Captain Cook commemorations set for Marlborough Sounds
Sunday, 3 March 2019
Waka, tall ships and Navy vessels will be part of commemorations to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's first visit to the Marlborough Sounds.
Representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, the Marlborough District Council, Port Marlborough and local government came together in Picton on Friday to discuss the Tōtaranui 250 event.
Cook made five visits to Ship Cove (Meretoto), in the Queen Charlotte Sound (Tōtaranui), the first one on January 15, 1770. He spent a total of 105 days there, more than anywhere else in New Zealand.
Commemorations in Marlborough would begin with a visit from two tall ships from November 21 to 26.
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The ships would spend four or five days in Picton, where people could go aboard, as well as spending time at Ship Cove in the Sounds.
The names of the vessels had yet to be released by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, as it was still finalising contracts.
Accompanying the tall ships would be three waka toa, from Marlborough, three waka houroua (double-hulled waka), two from New Zealand and one from Tahiti, the New Zealand Navy and a range of other maritime vessels.
Tuia Encounters 250 co-chair Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr said none of the waka houroua would hail from Marlborough, as there were no sea-faring wakas in the region.
Barclay-Kerr said the committee was keen to encourage people to visit, get on board and experience the waka while in Picton.
Tuia Encounters 250 is a national committee organising commemorations at four of Cook's landing places in New Zealand.
These included Gisborne, Ship Cove, the Bay of Islands, and the Coromandel Peninsula.
Barclay-Kerr said the commemorations captured the first encounter between Pacific people and the land, later encounters between Pacific people and those in New Zealand, and Captain Cook's landing.
It also commemorated 250 years of settlement after Cook's landing, as different people immigrated.
Tōtaranui 250 Trust co-chair Raymond Smith said the commemorations would recognise New Zealand's dual heritage, which had been 'locked in' for more than 250 years.
'If we can be leaders in our shared cultural relationship, then we can better promote and enhance culture in this country,' Smith said.
Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Wellbourne said the port was 'proud' to support the commemorations, as they looked at both New Zealand's past and future.
Marlborough Sounds ward councillor Nadine Taylor agreed, saying the commemorations allowed the council to look deeper at shared future and dual heritage.
'This group has come together to support that. This group is the bow of a waka in the breeze. It will be exciting to see the end destination, in that regard,' she said.
Sculptures and jetties were also on the wish list, and would help continue the celebration of New Zealand's dual heritage, though the group had yet to secure funding.
A permanent sculpture was proposed for Picton, with the council stating its plot had been narrowed down to two sites on Picton's foreshore (the Waitohi) and two sites at Shelley Beach, in the Victoria Domain.
Tōtaranui 250 Trust general manager Chrissy Powlesland said the trust was also looking at installing jetties on Arapaoa Island, in the Queen Charlotte Sound.
The island was where Cook disproved the southern continent theory that New Zealand was one big island, after being led there by local iwi, Powlesland said.
The trust hoped to improve access to the historic site by installing two jetties, one on either end of the island, but their project was dependant on funding, she said.
'The commemoration will leave a legacy people will remember for years to come,' Powlesland said.