{"id":637579,"date":"2026-10-22T03:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637579\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T03:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:00:13","slug":"waka-welcomed-home-to-ahuriri-after-54-nights-navigating-the-pacific-by-starlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637579\/","title":{"rendered":"Waka welcomed home to Ahuriri after 54 nights navigating the Pacific by starlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crew were led off by skipper Rapihana Te Kaha Kawaikirangi, who completed his traditional navigational qualifications on the voyage.<\/p>\n

He would later speak for about 20 minutes on the shore, which had become the paepae for the occasion, and later told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today of a standout highlight among hundreds of memorable moments.<\/p>\n

\"NewlyNewly qualified traditional navigation mariner Rapihana Te Kaha Hawaikirana is welcomed home by daughter Whetu. At right is \u0100tea a Rangi Educational Trust chairman and master navigator Piripi Smith. Photo \/ Doug Laing<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding Samoa,\u201d he said. \u201cI needed to fish up Samoa as part of my graduation sail. It was night, and I saw the light come up and decided, that must be Samoa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0100tea a Rangi Educational Trust chairman and master navigator Piripi Smith said it was about the 10th ocean-going voyage over the waka\u2019s 16 years, taking the vessel as far as San Francisco and South America, and they were \u201call special\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"LedLed by Rapihana Te Kaha Hawaikirangi, crew members make their way up to the welcome. Photo \/ Doug Laing<\/p>\n

But, admitting there was \u201chardly a dry eye\u201d as haka and waiata followed the disembarkation walk up the gangway, he said: \u201cThis one was about meeting voyageurs from the Pacific \u2013 Samoa and Fiji \u2013 and those connections. We had them aboard when we arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those in the crew was Andy Heyward, the Haumoana cartoonist and writer who created the popular King Andy\u2019s Fun Page of the early days of Hawke\u2019s Bay Today, a merger of the Napier and Hastings newspapers in 1999.<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Heyward, former creator of King Andy’s Fun Page in Hawke’s Bay Today more than 20 years ago, arrives home as a crew member on waka Te Matau-a-M\u0101ui. Photo \/ Doug Laing<\/p>\n

In the ensuing years, he became keen on smaller maritime varietal waka ama, and about 7-8 years ago got the chance to join training with crew of te waka Te Matau-a-M\u0101ui.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went on a day-long trip,\u201d he said. That was real cool. I was hooked.”<\/p>\n

\"AA karanga is performed by some of the hundreds in waiting, calling the crew ashore. Photo \/ Doug Laing<\/p>\n

He did a waka diploma through Te W\u0101nanga o Aotearoa, a voyage to the Chathams, around the start of the Covid area, and despite being \u201cnon-M\u0101ori\u201d became one of the more senior of the latest crew \u2013 a kahui aringa steering the waka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had to get involved,\u201d he said, and it may that, on top of the unique social media lives and all, there may another bit of King Andy on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept a log, I did a lot of sketches,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I haven\u2019t yet got my head around the epicness of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is a Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with 53 years as a journalist, including more than four decades covering events and issues in Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crew were led off by skipper Rapihana Te Kaha Kawaikirangi, who completed his traditional navigational qualifications on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17236,74,79563,1558,3595,168,16719,20589,1345,12130,312604,3607,97679,111,43,139,11550,69,311754,312606,13572,312603,223,312605,61,49756,1849,1883],"class_list":["post-637579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-17236","tag-after","tag-ahuriri","tag-been","tag-by","tag-ceremony","tag-emotional","tag-harbour","tag-home","tag-inner","tag-matauamui","tag-napier","tag-navigating","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nights","tag-nz","tag-oceangoing","tag-orot","tag-pacific","tag-starlight","tag-the","tag-thursdaymorning","tag-to","tag-waka","tag-welcomed","tag-whanganui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}