It's one of the strongest kapa haka regions in the country.
Te Arawa's senior kapa haka regionals
has just got underway and standing by live on stage
from the event
is our Bay of Plenty reporter Rapaera Tawhai.
Behind me,
I have the kaumatua from Horohoro
performing and showing their best to the Te Arawa region.
The competition was kick-started today by elders of Ngati Whakaue,
who are the mana whenua of this area.
Tonight, there will be ten kapa hitting the stage.
Tomorrow, the competition proper starts
with the teams in contention to represent this region.
So the big event will happen tomorrow.
Te Arawa set to see through six teams.
Perhaps the first region ever
to be sending through so many teams currently for Te Matatini.
What do you make of the calibre?
It looks like they are set to be the largest region this year.
21 teams will take to the stage which you can see behind me
with six teams heading off to Te Matatini.
This region is one of the strongest.
As we know, Te Arawa are extremely talented at kapa haka
with experienced teams like Rangiwewehi
and younger teams like Te Piki Kotuku o Ngati Rongomai
who, by the way, came second at Te Matatini last year.
T here’s going to be huge battles on stage.
Could we possibly see a Tuwharetoa group, one of my iwi,
or a new group like Te Hekenga a Rangi
from Tarawhai get through?
Yes is the answer.
Well, that’s the goal
and that’s what every kapa wants to do,
a chance to perform at Te Matatini. It’s the big goal,
the dream.
These teams have been training
for a very long time to try and reach the national competition.
Furthermore, these teams,
like your relations from Tuwharetoa and Te Hekenga a Rangi
aren’t newbies to the competition.
While they may be new teams,
the kaihaka themselves are experienced
having performed in top-tier groups like Rangiwewehi.
So they’ve moved into this team,
Te Hekenga a Rangi and are helping to get it
off the ground.
These new kapa are vying
for a top spot because in the other regional competitions
new teams have made it into the competition
like in the Auckland and Mataatua regionals.
So the desire is to try and get a new team from Te Arawa
into the national competition.
Let’s talk about the coronavirus.
There is an event is taking place in Rotorua,
where the world Crankworx mountain biking competition is underway.
We understand Italian bikers have self-isolated themselves
in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
What's the general feeling about the virus on the ground?
Presenters have been addressing coronavirus quite a bit
while they’ve been on stage today.
They’ve all been really urging the audience
to thoroughly wash their hands.
Also, there was a demonstration of a new action
which goes like this.
So the funny presenters like Kingi Biddle have been saying
that if someone coughs then they need to do this
to help prevent the spread of germs.
Thank you.
Can you do it one more time?
How do you do it?
Like this.
Thank you for the update and for showing us the actions.
There’s no question that that action is going to go viral
for the rest of the regional competitions coming up.
That was Rapaera Tawhai live from Rotorua.