Taiau Waka Ama

Taiau Waka Ama Mai Potikirua ki Te Toka a Taiau
Ko tatau tenei 🌅🧡🩷🩵

Sprints Nats 2026 - done and dusted ✌🏼Our second Sprints Nats, and a big one for our club. A campaign filled with firsts...
20/01/2026

Sprints Nats 2026 - done and dusted ✌🏼

Our second Sprints Nats, and a big one for our club. A campaign filled with firsts: our first time taking three crews, first double hull, first final, and our first qualification for Worlds 🤯🎊

Like every campaign, it came with its challenges. We sold our beloved club W6, Taiau, and completed most of the campaign, including turns, on Wakapiri, our big gal 1990, who prepped us well. Weather warnings and river closures are becoming all too common for Tairawhiti clubs, adding logistical pressures that make paddling harder than it should be. Heoi, the love and commitment for Taiau and for waka ama continually prevailed and we got there in the end.

As always, we are deeply grateful to our whanau and supporters who continue to back us and make it possible to do what we love 🫶🏽

As one of the smallest clubs at the biggest Nats to date, regardless of results, we are beyond proud. This is only the beginning 🌅

24kms each under the belt for our Opens crews, Taiau and Rerepuhitai 🌅Second LDNs for our club, proud as of our efforts....
28/04/2025

24kms each under the belt for our Opens crews, Taiau and Rerepuhitai 🌅

Second LDNs for our club, proud as of our efforts. Special mihi to our kaihoe whose first LDNs this was - maitai 🦾

More XP, more learnings, more hunger to keep training and racing 🌊

He mihi nui kia Ngati Toa, , nga karapu, kaihoe, kaituao i kawe te kaupapa whakahirahira nei 🙏

We'd also like to thank Matua Waata and EIT Tairawhiti for getting us to and from Porirua, Dave at for our beautiful long distance long sleeves, and our whanau holding it down with our tamariki so us paddling parents can do what we love 🩷🧡🩵

Next up, Rotohoe 🔥

Taiau ki Taupo Te Wheke Challenge 2025 🐙🌊We put in three crews - Autaia, Taputapu, Maitai (Ngati Porou kiwaha) - for the...
16/03/2025

Taiau ki Taupo Te Wheke Challenge 2025 🐙🌊

We put in three crews - Autaia, Taputapu, Maitai (Ngati Porou kiwaha) - for the 16.5km opens mixed race and had a ball tbh 😂

This was the first long distance race for many of our kaihoe, including 2/3 of our steerers, weather and conditions were beautiful, the race itself was challenging but enjoyable, with some meke battles amongst our own and with other crews. All in all, we came away with great memories, lots of learnings, and more race XP 💪🌊

Me mihi ka tika ki te karapu o Taupo Waka Ama 🫶🏽

He paku whakata then on to prep for the next - LDNs in Porirua next month 🌅

Kia ora, long distance is upon us, if you're keen to come suss out what we're all about and maybe join us this campaign ...
22/01/2025

Kia ora, long distance is upon us, if you're keen to come suss out what we're all about and maybe join us this campaign - contact details are in the post, whakapa mai!

Taiau ki Sprints Nats 2025 - first of many 🌅Thank you to our Taiau paddlers, who took a leap of faith and jumped onboard...
19/01/2025

Taiau ki Sprints Nats 2025 - first of many 🌅

Thank you to our Taiau paddlers, who took a leap of faith and jumped onboard with us. It was a short but challenging campaign and we put out performances we should be proud of, especially as 5 of our 12 had never been to Nats before and a further 3 had only been to one - taputapu 🧡

Thank you to all our Taiau whanau - partners, parents, grandparents, kids, cousins, babysitters - who helped all of us get to training and Nats - your support is everything!

Thank you to Te Komiti o Taiau for the background mahi to establish and support the infrastructure of Taiau.

Thank you to our Wairarapa Waka Ama whanau, especially Kath and Paddy, for hosting us on-site and your words of wisdom and support throughout 💚🖤🦆

Thank you to Conan and Lana at Tai Paddles for our beautiful race blades (and our Treasurer, Sharlene, who secured the funding for them on behalf of our komiti), David and the team at Beast Mode NZ for our fresh and vibrant race strips, and the Digitees team for going the extra mile to get our supporters merch and prizegiving stuff to us in time.

Nga mihi to all the other clubs in our Te Uranga o Te Ra region, particularly our local ones, Mareikura, Horouta, YMP, and Uawa Tiaki Tai. It was a buzz getting to cheer you all on and see Te Tairawhiti represented so well.

Thank you to Rahia for gassing us up from the commentators tower every time we raced, and our whanaunga, Petra Ria for filming our Rerepuhitai women's races (the drone only followed the top 3 and we were 4th 🤣).

Thank you to Waka Ama NZ, the kaituao, and everyone involved in all the mahi to execute a successful event.

Thank you everyone who gave us a little thumbs up or a "too much, Taiau" or told us they liked our strip - the support and positivity was a real whakapiki.

Finally, on a personal note, Shannon and I (Rakaitemania) would like to thank my mama, Hekia, for having our baby, Harawira Te Kaha, day and night so we could both go train and coach and organise. We literally could not have started a club or led our first two Taiau campaigns without her support 💜

More work to do, long distance is upon us 💪

Taiau ki te hoe! 🧡🩷🩵

Thank you to David and the team at Beast Mode for coming in clutch with getting our Sprints race strip ready and to us i...
17/01/2025

Thank you to David and the team at Beast Mode for coming in clutch with getting our Sprints race strip ready and to us in time for Nats! 🌅

You can see it again on our men this morning in the Turns Semi 🧡🩷🩵

Tena tatau, he karapu hou matau, based in Turanganui a Kiwa Gisborne at the Te Toka a Taiau end of Ngati Porou 💜 Nau mai...
17/01/2025

Tena tatau, he karapu hou matau, based in Turanganui a Kiwa Gisborne at the Te Toka a Taiau end of Ngati Porou 💜

Nau mai, whai mai, whakapa mai 🌅

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