
These days, the Puarenga at Whaka is sad looking. Brown and lazy, with huge clumps of weed. Mind you, there's only a few kids there and even fewer tourists.
But there are pūkeko (and feral cats) wandering about.
Don't remember pūkeko from my childhood but that's probably because the village was alive and full of people. Restoration of wetlands has been on the books for about a decade but the push didn't start in earnest until five years ago.
Nicki says that to set about building capacity to deliver the programme it was necessary to get whānau and iwi on side, have a korero before work started.
So hui were held at Te Pohue, Ruamata and up to Okawa, having korero with Ngāti Uenukukōpako and Ngāti Pikiao, taking on board the stories and any places of significance to whanau and hapu.
"We have to go to all the marae bringing in some of the hapu as mentors who like to be involved in this mahi."
All this work doesn't come cheap. Thankfully, in 2020 the trust was able to hook into the Government's Jobs for Nature kaupapa and hire people for various projects.
That resulted in work on wetlands at Maketu and Holden's Bay.
It also saw the introduction of monthly videos on TALT's Facebook page by one of their young eco warriors. Social media introduced news of TALT's work to a fresh, young audience.
Restoration of the eco system needs funding to secure in place the practices and mātauranga that will keep it healthy in the long term. Funding is possible as the first tranche of the Government's Climate Emergency Response Fund is now available.
It's nearly 100 years since a legal entity was created to look out for our lakes. The Te Arawa Trust Board was signed off in 1924.
There have been huge changes in our rohe during that time and with our water. From my korero with Nicki and other members of TALT staff, this kuia is reassured that our future is in good hands.
Mauri ora kia koutou katoa.
The wishing tree appeal is in its 31st year and the need for it 'has never been greater'.