It has been six years since ‘Kupe 2008’ completed Aoraki Bound at Anakiwa and we’re still managing to get together to catch-up and kōrero once a year.
These days it’s not about the 6am runs and swims, rank poly-props or our camp cooking, it’s about our Aoraki Bound whānau. Two of our group members have started families with their partners and we have welcomed four new tamariki.
Each year ‘Kupe 2008’ meet at a different location, normally near where one of the group lives including Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Kaikōura and Ōtautahi. As well as catching up, we normally head out for a walk and take part in community service activities.
During Labour Weekend 2013, we began planting a Kupe 2008 biota node at Te Kōhaka o Tūhaitara, near Woodend Beach. This September we returned to weed the area and to plant a few more trees and also to place the whenua of one of the group members tamaiti under a young tōtara. (Our biota node/area is a planting of native species, which is part of the long term restoration of the Tūhaitara Coastal Reserve. See Te Kōhaka o Tūhaitara for more information or if you want to lend a hand http://www.tuhaitarapark.org.nz).
While we thought we knew each other after 21 days on Aoraki Bound, the true meaning of whānau continues to be reinforced as we celebrate the ups and dish out ‘straight-up’ support to each other through challenges.
Karawhiua ‘Kupe 2008’. We lay down a wero to other Aoraki Bound rōpū to embrace the power of whanaukataka.
From left, Fern Whitau, Ann Martin, Tracey Wemyss, Brett Lee, Jodie Denton and Hayden Pohio at Āmuri.
From left, Fern Whitau, Jodie Denton, Hone Stevens and moko, Waikawa and Alize, Hayden Pohio and Greg Brynes at Te Kōhaka o Tūhaitara.