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A multisport event and family day in one of the country’s remotest spots tomorrow is how Northland iwi Te Uri o Hau hopes to draw some of its people back home.
Pouto Lighthouse Challenge organiser Josephine Nathan says Pouto on the north head of the Kaipara Harbour is 60 kilometres down the peninsula from Dargaville, so mostly whanau will only come back for tangihanga.
Tomorrow’s challenge will get them and anyone else who is interested running, walking, biking and padding to the country’s only kauri lighthouse and then back up the harbour to Tauhara, which used to be the site of a thriving village.
There is a lot of history to be uncovered among the dunes such as the story of the statue of the ancestor Haumoewaarangi that stands in the urupa.
"Foreigners coming here who had been shipwrecked, it was the whanau of Poutu, Te Uri o Hau, who took them in and looked after them. Because of that, a marble statue of our rangatiranga was carved and sent from Spain. It is a beautiful piece that is sitting on top of the hill. It's sharing those stories and it is a beautiful place to come to," Ms Nathan says.
The start time of 7am is to take into account the tides and there can be no delays.
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