PANUI 📖 | Taking a break, back in 2026!
Friday 26 September 2025
Tena tatau i nga tini ahuatanga o te wa.
Thank you for your continuing interest in Te Ara Tipuna – we appreciate you popping in and catching up on where we’re at.
Where are we now?
As you know from information on our website there are 3 stages to the project:
- Secure resource consent to develop a 345km trail across Ngati Porou rohe
- Negotiate easements with landowners or governance entities to permit the trail across their whenua
- Raise funding to develop sections of the trail until it is complete
We are currently at the last part of stage 1) above. It has several steps – including finalising our application, having it reviewed by GDC, preparing for and appearing before a hearing by a panel of commissioners, seeking an approved consent for the trail. The cost for this is substantial.
Consent process on hold
We do not currently have the funding to complete this stage. As a result, our Trust has requested that the processing of our consent application be put on hold while we secure the substantial amount required for these next steps in the Resource Management consent process. The Gisborne District Council has confirmed this status. You can read the GDC public notification on their website at: https://www.gdc.govt.nz/property/resource-consent/notified-resource-consents/notified-consents/te-ara-tipuna-trust-te-ara-tipuna-trail
What does this mean?
No further paid work will be undertaken, and the hearing will be rescheduled. We have requested dates in 2026 when Commissioners and Council staff can be available.
We will go find the next tranche of funding.
It’s BIG!
The scale and complexity of the project has taken four years from 2021 - developing a business case, filling in funding applications, mapping routes, building a database of landowners, finding technical experts and specialists, meeting the requirements of the Resource Management Act, holding hui, sharing information. And, constantly reviewing, refining, learning and improving.
Public funding
We have successfully applied for public funding across these four years amounting to $3.8million. The fund holders of this funding have been Trust Tairawhiti in 2021; Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou 2022-23, and BDO Gisborne 2024-25 on behalf of Te Ara Tipuna Charitable Trust. We have met every milestone of our contracts and accounted for this public funding in all our reporting to Te Puni Kokiri.
We would not have gotten to this point without encouragement from Ministers of Maori Development, Hon Willie Jackson and Hon Tama Potaka, and the funding and resourcing from public applications through regional and national leadership of Te Puni Kokiri.
We thank them wholeheartedly.
Time and cost
As further background to the challenges we confront, the Government is currently reforming both the Resource Management Act and Te Ture Whenua Maori. It is looking for more efficient processing and less costly requirements for land development and environmental protections. Te Ara Tipuna, operating under both these laws is a case study in how difficult, cumbersome, and costly the current regulations and processes are. We look forward to any benefits of this legislative reform.
What’s next?
Our Trust and our project team is just a small band of committed Naatis. We are also going to take the opportunity of having a break.
We look forward to progressing this beautiful kaupapa in 2026 – developing the trail, bringing new opportunities to landowners, to local entrepreneurs and businesses, and help with restoring our taiao. We urgently need to create an inviting way for Ngati Porou uri to connect with their whakapapa, whenua, and whanau, and to have the opportunity to walk the ways of their ancestors - Te Ara Tipuna.
Heoi, ma te wa e whakaata ana mahi.
Na matau o Te Ara Tipuna