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RNZ News
2 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Historic ship Tui on fire near Paihia's Waitangi Bridge
Historic ship The Tui on fire in Paihia. Photo: Supplied A historic ship is on fire by the Waitangi Bridge in Paihia. The Tui is a three-masted sailing ship that has been a feature of the Waitangi waterfront since the late Kelly Tarlton bought the historic vessel and used it to house his finds from a lifetime of exploring shipwrecks. It has recently changed ownership and Kerikeri-based TriOceans marine research institute had started restoring the vessel for use as a community space and marine education facility. Four fire crews are fighting the blaze after Fire and Emergency received multiple calls about it after 4am. "The timber ship is fully on fire and is already significantly damaged." Fire and Emergency believe the fire to be suspicious. The Tui. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf A witness told Morning Report the ship had been let go in the past few years and it was a bit of an eyesore but the community had good news when it had been sold. "I think they'd delivered $15,000 worth of materials in there yesterday and now she's gone up in flames." Derek Gerritsen from Big Fish Bay of Island said the top deck was on fire and the whole back of the ship was burnt out when he was at the scene. "She's fully engulfed in flames," he said. "I don't think there'll be much left of it." There were already rumours going around the community about the suspicious nature of the fire, he said. No one was on board the ship overnight. "The fire is generating some smoke around Paihia and Waitangi and people are advised to avoid the area and keep windows shut," Fire and Emergency says. It was not yet known how the fire started. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Historic ship on fire near Paihia's Waitangi Bridge
The Tui. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf A historic ship is on fire by the Waitangi Bridge in Paihia. The Tui is a three-masted sailing ship that has been a feature of the Waitangi waterfront since the late Kelly Tarlton bought the historic vessel and used it to house his finds from a lifetime of exploring shipwrecks. Four fire crews are fighting the blaze after Fire and Emergency received multiple calls about it after 4am. "The timber ship is fully on fire and is already significantly damaged." No one was on board the ship overnight. "The fire is generating some smoke around Paihia and Waitangi and people are advised to avoid the area and keep windows shut," Fire and Emergency says. It was not yet known how the fire started.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
'I've had to reconcile that' - Ngāti Hine leader reflects on King's Birthday tohū
Ngāti Hine leader Pita Tipene speaking at Waitangi. Photo: RNZ Tipene is to be a [ Companion of the King's Service Order] for his contribution to his community through governance as a Māori leader for more than 30 years. Tipene has been the chair of the Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust for 20 years, helping grow and transform the financial assets, chaired Te Kotahitanga o Nga Hapū Ngāpuhi for 16 years and has chaired the Manuka Charitable Trust, which protects Manuka as a taonga in the global market. He is the chair of Motatau Marae and is a familiar face to locals and politicians at Waitangi, often speaking at the dawn ceremony as chair of the Waitangi National Trust from 2018 to 2025. He is also a member of the National Iwi Chairs Forum and has presented to the Waitangi Tribunal on behalf of Ngāti Hine and Ngāpuhi since 2010. Speaking to RNZ, Tipene said service to his people before himself is the most important measure of his career. His mahi means he often has to fight against the Crown to recognise Māori rights and interests under Te Tiriti o Waitangi - the same Crown who have just recognised him for his services to Māori. "I have had to reconcile that, in talking with my own whānau," Tipene said, "I'm talking about my wife, tamariki and the wider whānau." In March, Tipene was nominated for and won the Tai Tokerau Māori Business Leader Award, a tohū he initially refused to be nominated for. "[That was] until I was reminded of my father's first cousin, Sir James Henare who was given his knighthood in 1978. He would come up to our home in Motatau and talk with my dad because they were both 28th Māori Battalion and they were first cousins and they were good friends." "Sir James alerted my dad to the fact that he had been nominated and asked what my dad thought. From what I can remember, there was a tenseness for him to even receive that award." While that was "all history now" and people remember Sir James with pride, the conversation still rings through his head. "I remember him saying, 'e kore e te tangata e taea te mea he māngaro ia, ko hau tāu he kumara'." "He was saying that the māngaro is the sweetest of all of the kumara and a person or human being cannot allow themselves to be described as that. It was one of the things that we've been raised on - whakaiti or humility." "What Sir James was saying is, to be awarded a knighthood, a whole lot of people in the local community who he served had put his name forward as well as the wider regional and even national community supported him to receive a knighthood. "Who was he, despite all his humility - and we remember him for his humility - who was he to deny everyone else's support for him to become a knight?" Those words meant Tipene "reluctantly" accepted the Māori Business Leaders Award. "Given my approach to the business leaders award, why would it be any different to this, knowing full well that it's a government award - there's that part of it too. That needs to be reconciled, but the same thing applied to Sir James Henare. "I'm certainly not putting myself in his category. Not at all. He was a leader of… a real leader. Put it that way. "But the principle of why he accepts is the same principle upon which I'm accepting something that I've tried to reconcile because he in his very diplomatic way, but no less strong, opposed successive governments in his time." Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Tipene was raised in Opahi, south of Moerewa on a small dairy farm only milking about 50 cows, and is the third youngest of 11 children. "When I was being raised, our parents always spoke in te reo Māori and so we grew up being bilingual, bicultural, having gone to Motatau school and having a generation of kaumatua and kuia who are very much still part of our hearts and minds today and who handed us values of humility of to this to the people before service to self. "They are values that I hold dear to and have been reflected throughout my life," Tipene said. "There is no fulfilment that is more important than serving your own people and doing your best to put your shoulder to the wheel to improve the circumstances of your communities whether they be in Motatau, Opahi, Ngāti Hine or Tai Tokerau." Shane Jones and Pita Tipene at the Ngāti Hine joint venture launch on May 31. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams Pita was educated at Māori boy's school St Stephens, which he credits as giving him a more "national" and "international" outlook on the world. "Coming from Motatau, you never went to Auckland or very rarely. So, St Stephens was another great part of my life journey that I savour and remember with much fondness." From St Stephens he moved to Waikato University and was lectured by the likes of Timoti Karetu, Te Murumāra John Moorfield, Hirini Melbourne, Wharehuia Milroy and John Rangihau and even flatted with former Education Minister Hekia Parata in his first year. "The relationships that were made really strong with all my peers of the time are all really strong leaders throughout Aotearoa. "I think I've been very fortunate because through all that time our mum and dad sacrificed much because they were running a dairy farm. "Not only did they have to pull the money together to pay for my fees and my time at St Stephens over five years, but they were also doing it without somebody who could help on the farm. "In hindsight, that was a significant sacrifice for them to make, so, anything that I've done to honour the aspirations that they had for all of us as children, all of my siblings, cousins, has all been brought out of those values and sacrifice." Ngati Hine leader Pita Tipene during the 175th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā in 2021. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Tipene is a keen historian, a trait he credits to his mother. "For us here in Ngāti Hine, we place a lot of stead on what our tupuna said and did in their times and sacrificed. For instance, Kawiti signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi along with his two sons in 1840. Kawiti refused, on the 6th of February, by the way, and incidentally signed in May almost to the week. "He then was one of the main leaders against the British in war, five years later in 1845 and 46, so only a couple of weeks ago we commemorated one of those big battles raged here in the mid-North on the shores of Lake Omāpere." He said not long after those battles in 1846, Kawiti was credited with a phrase commonly called "Te Tangi a Kawiti". "Ka kakati te namu i te wharangi o te pukapuka, ka tahuri atu ai kotou," Tipene said. "He sent a message to future generations saying 'I have committed myself to a partnership through Tiriti o Waitangi', which is the 'pukapuka' described in that line… and therefore, given my commitment to this partnership, should that partnership ever be threatened, you and each generation must stand up and uphold what I have committed to. "We will all stand up continually to how we envisage the Crown is doing its best to undermine the honour of Kawiti and all of his peers who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi which really leads to the work I've done in the Waitangi Tribunal and anything to do with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. "Kawiti's words ring in our hearts, and it really motivates and drives us here in 2025," Tipene said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
King's Birthday Honours: Joe Conrad - 'I just do what I do'
Veteran canoe paddler and Ngātokimatawhaorua captain, Joe Conrad. Photo: Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira Joe Conrad (Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kuri, Ngāi Takoto, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Hauā) has been involved in waka kaupapa since the mid-1990s, and for years now has led as kaihautū (captain) of Ngā Toki Matawhaorua - the stunning ceremonial waka that many of us have seen in action at Waitangi. He helped keep waka knowledge alive, brought communities together through culture, and built international connections with other indigenous peoples. In addition to that, Conrad has helped support Treaty negotiations, and more recently taken on a new role supporting male survivors of sexual violence in Te Tai Tokerau. And on Monday, he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori, particularly kaupapa waka. He told RNZ he got the call while he was "out on 90 Mile Beach having a fish". "Because I wasn't answering my phone calls from the prime minister's office, they actually rang me directly and said, 'Don't hang the phone up anymore because we're trying to give you an honour.' … I sort of didn't know what to think actually, you know? I just do what I do." His journey began in the mid-1970s when his dad - then captain of the Ngā Toki Matawhaorua - "dragged" him along to Waitangi. "I don't think Mum and Dad trusted us at home by ourselves… it's all history now, and, much appreciated for the recognition that people thought that I'd done well." One of his biggest influencers was Sir Hector Busby, a navigator and traditional waka builder. "I spent probably most of my adult life getting growled at by him over those years and, you know, you have to have people of that calibre around you growing up. With my dad and Uncle Hector and Sir James Hēnare and all those old elders of that time… taught us some very, very knowledgeable lessons, and you sort of continue to evolve from their level. "And today being in command, I suppose, I need to leave something behind for the next generation that's coming up behind me, and hopefully the influence those old leaders have passed on to us is not to be taken away when I go away, to be left to encourage the younger generation to evolve again to another level." Conrad used his waka expertise to assist efforts to spread Māori culture around the world, particularly Europe. "We were part of Team New Zealand when we challenged Valencia at that time, and our Prime Minister Auntie Helen (Clark), she mentioned to Uncle Hector and I about, have we ever thought of building a waka and leaving it in Europe? Knowing that… Māori or New Zealand were starting to grow within our arts around the world." Around the same time, New Zealand's Te Papa Tongarewa was trying to repatriate tattooed heads from a museum in the Netherlands taken "by the flick of a pen or by the point of a gun". Joe Conrad, kaihautū (captain) of the great waka Ngātokimatawhaorua, briefs paddlers ahead of a training session for Waitangi Day 2025. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Conrad said many European nations were keen to get a waka, but the Netherlands got it - on permanent loan - thanks to their swift response to New Zealand's request. "From there we grew that relationship… it just exploded after that , and now we have up to 200 to 300 young Dutch boys and Dutch girls part of the kaupapa up in Holland, a lot of them trying to speak Māori or know how to speak te reo." Conrad took a waka to the UK for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 - and it was an immediate hit with some. "Representatives from all over the world, other countries were seeing us doing this ceremony every morning, blessing our waka - so one morning we turned up and we couldn't even launch our waka, there were that many other boats and vessels parked in our moor and wanted their vessels blessed as well." But not everyone was happy to see them, Conrad explained, with an "uproar" in the British media over the uniquely New Zealand cultural display the crew had planned. "We were supposed to line up and raise your paddles in the air and give three hearty cheers to the queen, 'hip hip hooray', and so we come past on the log and started poking tongues and chanting our normal chants, and yeah, very well applauded by the queen at that time." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
24-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Historic three-masted sailing ship to begin new chapter in Northland
The Tui started shedding planks from its hull several years ago, damage that was accelerated by Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf A derelict Northland landmark with a vivid history - it has variously been a restaurant, a shipwreck museum laden with treasure, and the target of a notorious criminal - is about to get a new life as a marine education centre. The Tui , a three-masted sailing ship, has been a feature of the Waitangi waterfront since the late Kelly Tarlton bought the historic vessel and used it to house his finds from a lifetime of exploring shipwrecks. Later it became a popular eatery known as Shippey's, but for the past decade it has been empty, an increasingly sorry sight in the estuary next to Waitangi Bridge. The tops of its masts have been removed and the hull has started shedding planks, a decline accelerated by Cyclone Gabrielle. Now, however, the waterfront icon appears to have been saved and is set to embark on a new life. The Tui in its heyday as Kelly Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks in 1976. Photo: Archives New Zealand/ G Riethmaier Kerikeri-based TriOceans marine research institute announced this week that it had started restoring the vessel for use as a community space and marine education facility. TriOceans describes itself as a "collective of scientists and innovators" focussed on marine mammal science and marine education, weaving together mātauranga Māori and modern scientific methods. It's just the latest chapter in the ship's long and intriguing history. Ask when the Tui was built and you'll get a range of answers, from 1890 to 1913. What's not disputed is that it was built for Chelsea Sugar to transport refined sugar from the then- isolated outpost of Birkenhead across the Waitematā Harbour to the docks at Auckland. It was one of seven purpose-built, kauri-hulled lighters, which are flat-bottomed vessels resembling a barge or scow. Work has started to bring the Tui back to its former glory. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf The construction of Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1954, however, meant the lighters were no longer needed. The last one was sold in 1961. Most were converted into pleasure boats or floating homes, but one caught the eye of Kelly Tarlton. Scuba diving pioneer Kelly Tarlton created The Tui to house the treasures he had found under the sea. Photo: Supplied A scuba diving pioneer, Tarlton was also one of New Zealand's most passionate and successful treasure hunters. In the early 1960s he moved to Northland's Tutukākā Coast to be close to the spectacular waters of the Poor Knights Islands. One of the first shipwrecks Tarlton explored was the Elingamite , a passenger steamer that sank at the Three Kings Islands in 1902 with a large consignment of gold and coins on board. The Tasmania , which went down off Mahia Peninsula in 1897 with a suitcase full of jewels, was the subject of another lucrative expedition. Eventually Tarlton needed somewhere to display his growing collection of treasures wrestled from the sea. The Tui was just what he was looking for. With typical Tarlton ingenuity and enthusiasm he set about converting an ungainly 30-metre barge into an elegant, three-masted barque. The kauri masts were salvaged from the Endeavour II , a Canadian sailing ship that came to grief on the Parengarenga Bar, near North Cape. Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks was an instant success when the first visitors crossed the gangplank in 1970. It became a must-see attraction in the Bay of Islands and helped pay for his ongoing ventures. After Tarlton died in 1985, aged just 47, his wife Rosemary kept his ship of treasures open for another 15 years. In the year 2000 disaster struck in the unexpected form of kitchenhand Keith Anthony McEwen. Shortly before 8pm on 8 April, while visitors were still in the museum, staff discovered a glass vault had been plundered of an estimated $300,000 worth of gold, jewellery and coins. McEwen, then aged 23 and employed in the museum kitchen, vanished around the same time, leaving his clothing and girlfriend behind. It wasn't long before he was named as the prime suspect. McEwen was eventually caught and sentenced to 7½ years' jail, but never revealed where he had hidden the treasure. Police and private investigators made many attempts to find it, even searching his childhood eeling spot near Moerewa. Years later, an associate claimed McEwen stole the treasure on behalf of a gang and never got a cut, but that story has never been verified. McEwen disappeared again after he was released in 2005. He spent some time holed up on Kawau Island, then returned to public attention in the most disturbing way possible. On 10 November, 2006, a Dutch couple sleeping in their van at Haruru Falls were accosted by two men pretending to be police. The honeymooners were handcuffed at gunpoint, then driven around the Mid North for six hours while the men withdrew money using their bank card. One of the men subjected the woman to a sexual assault so horrific the details are permanently suppressed by court order. The two men were arrested on 21 November as a result of what police described as a combination of information from the public, CCTV footage, forensics, and old-fashioned legwork. The main offender was none other than Keith McEwen. In February 2007 he admitted two charges of aggravated robbery, two of kidnapping, five of sexual violation, and one each of rape, attempted stupefaction and using the couple's bank card. He was sentenced to preventive detention, which means he will be released only when he is deemed to no longer be a risk. McEwen was denied parole for the eighth time in April last year . His accomplice, Christopher Mana Manuel, pleaded guilty to lesser charges the following month. The Tui, once Kelly Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks, has fallen into disrepair since its on-board restaurant closed more than 10 years ago. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf McEwen's heist - and the insurance company's refusal to pay out on a technicality - spelt the end of Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks. Rosemary Tarlton delayed selling the Tui until she believed she'd found the right buyers, but by 2003 she was confident her search was complete. The new owners, a Kerikeri couple, had a vision of transforming the Tui into a bar and café they called Brown Sugar, a nod to the ship's beginnings as a sugar lighter. The restaurant went through a number of incarnations, operators and names, until it eventually became Shippey's, a popular spot on summer evenings for fish and chips on the deck. Shippey's closed down in 2014 amid a breakdown in the relationship between the boat owners and the business operators. Plans to reopen the vessel as an eatery were scuppered by the Covid pandemic. Since then it has deteriorated badly. The most obvious sign of its decline is the planks that have fallen from its port side. The ship's poor condition has not gone unnoticed by the Northland Regional Council, the local maritime authority. The Tui at low tide in Waitangi Estuary. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Harbourmaster Jim Lyle said the Tui was regarded as a coastal structure rather than a ship, because it was permanently mounted on blocks. However, it was still being monitored by the council to ensure debris from its hull did not create a shipping hazard. Lyle said the Tui was originally a flat-bottomed, barge-like vessel. When it was converted to a museum, Tarlton had steel framing built around it, which was then planked over. The planks that were falling off were cosmetic in function and not part of the original vessel, he said. An artist's concept: The TriOceans marine research institute have started work toward turning the old Tui three masted sailing ship into a marine education centre. Photo: Supplied/ TriOceans TriOceans bought the vessel last year, saying the organisation planned to restore the "iconic old sugar boat in line with Kelly Tarlton's original vision". This week that vision came a step closer to reality with TriOceans announcing on social media it had received funding for the restoration from Foundation North, formerly the ASB Community Trust. A team from Kerikeri-based Hawke Property Developments had started the job of returning the Tui to its former glory. TriOceans said the location, in the rich waters of the Bay of Islands a stone's throw from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, was perfect for a marine education centre. "We aim to make local marine life and conservation education accessible to all, working alongside local kaitiaki, community leaders, and passionate educators to build this iconic ship up to its fullest potential," the organisation said. It's a fresh chapter in the fascinating story of the Tui , offering hope the ship will remain a landmark on the Waitangi waterfront for many years to come. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
