freedom campers shit on pa site

I am getting very irritated with the continual abuse of maori hospitality and culture by some people.

There have been a number of examples of desecration of taonga over recent days and now this - freedom campers shitting on a pa site - FFS - listen up freedom campers - your goddam arse is going to fall off for this type of offence.

From EMMA DANGERFIELD - The Marlborough Express

"Freedom campers have desecrated a pa site in Kaikoura with human waste.

Te Runanga O Kaikoura member Maurice Manawatu of Maori Tours Kaikoura visits the site daily as the starting point of a cultural tour.

"I am fuming," he says. "The whanau is really upset too. It's just desecration of land that was gifted to the community and it's not on."

The pa holds important cultural significance for Maori and is a place where many visitors go to understand the area's native history, with its fortified walls, now raised mounds of grass, telling the story of how the area was once protected.

One German tourist spoken to on Monday who had been sleeping in his car at the pa, suggested facilities in Scarborough St needed to be "improved" to prevent people such as him from using the bushes as toilets.

The man, who declined to be named, said he had camped at the pa because there was no sign telling him not to.

Nice one german tourist - another fine example of arrogance and stupidity. I suppose you have a shit next to stonehenge do you?

it is very simple - if they abuse maori hospitality then send them back to where they came from. The almighty dollar is nothing compared to respecting maori culture. How long is this going to go on? How long?

Award for Whale Watch

Well done Whale Watch

"Kaikoura tourism operator Whale Watch has been handed the Supreme Award at this year's Responsible Tourism Awards in London.

It was declared the overall winner for developing a tourism initiative from the ground up. The awards honour operators across the world that seek to ensure that local communities and environments benefit from tourism as much as possible."

This really is a good operation and initiative - sure it's not perfect but it is an ecofriendly, ecocultural tourism icon now and we should be proud of it and it's achievements.

I'd like to see us replicate this around Te Wai Pounamu - let's use this award to grow our businesses in an ecocultural-conservation way. We have the model, we have the island, we have the people - we just need the plan and the will to do it.

Ngai Tahu Election delay causes fury

Kaikoura

I noted in my Ngai Tahu Election update that Kaikoura and Awarua Papatipu Runaka seemed to be dragging their heels when it came to getting their elections sorted. Now this

"Ngai Tahu leader Mark Solomon's Kaikoura runanga remains one of only two South Island runanga not preparing for elections to the iwi board.

Mana Solomon, a 31-year-old nephew to the tribal leader, said while 16 other runanga had either run or were planning elections, Kaikoura had done little to inform whanau about candidates."

"He was angry that the tribe's website says only that the runanga is "still discussing process". Watch out - you might get a taina email :) (This is supposed to be funny thus the smiley face)

"I don't know what that means. What's happening now is disgraceful. It's a basic democratic right to vote and yet we've got no idea."

I hear you e hoa. We want our rights and we want them now!

"Tront chief executive Anake Goodall said Ngai Tahu legislation was vague about how it could elect members. But it wasn't good enough that the tribe had taken so long to sort out the electoral process. Mr Goodall said Kaikoura would likely miss the deadline for elections, but he hoped they would complete the process by the end of March."

End of march!


Not good enough by a long shot.

Come on - how about this - if you haven't completed elections then you can't elect a kaiwhakahaere can you?

Footnote - An interesting piece about Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu from Te Karere focusing on Wally, Mark and new boss (thanks anon) Chief Executive of NT Holdings Greg Campbell



Greg - good luck and nothing personal, but I wish we had Ngai Tahu whanui member's as our directors.