Town converts to tourism

By BRIDGET CARTER

It is a little Maori community with 80 people, hidden in the backblocks of Northland.

A marae and a church are the only facilities there and the nearest shop is 25km away.

But two months ago in Motuti, on the northern shores of the Hokianga Harbour, the bones of the country's first Catholic bishop were laid to rest after being returned from Paris.

This has turned the quiet backwater settlement into a buzzing tourism destination.

Carloads of visitors, including students and tourists from as far away as France, have been driving on narrow dirt roads into Motuti each day and winding down their windows to ask for directions to the remains of Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier.

One day there were 16 carloads. They have been staying at the local marae, bringing koha (gifts) and cut lunches, although locals usually provide them with a free meal or a cup of tea.

But Motuti and its people are struggling to cope with the influx of tourists. Soon people will have to pay for this Maori hospitality.

Plans are in the pipeline for an information centre and five tourist chalets around St Mary's Church. In the church itself, where the bishop's remains are kept, a high-tech security system and sprinklers will be installed.

The Pompallier-Hokianga Trust, a group of people with an interest in Hokianga or the Catholic Church, hope to have these plans finalised by year's end.

Tai Tokerau Pastoral Council chairman Jacob Adams says the local people look after the visitors and the church well but it has become a bit much for them.

Motuti has high unemployment and upgrading it to cope with tourism will help to give some of them jobs.

Bishop Pompallier - New Zealand's first Catholic bishop - spent 30 years from 1838 working in the Hokianga before returning to Paris, where he died.

With Hokianga as his base, he established other mission stations throughout the country.

Two months ago, after being taken on a nationwide tour, the bishop's remains arrived at Motuti - the culmination of a long campaign by New Zealand Catholics to have them exhumed from a Paris cemetery.

They were then lowered beneath St Mary's altar.

In preparation for the celebrations marking the event, 59 car wrecks were removed and more than $100,000 spent.

At a meeting this month at the Motuti Marae, about 20 members of the trust and the local community discussed employing a caretaker and someone to take bookings for groups that want to stay at local marae. They also discussed the installation of the security system and sprinklers in St Mary's.

Panguru-Pawarenga parish priest Father Anthony Brown, who never expected such a strong, ongoing interest in the bishop's remains, said the trust was going to create a Motuti/Pompallier website and planned to produce a temporary pamphlet including details such as church opening hours until the business plan was up and running.

The parish - also responsible for other historical sites, including Totara Pt, where Bishop Pompallier celebrated his first Mass - has also decided to raise the coffin on special days, such as the anniversaries of his birth and death, for public viewing.

"Why not have the coffin up when that happens?" Father Brown said.

But the parishioners were cautious about the way things were done.

"People don't want to be tacky in terms of things for sale and things to take away."