WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
ARE YOU A VIP CUSTOMER? Read ‘Garden Yarn’ on Page 9 to find out if you’re one of our
LUCKY DAILY $50 VOUCHER WINNERS!
WAIRARAPA’S MOST READ COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
PHONE(06)378 9999
FLAIR
Peter & Jenny Giddens 24 hour personal service to all districts
Phone: 06 3797616 Carterton www.richmondfuneralhome.co.nz Personalised funerals, based Traditional Values Personalised funerals based onon traditional diti di tionall values al l es
FOR ALL YOUR FLOORING NEEDS See our advert in Wairarapa Property 97-101 High St North, Carterton Ph 06 379 4055
Waka skills to be shared BY HAYLEY GASTMEIER
Reuben Tipoki, with the 4-person sailing waka he is building alongside Featherston man Brenden Saayman. PHOTO/HAYLEY GASTMEIER
A South Wairarapa man is heading to Hawaii to learn about waka building as he sets his sights on sailing the region to cleaner waterways. Reuben Tipoki is an experienced Pacific sailor and is building his own waka as the prototype for a waka club, which he hopes to use to educate Wairarapa people about their waterways. Mr Tipoki has been in the “waka world” for seven years now. “I’ve sailed well over 40,000 miles around the pacific to many different nations – as far as San Francisco in the northeast, Palau in the northwest, to Mexico and Costa Rica in the southeast, to Australia in the southwest and many places in between.” After his world travels in 2015, he returned home to manage his family’s business, Lake Ferry Holiday Park, where he regularly accompanies park visitors onto Lake Onoke either by kayak, paddleboard or waka. “It just so happens that in the whole of Wairarapa in my opinion, we have three of the best waterways for waka – them being Lake Wairarapa, the Ruamahanga River, and Lake Onoke.”
Mr Tipoki and Featherston youth group leader and sailor Brenden Saayman are partway through building their own waka, or sailing canoe, from which they have developed a prototype the proposed club could use for future builds. The pair are building the four-person waka out of marine plywood, using a stitch and glue process. They still need to glue on the hulls and the cross beams, or kiato, and complete the decking and rigging. In May this year, Mr Tipoki intends to travel to Hawaii for a two-week waka festival to hone his building skills. “I want to see how they’re making them because there has been a big voyaging/sailing waka renaissance in the Pacific over the last three to four decades. “And it started with the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians are leading the charge in reviving our old sailing traditions.” He will also be gleaning ideas from some of their established children’s sailing programmes. The “sailing or voyaging club”, which will enable Mr Tipoki to share his navigational skills, could suit schools, rugby clubs or marae groups, and already has some community support.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
DEMONSTRATOR CLEARANCE NOW ON!
Great Savings PLUS get $1000 Free Fuel on selected Demonstrators
Terms and conditions apply
Eastwood Motor Group Ltd
142 Dixon Street Masterton | 0800 104 103 | www.eastwoodmotorgroup.co.nz