And that’s a wrap!

Ki Uta Ki Tai Waka Challenge held 24 October 2020, was hosted by Oraka-Aparima Waka Ama and sposnored by Oraka-Aparima Runaka and Nga Kete Matauranga Pounamu Trust with support from Waka Ama NZ.

This venue for this event was the Marakura Yacht Club situated on the edge of the picturesque shores of Lake Te Anau. This was the first Waka Ama event to be held post-covid, and the first time that a Waka Ama event had been organised and hosted this far south.

Te Anau did not disappoint with its stunning scenery of Lake Te Anau and snowy capped mountains. The weather was slightly cooler than desired, however this made no difference to the paddlers, whanauu and spectators that attended.

13 entries competed in our 3 race event, a 5km novice, 10km and 15km with teams from Nelson,Dunedin, Puketeraki, Queenstown & Invercargill. We were very fortunate to recieve support from the ladies at Fire in Ice Club, Corrina Gage, Tracey Kingi and Waka Ama NZ.

As well as the paddling, there was live music throughout the event with Kapahaka and local artists performing and kai stalls available to create a whanau/ community vibe. The Te Anau community has suffered with the effects of Covid-19 and the impact that this has had on local tourism and employment has been tough for this vibrant community. While the focus of the event was Waka Ama, it was also about celebrating whanau, resilience and connectivity.

Our event was a smokefree event and these hauora based messages as well as others were delievered throughout the day by our Master of Ceremonies Raniera Dallas.

Local businesses and organisations sponsored our ataahua tohu (trophies) for the event which were distributed at our prizegiving and then followed up with a hearty BBQ of which all the meat was donated by Alliance Group Limited.

Corrina Gage hosted a steering clinic on Sunday morning and many of our new paddlers attended and took advantage of this opportunity.

It is our desire to see this become an annual event on the race calendar and and we are supporting the set up of a Te Anau Waka Ama  Steering Komiti .

We would like to send out ngā mihi nui to all those paddlers and whanau that travelled to our event. To Corrina Gage and Viv at Fire in Ice, thank you for all your guidance on the day – it was very much appreciated! We look forward to seeing you back in Te Anau in 2021!

Photos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/wakaama/posts/4126083367407766