October 24, 2012
Track moves to preserve ancient urupa
New Plymouth District Council is working with a Taranaki hapū to protect an urupa exposed by coastal erosion.
Komiti Māori member Howie Tamati says the area South of Paritutu was fertile and would have been well settled, but over the past three hundred years, the sea has claimed several hundred metres of land up to the urupa.
He says bones have been exposed next to a track formed by people walking down to the beach, which concerned Te Mahanga ā Tairi.
As a matter of respect the council is creating a new $10,000 track on a nearby unformed beach road.
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