A Tourist in Tuhoe Heartland

4 Living JUNE 16, 2013 COVER STORY A tourist in Tuhoe heartland Liz Light visits Ruatahuna, deep in Te Urewera National Park, the setting for the latest New Zealand film, White Lies. Oputao Marae is in heartland Tuhoe country. ichardWhite’s alarm clock is set for 6.30am and every morning he wakes to the deep, sweet Rtones of Louis Armstrong, “I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” Ruatahuna, a village that straggles along a valley in a big bubble of Maori land in the middle of Te Urewera National Park, is Richard’s wonderful world. Green farmland is surrounded by steep mountains clothed in dark, primeval rainforest. The forest seems to be quietly creeping down, reclaiming land that once belonged to it, making a mockery of man’s futile attempts to farm and nudging the cattle and horses further down the valley. The Whakatane River that carved this valley is young and sprightly, dancing around rocks and sometimes slowing down in pools where trout swim. This is heartland Tuhoe territory and the 260 people who live in Ruatahuna speak Maori, their first language. It’s also the location of the latest New Zealand movie, White Lies, and one of few such places that welcomes and hosts tourists wishing to experience a unique landscape and lifestyle. The valley has 10 hapu and each has its own marae. Oputao Marae belongs to the extended White family and has done for hundreds of years. Richard and Meriann, and their youngest son Paraki, live here but over Christmas the whanau — uncles, aunts, brothers, cousins, and lots of children — return from all over New Zealand, and some from Australia. Then there might be 60 people celebrating family and reconnecting with their place. Beautifully bleak By Liz Light he film White Lies started as a novella written by Witi Ihimaera called Medicine Woman, Twas adapted to screenplay and directed by an acclaimed Mexican/New Zealand director Dana Rotberg, was cut and shaped by producer John Barnett and had its wings clipped by the censors. White Lies has been pushed and pulled great distances from the original novella. This, I suppose, is the normal movie process and I understand that Ihimaera is happy with the end result. Rotberg knew she needed to see the place where Ihimaera’s story was set to do it justice, so one day drove from Auckland to Ruatahuna. She met Richard and Meriann White by chance at the petrol station. “We spent a beautiful day on horseback going through the old Maori tracks in the bush,” says Rotberg. “It was pouring with rain and for me it was COVER STORY JUNE 16, 2013 Living 5 The marae belongs to the extended White family and Richard White, right, takes pride in operating tours to showcase the surrounding country. LIZ LIGHT Richard was born and raised in Oputao Marae and win against Europeans and sent the survivors home. all delighted to simply watch the performance. went to school in the valley but he moved to Rotorua The marae was built in memory of those killed in battle. Getting The bunkhouse, where hunters, fishers and horse- and worked as a mechanic for 25 years. A growing By the mid-1940s, the boys from the valley had there trekkers stay, is unexpectedly luxurious (solar-heated family needs money and there is not much of that gone to fight again, this time in a European war. The It is two hours’ drive hot water, a nice shower and flush toilet). We sit on the here. It’s the sense of place, the overwhelming feeling Depression and the war impacted on Ruatahuna and from Rotorua to veranda in the sun, enjoy tea and look for birds. Kereru, of belonging, that brought Richard and Meriann back families left the land. There were no Whites living here Ruatahuna. The mostly tui, fantail, bellbird, kaka, North Island robin, grey after their older children had flown. and the wharenui was in a sorry state. dirt road is challenging warblers, tomtits and moreporks live in this area, as do Richard thought visitors would love this place, too, Richard’s father felt the pull of this place and but magnificent. Ahurei stealthy pekapeka (native bats). with its elemental scenery and the hunting, fishing and returned in the 1960s to raise his children in the valley. Adventures takes I browse through the comments in the guest book. hiking that is the way of life here but is a novelty to city In 1975 he replaced the dirt floor with concrete and the guests fishing, hunting, 2/12/2012: “Choice spot. Woke to the bird’s dawn folk. And the horse trekking; there are more horses in rusting corrugated iron roof. The ornate interior, the horse trekking or chorus. Spooked five deer, shot a pig and caught four the valley than people. Plus, there is the attraction of a porch and the carved wooden maihi along the front tramping from October trout. The kids loved it.” 26/10/2012: “Great stay, great Maori cultural experience; sleeping in the marae and have survived 153 years of all the wild weather that until late May. www. hunting, great food, great bloke.” cooking, eating and socialising with the family. Ranginui, the sky father, could throw down. ahureiadventures. It’s dark by the time we get back. Paraki has chicken So he set-up Ahurei Adventures, had a website It takes four hours to walk to White’s Clearing, 1½ co.nz, ph (07) 366 3941 and vegetables roasting and has made a feijoa pie. The built and, bingo, people arrive from all over the world; to ride there and half an hour in a ute over a gouged- kitchen is toasty and the conversation is lively. ecology students from California, German hunters, out track that crosses the same stream nine times. The Women sleep on the right side of the wharenui. Danish fishermen, endurance-riding enthusiasts and 900ha block, straddling two valleys, was worked by Bay of I look closely at the photos of the ancestors on the people simply seeking peace. My friend and I arrive Richard’s grandfather until he had to walk away during Plenty wall and lay my mattress below that of Richard’s mid-morning and Richard welcomes us to the marae. the Depression. Now it is being reclaimed by Tane’s TE UREWERA grandmother,Witoria. She has a kind, proud face and The karanga, the welcome call, is given by a woman green forest fingers. Rotorua NATIONAL looks beautiful. During the night rain on corrugated but Meriann is in Rotorua so, instead, Richard slowly We meet four of Richard’s eight horses. No bridle, no PARK iron is a cosy sound for sleep and by morning rings a brass bell. We enter the wharenui, the meeting rope, just Richard’s soft voice and years of love and trust Ruatahuna Ruatahuna is shiny and dripping. The farmed land house, and sit on the floor beneath photos of ancestors. and Whitiwhiti comes to greet us. He approves. His one Taupo Gisborne is absolute green; horses and cattle are heads-down Richard says a prayer to Tane, the God of the forest, brown and two white friends can’t resist joining the grazing, their damp coats steaming in hot sun. asking him to keep us safe during our visit. horse and human huddle for nuzzling and stroking. Hawke’s The forest is breathing; exhaling mist that swirls and The wharenui was built in 1860 to celebrate Stags roar, loud and insistent, so we quietly follow Bay changes shape. I revel in the realm of Tane; fern fronds the return of young men who fought beside Rewi the sound down a valley to a steep, mostly grassy, with dripping points, skeins of hanging moss woven Maniapoto in the Waikato against land-grabbing hillside. The stags are playing macho games, trying to with diamond drops and giant trees that thrust their 50km Pakeha. Sticks and spears were pitted against guns. The steal each other’s hinds while roaring and waving their crowns above the others. battles were was lost. Rewi realised Maori would never antlers. Richard often takes people hunting but we are ● Liz Light was hosted by Ahurei Adventures. White Lies has two settings; Ruatahuna in Te Ruatahuna in the movie, and more magnificent Te Urewera, Tuhoe territory, and the inside of a Victorian Urewera scenery. And I could have done with less mansion in a nearby unnamed town, Gisborne in the of three women facing-of unpleasantly about their novella, though the homestead filming was done in degrees of whiteness and Maori cultural identity. Auckland. It is, none-the-less, a splendid art-house film. The Discovering the Oputao Marae, in Ruatahuna, was a photography is superb; thank you Alun Bollinger. Each boon for the director. It’s absolutely authentic and little frame is absolutely beautiful, even when depicting had to be done to take it back a century. It was also barbaric events and traumatic childbirths. The musical undoubtedly helpful that Richard and Meriann White score is outstanding, perfectly tuned to the mood and were happy to support the project in hundreds of ways to the varying cultural moments of the story and it and that Richard knows the territory and the beauty of includes judicious inclusion of birdsong and ancient Te Urewera as well as he knows his whakapapa, which Maori instruments. And the acting was excellent; includes, ironically considering the title of the film, one Whirimako Black, Rachel House and Antonia Prebble rogue Pakeha great grandfather who left this branch of played their dificult parts well.

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