OPINION
Kia ora, ngā mihi mahana mai Te Hiku o Te Ika.
I wanted to thank The Gisborne Herald for acknowledging our national waka ama long-distance nationals.
The venue was a great site, and the event organisers ran a good, safe four-day programme for more than 900 paddlers and whānau.
Day 1 events were cancelled due to weather, but it gave some of us an opportunity to check out the famous local Route 35 cafe in Tokomaru, a few urupā to locate some loved ones and a visit to Toi Houkura.
Gisborne is a great site for waka ama racing and, of course, you have the renowned Mareikura and Horouta whose inter-club competitiveness lifted the national competition to another level over 20 years ago.
Three of us caught the Whangarei-to-Gisborne flight which made travel easy - and we were within an eight-minute walk of the venue.
You also have a national collaboration of waka makers with Sonic and Tai - who are taking our sports to high-performance levels.
Kia ora to Air Ruatoria, which gave us perspective on our local efforts to keep Kaitaia Airport open.
Tēna koutou. Thanks for the manaakitanga.
H. Halkyard-Harawira
Rangaunu Sports Club
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