Kahurānaki station sale: Bid to buy back maunga starts with climbing it at the end of 10-day hīkoi

The board of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi is helping whānau in a maunga to maunga trek to draw attention to the quest to get back up-for-sale ancestral mountain Kahurānaki.

A 10-day cross-country hīkoi started in northern Hawke’s Bay on Sunday to support Hastings-based Tamatea Pōkai Whenua Settlement Trust as it grapples with tendering for the purchase of Kahurānaki Station at a probably multi-million-dollar cost.

With horses, vehicles, and walkers, it’s headed for a climb next Tuesday up Kahurānaki, overlooking Hastings and the Heretaunga Plains.

Kahurānaki Station owners and vendors Carey Greenwood and Richard Gilbertson and Ngāti Kahungunu iwi chairman Bayden Barber atop the ancestral mountain during a visit to assess health and safety steps for the end of the trek next Tuesday. Photo / Supplied

Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporate chairman Bayden Barber said he spent several hours on Tuesday this week at Kahurānaki with members of vendor family and century-long station owners the Greenwoods planning for the two-hour ascent, which many people have been able to do over the years.

“Health and safety are the key,” he said soon after his own descent. “We’ve got to take care of all the health and safety issues for a group going up there.”

In keeping with the safety kaupapa, the trek is keeping away from the highways as much as possible, and going from mountain to mountain and marae to marae.

It’s part of the motivation stirred by iwi member Kelly-Aroha Huata after hearing last month that the station, including the mountain, is for sale.

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With tenders for the purchase of the 1156ha sheep and cattle station scheduled to close on April 28, she started the call “He Maunga Ka Taea - Let’s get Kahurānaki back into Māori ownership” on donations and crowd-funding platform koha.kiwi with the lofty target of $12 million she said could be achieved if 40,000 iwi members and supporters contributed $300 each.

“Host a fundraiser - as a whānau, marae, kura, kapa haka, sports team, or community group,” the page says, so iwi can show it’s “possible to reclaim whenua, one maunga at a time”.

Mt Kahuranaki, as seen from Te Mata Peak, Havelock North. Photo / Paul Taylor

Barber applauds rangatahi in stepping-up in the once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy-back Kahurānaki, and said in a social media post at the weekend that Tamatea Pōkai Whenua Settlement Trust is completing the valuation, commercial, and cultural due diligence reports for an upcoming board meeting.

Iwi chairmanship election challenger Thompson Hokianga said he’s “excited” by the approach taken by the younger people of the iwi, led by the rangatahi, as every chance possible is taken to reclaim land important to whānau, hapū and iwi when the opportunities arise.

“We’ve got to be beside them, but not lead them,” he said.

The koha.kiwi fund was on Wednesday heading close to $50,000, one of the latest donors commenting: “Because this is such a great kaupapa, please accept this token of support”.

Another said: “Although it is small, it is given with love”.

“Some of my ancestors came to Aotearoa on the Te Arawa Waka and more came from the ships from England and Ireland bringing hopes of a better world than that they left behind. That world they created was not better for everybody. I hope your tamariki and mokopuna will stand on their maunga soon freely on their own land.”

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.