Ka rere kaupare atu nei te mihi uruhau, ki nga maunga whakahi, ki nga wai whakariporipo, ki nga pa taunaha, ki nga hapori o Te Arawa…Tihei mauri ora!

Registrations for the 2012 Te Arawa Ki o Rahi Challenge are now OPEN!!!

• Date: Monday Nights, 7^th February – 19 March 2012 (Starts on Tuesday due to Waitangi weekend)
• Time: 5:30pm – 6:30pm
• Venue: Medical Officers Reserve, opposite Rotorua Boys’ High School

Contact Te Miri Rangi to receive your registration pack.

2012 Te Arawa Ki o Rahi Challenge

• 7th Feb – 19th Mar 2012
• 027 348 3308
• temiri@papatakaro.org.nz

Lake Karapiro will come alive with New Zealand Post Waka Ama Championships

The 2012 New Zealand Post National Waka Ama Sprint Championships are taking place at Lake Karapiro (Cambridge) From Tuesday 17th through to Saturday 21st January. Close to 2500 paddlers will descend upon the lake, along with an estimated 10,000 spectators throughout the five day event. Teams from 55 Clubs around the country will be taking part. The furthest clubs travelling to the event are coming from as far afield as the South Island and Kaitaia.

Races start on the 17th with Tuesday and Wednesday dedicated to Juniors aged 7-to-19. Thursday’s racing is for individuals on Single person Waka Ama canoes and Friday and Saturday’s races are Adults 20-to-70 plus!

This very competitive sport also provides a unique link with the past. Outrigger Canoes (Waka Ama) have been used by every Polynesian culture for thousands of years as a means of transport and a way of life and although the building materials have now days changed the technique for paddling remains the same.

The weeks race distances are sprints with the shortest distance being 250m and the longest 1500m. There are straight races and races where the crews have to do up to five hairpin turns, adding excitement for spectators watching!

For the first time on Saturday 21st January we will be holding the New Zealand Post Corporate Waka Ama Challenge Final. It will see the top New Zealand Post corporate teams from Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch come to race against each other for the right to be the best New Zealand Post Waka Ama team!

“This is a fantastic way to promote our relationship with our new sponsor – New Zealand Post. It adds value to our event and gives New Zealand Post employees a chance to experience the sport for themselves” says Lara Collins of Waka Ama New Zealand

As well as the corporate race the event will be promoting an important water safety message throughout the week and running swimming instruction for youth while the Waka Ama racing is taking place.

With alarming drowning statistics in New Zealand, this event offers the opportunity for waka ama paddlers to learn more about taking better care of themselves and their mates in the oceans, rivers and waterways of Aotearoa.

Water Safety New Zealand will lead the education component of the event, Chief Executive Matt Claridge ‘Both Maori and Pacific Island groups are over represented in our nations drowning statistics and the Waka Ama nationals present the ideal opportunity to deliver vital water safety messages and education to participants and their support networks. Our team will be on site for the duration, working with our partners, to promote safety as the first priority for any aquatic based activity’.

It is an exciting week and one where the whole whanau can be competing…kids, mums, dads and grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins! There are novice teams and teams of elite world champion paddlers! Come along and check it out!

• There is no entry fee to get in.
• For more info please contact Lara Collins on 0275484612
• Lane draw and race schedule can be found at www.wakaama.co.nz from Monday 9th January
• Entries can be viewed at http://www.wakaama.co.nz/racecalendar/lookup/772
• If you require a media pass please contact admin@wakaama.co.nz

Nathan, white shirt, training during a tour of Great Britain in which he broke his jaw for a second time [GALLO/GETTY]

Waka Nathan’s life as an All Black could hardly be more different than that of the 15 men who will run out at Eden Park to face France in the Rugby World Cup final on Sunday. His debut tour for the New Zealand Maori in his late teens earned him enough fame to be given a job driving a bulldozer on the building site of what is now Auckland International Airport. When he was selected for the All Blacks in 1962, he was working in a slaughterhouse, butchering cow, sheep and pig carcasses, before securing a job in a brewery. That work was put on hold for long tours to Britain, in which he twice broke his jaw but lied about his recovery to continue playing. He played 14 Test matches in an era when full internationals were few and far between, and was never on the losing side. He was a superstar in a team of superstars, at a time when few Maori featured for the All Blacks. Dubbed “the Black Panther” for his ferocious tackling and low sprinting style with the ball, the flanker’s career ended nearly 20 years before the first World Cup was held in 1987, and long before a staunchly amateur sport became professional.

“I said that as Maori we should consider ourselves lucky, because we have a Maori team and a national team. But I believe that, if you are going to be a country, then you play for a country” Waka Nathan, former All Black

Now 71, he is hoping to see a modern All Blacks team win a second Webb Ellis Cup, ending 24 years without victory on the biggest stage – and is praying that the French do not pull off a surprise victory. “Everyone would be absolutely shattered, I’d say,” Nathan said on Thursday at his home in east Auckland. “It’s four years apart and then to get to the final and lose…I’d say it’s the same for the French but for us, it’s being held in our country and it would just be wonderful to win the game. “The other thing is that it will probably be the last time we ever have the World Cup here. For a small country like ours to try and run it, it’s just too costly. In fact, I think it is the last time we’ll ever have it. “Sunday, I have still got my fingers crossed. The boys have played well, but wait until the final whistle. Then I’ll be happy.” In some ways, Nathan is what you would expect of an All Blacks legend who played alongside names like Colin Meads, Brian Lochore and Wilson Whineray.

Pride

He takes enormous pride in having worn the shirt, is modest about his own achievements, and lights up any time that he talks about the tours he went on or about the players who wear the shirt now. But in other ways, someone whom you might expect to hold on firmly to the almost mythological status of rugby in New Zealand is bluntly realistic about whether the World Cup means more to Kiwis than it does to anyone else.

“Not really. I don’t believe it does,” he said. “I have toured Britain and Australia, and the Pacific Islands, and France and so forth, and they love rugby for the same reasons as our country. Firstly you’re playing for your country, and secondly it’s a great sport.” He is also proud to have represented New Zealand Maori, but does not believe that it is the highest honour for a Maori player. “When I retired from rugby I thought I’d love to be the Maori coach, and for six or seven years I did that, but I always told the Maori team that there’s nothing better than playing for the All Blacks,” he said “I said that as Maori we should consider ourselves lucky, because we have a Maori team and a national team.

But I believe that, if you are going to be a country, then you play for a country.” And not, necessarily, your own. Another surprising answer comes with the question of whether, if he’d stayed in England after one of his tours, he would have been persuaded to swap the black shirt for a white one, as a couple of Kiwis and one Pacific Islander did ahead of this World Cup. “Too bloody right I would,” he says, without hesitation.

“Especially now, with all the money about.” These days, the All Blacks can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year each – and even that doesn’t touch some European salaries. “It’s their livelihood. Like any sport if you are paid to play it becomes your job. Whereas ours, we got 10 shillings a day and it didn’t become our job,” Nathan said.

Bully boy

“I was 17 or 18 and was queuing up to work on the new airport. The foreman called me over and said, ‘What’s your name, don’t you play rugby? What are you doing here?’. I told him and he said, ‘Can you drive a bully? (bulldozer)’. I said no problem, even though I didn’t know how to start the thing. “My cousin took me up and down the new landing strip on it four times and then I was on my own. So next time you land at Auckland, you can say, ‘Old Wak did this bloody strip.’” The All Blacks tours that followed may have paid less than Nathan earned atop his bulldozer, but being in Britain wasn’t without its perks. “If I’d never been an All Black I would never have met the Queen, Prince Philip and the kids at Buckingham Palace in 1963, or gone to Clarence House and met the Queen Mother,” he said. “They may be professional now but I tell you what, they’ll never keep that away from me. But I never kept a photo – bloody hopeless.”

That 1963 tour also saw Nathan break his jaw against Llanelli, leading to the flanker having to force his way back into the team in a medically unconventional manner. “The first tour I was on I broke my jaw, but we played 36 games and were there for four and a half months so the coach said I was to stay on,” he recalled. “Each stop on the tour, a new doctor would see me and put my return back another week. When you’re not playing you have to do all the dirty work for the guys, so the next time I went to the doctor I said I broke it three weeks ago when it was only one and a half. “The first doctor had said I’d be out for six weeks, but I was back playing after three. “No wonder I broke it again.”

Here is the final Rugby World Cup update from Rotorua District Council.

If you’re not going away for the long weekend, come along to the final Fanzone at Rotorua Energy Events Centre, Sunday 23 October.

The celebrations begin at 4.30pm with a street parade from the Village Green.  Doors will open at the Energy Events Centre from 5pm.

It’s going to be blast of a weekend … we’ve all been hoping and praying for this, so make the most of it and GO THE ALL BLACKS!

PS To enjoy Rotorua’s Rugby World Cup 2011 memories search for Rotorua Community and Major Events on Facebook.

Ma te wa

Renee Nathan, Rugby World Cup Coordinator, Events & Venues Rotorua, Rotorua District Council
T: 073518338 M: 021992608 W:www.eventsandvenues.co.nz;
Rotorua Events: www.rotoruaNZ.com/events;

11th October – Kia Ora Challenge Day

FREE – Village green 10am till 3pm

Join us to compete and enjoy some great Rugby focussed activities. Try ki-o-rahi with Buck Shelford, test your rugby skills or
learn the haka.

12th October – MANAAKITANGA – Maori Food & Wine Evening

Rotorua Convention Centre 5pm till 11.30pm
Only $30 each – including entry, festival glass and complimentary drink.

TASTE …the unique flavours of NZ, from succulent kawakawa chicken to wild harvest surf clams.
ENJOY…wine from two of NZ’s best Maori vineyards & a range of NZ beers
SHARE…the evening with former Maori All Blacks including Buck Shelford and Hika Reid
RELAX and be entertained by Russell Harrison and other top NZ performers

13th October – STREET PARTY

Kia Ora Celebrate

FREE – Lakeend Tutanekai Street 4pm till 10pm

Be part of Rotorua’s biggest Street Party. Featuring Cornerstone Roots, Rio Hemopo, Major and other local entertainers
including kapahaka, street performers and community groups.

Visit the Maori market featuring traditional and contemporary Maori arts and crafts.

Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua chairman, Naida Glavish, says  the ongoing sniping from Labour MP Shane Jones is insidious, short on facts, and disloyal to his people.

“Shane should pause and think about the impact of his criticism. Ngati Whatua and Iwi across the country have been doing a stunning job of representing Maori culture on a world stage during the Rugby World Cup. We are creating a wonderful bow wave for our people. It is a shame Shane is messing about in the backwash playing local politics.”

Naida Glavish says the Waka Maori initiative is a wonderful demonstration of Maori innovation, drawing on ancient traditions and bringing  them to life with a 21^st century flavour.

” There has been too much misinformation about this project. It is on target and on budget and is set to bring a wonderful new dynamic to the ongoing Auckland waterfront celebrations during Rugby World Cup.”

For further information, please contact Naida Glavish: 021 722  086.

Or Andrew Melville, communication advisor, 021 360 075. 

With New Zealand’s biggest rugby event making its way from the south, the Hawke’s Bay Maori Business Network will host a Global Sevens Tournament for rugby supporters.

Over 280 players from around the world making up 20 teams from competing countries.

When: Saturday Oct 15, 2011 (7.45am-8pm)
Where: Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay

Players are lining up to be part of this spectacular event with some teams at full capacity.

The tournament will be held at The Sports Parks Hawke’s Bay over one day with 33 scheduled games. Each team has a naming sponsor and Kooga New Zealand has designed unique jerseys specifically for the event to represent each country.

http://www.hbglobalsevens.co.nz/

With New Zealand’s biggest rugby event making its way from the south, the Hawke’s Bay Maori Business Network will host a Global Sevens Tournament for rugby supporters.

By hosting this tournament the HBMBN and Hawke’s Bay have opportunity to entertain 20 different cultures and their entourages with hopes of indulging in some of the most important principles in the lives of New Zealanders – rugby, competition, business and global relationships.

Proceeds from the tournament will be utilised to raise funds for an up and coming business incubator in Hawke’s Bay for the wider Hawke’s Bay Community.

http://www.hbglobalsevens.co.nz/

If you prefer to watch, join more than 2500 spectators at this unique sporting event.

http://www.hbglobalsevens.co.nz/

VIP Tickets to KooGa Global Sevens

Want to be treated like royalty for the day?

VIP tickets – $100 per person includes best seats, beautiful kai and suitable refreshments throughout the whole day.

Please contact hbmbn@xtra.co.nz Chairman, Hawkes Bay Maori Business Network.

Rotorua District Council is scheduling the additional free Fanzone for fans who missed out on buying tickets for the match at Rotorua International Stadium this weekend. The last remaining tickets to the game were swept up yesterday morning (Monday 19 September) but ticketless rugby fans will still be able to watch Ireland come up against Russia live on the big screen from the Fanzone grandstand.

Events & Venues Rotorua general manager Peter McLeod said the council’s original plans were to set up Fanzones to coincide with each of the All Black’s pool games as well as the quarter finals, semis and finals. He said those games would all be shown live on the big screen but a decision had now been made to add an additional Fanzone for this Sunday (25 September) to meet expected demand.

“Many Rotorua residents won’t be able to attend what is really the premier match of Rotorua’s involvement in RWC2011 and no doubt there will be heaps out-of-town supporters who’ve also missed out on tickets to the game. So we’re catering for both residents and visitors with our decision to have an extra Fanzone opening on Sunday evening.

“This will follow on from Saturday’s scheduled Fanzone where the All Blacks vs France match will show live on our big screen, so it will certainly be a busy weekend.”

The Sunday Fanzone will open at 5pm at the Energy Events Centre ahead of match kick-off at 6pm.

Mr McLeod said that because of the late decision to open the extra Fanzone there would not be local entertainment but instead the pre-match television studio and stadium build-up would screen live for patrons and there would be some activities for children, along with food and refreshments.

Mr McLeod commended Events & Venues staff who he said had “pulled out all stops” to make the extra Fanzone possible at short notice.

“Out team already has an incredibly heavy workload making sure they deliver the big match on Sunday to a capacity crowd of more than 25,000 at the Rotorua International Stadium. So opening an extra Fanzone presents a huge additional workload at very short notice. But without hesitation the team has willingly come to the party and taken on the extra commitment.

“Rotorua residents can be very proud of the local effort in making sure Rugby World Cup 2011 is a big success in this city,” said Mr McLeod.

It’s a strange thing to have sat down in a barber’s chair, been gowned up and, as the clippers began buzzing, to have your barber tell you his grandfather had been denied an All Black cap because of South Africa. Well, it is and it isn’t. This is New Zealand. Everything eventually reverts back to rugby.

Walking down Customhouse Quay street after gym on Saturday, I walked past “Custom Cutz” before doubling back to see if they could smarten me up for, er, the other lads in the press box, I suppose. Brendan Blake, the barber, swept me on to a chair and five questions later had it out of me that I wanted a number two on the sides and back, some dignity on the top and was a rugby writer from South Africa.

“My grandfather was stopped from being an All Black because of apartheid.” It’s probably the best line in chat I have had from a barber. My reply was less eloquent. “Shit. Really? Jesus.”

Brendan is the grandson of Alan “Kiwi” Blake, who died in October last year, just three days short of his 88th birthday. In 1948, just after World War II, Kiwi Blake had been told he would be picked for the All Blacks to tour South Africa. But Kiwi Blake was dark-skinned, having a grandfather who was, by his own words, “a quarter negro”. It was assumed he had Maori blood, but it was actually African-American. The New Zealand Herald wrote in 2003 that, “ironically, it was racism that saw the Wairarapa flanker become a ‘Maori’ despite having no Maori blood. An outstanding forward in the New Zealanders’ World War II Army team, Blake said he was told by rugby bosses after the trials in 1948 that he, with Johnny Smith and Vince Bevan, would have made the following year’s All Black tour of South Africa had it not been for the colour of their skin. His granddad got his All Black cap against the Wallabies in 1949, but he wanted to play the South Africans.

“Former All Black captain Fred Allen said Blake was an excellent player who should have made the tour had New Zealand not acquiesced to South Africa’s demands for whites only. Allen said it was only later people learned Blake was not Maori.”

As he buzzed the hair on the side of my head down to a “one-and-a-half” Brendan Blake asked me if I’d like to see a clipping from the Dominion Post on his grandfather. A friend had given it to him and he kept it folded in a book on his counter. I read it as he cut. Kiwi was picked for the New Zealand Maori team in 1949, and because of his reputation as an outstanding player, never had to play a trial.

“He was, however, approached by the Wairarapa selectors in 1948. They told him ‘because of the dark blood’ in him he would be ineligible to tour the republic. But during the same conversation the selectors sounded him out on whether he would consider travelling to Fiji as a member of a New Zealand Maori team in 1949. ‘I said, well if I can’t go to South Africa then I certainly will, so long as I can play rugby. So they nominated me in the Maori team and when it came out I was going to Fiji, I never even played in the Maori trial.’ ”

The papers described him as “tough”. Brendan said he was “ruthless”. “When he was looking after us we knew not to mess around. He didn’t take that too well. And we were pretty well behaved, I can tell you. Grandad had been in the war. I think he was captured, but he didn’t talk about that too much. He played for the Kiwis rugby team that went to Europe, which is how he got the nickname.”

Blake, wrote the Post, “was raised on a farm in the foothills of the Tararuas, where he developed a lifetime love of pig hunting and deer-stalking. He attributed his longevity in rugby – which included 178 first class games – to pig-hunting in particular. He regularly went pig- hunting with Wairarapa teammates after a first class game, saying this got rid of any stiffness in his body. He was a mentor to All Blacks great Sir Brian Lochore in the early stages of the latter’s playing career in Wairarapa. In 1959 Kiwi Blake captained the Wairarapa-Bush team against the touring British Lions. He and his wife, Betty, raised their family of six on a rural property in the foothills of the Tararuas.

On the field Kiwi Blake was tough, off it he was a gentleman.”

Brendan’s dad played top-class rugby and his brother had played for the junior All Blacks before he was injured. He’s a youngish man, but is old in rugby and tales. In 20 minutes I had a $25 haircut and a story that warmed my heart. We shook hands and I told I would be back on October 2. “See you then, brother.”

If you are ever in Wellington, be sure and go to Custom Cutz. Tell Brendan I sent you and ask him about Kiwi Blake. He was a hell of a man.

By Kevin McCallum
http://www.iol.co.za/sport/rugby/the-unkindest-cut-1.1140269