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New Zealand's ambassador to the Pacific says the creation of a major ocean sanctuary round the Kermadec Islands is a sign of this country's commitment to ocean stewardship.
Shane Jones says the 600,000 square kilometre moana rahui announced yesterday was on the agenda when he and Foreign Minister Murray McCully travelled to the United States last year for an international conference on the state of the oceans, called by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
He says growing up in the far north, he heard tales of the place known as Rangitahua and its connection to the waka Kurahaupo.
"There are two stories, one that it was Takitimu, the other Kurahaupo, it suffered damage and the tawapou tree was used to repair so the waka could make landfall at Tom Bowling's Bay, otherwise known as Takapaukura in the very very far north of new Zealand and it is said some of those kawepo trees grew at a little bay near Taipa in the Doubtless Bay," Ambassador Jones says.
More marine reserves in the Pacific could come out of next month's Our Ocean Conference in Valparaiso, Chile.
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