December 13, 2018
Community primed for Te Mata protection
A long running row over a cycle track on Te Mata Peak has given Hawke’s Bay locals a greater appreciation of how Ngāti Kahungunu views its sacred maunga.
Hastings District Council has agreed to pay the full $650,000 cost to remediate the peak to close to its original condition, after admitting the resource consent given to Craggy Range Winery to build the track should have been publicly notified.
Ngāti Kahungunu Inc chair Ngahiwi Tomoana says the iwi has put a lot of work into explaining how the peak was seen as the embodiment of the ancestor Rongokako.
"So the community having understood that, I call it converging lines in how we work together to protect Rongokako and everyone is talking that now," he says.
Mr Tomoana says the Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust is talking to the current owners about purchasing the maunga.
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