He tangata - Profiling ‘The People’ who are making a difference to Maori tourism in Aotearoa New Zealand

Living the uncluttered life - in a haven where things are done as they have always been done.

Joe and Marilyn McClutchie are, undoubtedly, rarities within the charter fishing industry in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Whereas most - if not all - charter operators alllow those who pay the piper to take a limit bag of any fish species, the McClutchies operate under an age-old ethos. It’s tikanga Maori - the system of taking only what you need to satisfy your immediate requirements. Joe and McClutchie are strong on that point. Adamant on that point in fact.

And it’s a philosophy that stands them in good stead with their manuhiri - the independent travellers and fisherpeople who make the journey to the remote East Coast settlement of Wharekahika (Hick’s Bay). Their home since 1991 has been the old Maori pa site of Omuruiti, right on the water’s edge.

Until the 1860s, the people of the Coast used this small portion of flatland on the water’s edge to prepare their kaimoana (seafood). Then a European settler leased the land and grazed a few cattle along the foreshore of the picturesque little bay.

About 130 years later the McClutchies arrived atWharekahika, having spent most of their working lives around Gisborne, part of the urban drift typical of so many of their iwi.

During that time of urban domesticity, Joe was a firefighter, spent 15 years as skipper of the Gisborne rescue boat and worked with youth in the first tribally-based outdoor pursuits programme in New Zealand - the latter earning him the Queen’s Service Order.

But it was the maritime side of his activities that served as a catalyst for what he and Marilyn are now doing - an accommodation and charter fishing enterprise that is located just a hop, skip and jump from East Cape itself.

Joe says he always had a passion for the sea. He grew up diving and fishing in the area. It was, he recalls with fondness, a way of life in those parts, as it is for many today. “It was not a recreational pursuit for us as kids,” he says.

“It was part of our everyday life. I was fortunate that I grew up with the old people and learned the traditional ways.

“We did a lot of trading of kaimoana with the inland people in those days.”

But of all the events in his life, Joe says it was the journey of discovery he took on Te Au o Tonga, the great Cook Island voyaging waka (canoe) while sailing to New Caledonia in 2001 that set him on his current path.

Navigating across the Pacific by the stars - as his ancestors did centuries before - and riding out wild storms thousands of kilometres from the nearest land mass provided him with a clear picture of where his destiny lay and in essence set the platform for what he and Marilyn now share as a whanau (family) enterprise, revolving around tourism.

Marilyn traces her ancestry through her mother’s side to the East Coast also, especially to Tokomaru Bay, further toward Gisborne, and thus has a spiritual connection with the area also.

On arrival at Mel’s Place, as their accommodation business is known, manuhiri (visitors) are greeted in the traditional manner with a short mihimihi - and kai - the food which is traditional to Maori after such a welcome. Their place is designed to cater for the independent traveller rather than to anyone seeking an upmarket bed and breakfast or luxury lodge. But the dormitory sleeping or tent sites are within a stone’s throw of the gently lapping aqua waters of the Pacific Ocean, indeed a little patch of paradise. The experience is based squarely on Maori tradition, in a family environment.

“What we are providing to our manuhiri is an opportunity to interact with local people on our own whenua (land)),” Joe says.

This philopsophy is carried through into everything the McClutchies do and offer, including a recentlylaunched eight day tour for small groups which conveys visitors from Auckland, through the eastern Bay of Plenty and into the East Coast, to Gisborne and then back through Rotorua to Auckland, all wrapped up in Maori culture and taking in many of the region’s icon attractions and activities.

Fishing charters - offering access to some of the best deep sea species in the country - begin and end with a karakia (prayer) to Tangaroa, the God of the Sea. Joe explains to those who venture out with him the principles of what the fishing trip will be.

Namely, to take enough to sustain yourself. Not, as he points out, to take enough to fill the freezer, only to throw it out in 12 months’ time when it’s past its best-by date.“Most of our visitors only want to take the fillets from their fish, so we ask them to leave the rest for use by our local people,” he explains. “It’s all kai to the people of the Coast.

“We also try to get people to not only connect to the place, but to the people. That’s why we ask them to come to stay with us the night before, not just to turn up in the morning, go fishing and go away again.”

After almost a decade and a half at Hick’s Bay, Joe and Marilyn McClutchie now have the satisfaction of knowing that their business is one of the East Coast’s mainstay tourism operations.

During that time, visitor flows have increased, from only a few backpackers pasing through in the early 1990s, to a growing stream of people seeking a more leisurely experience away from the blue ribbon tourism routes.

Mel’s Place, and East Cape Fishing Charters, provide many things. But foremost among them is an authentic cultural experience which reflects the laid-back lifestyle of this part of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The overlay of a commitment to tikanga Maori - the practices and traditions which have been passed from one generation to the next - means that visitors can be assured of a very special experience in a region many regard as one of the last frontiers in contemporary New Zealand today.

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EAST CAPE SCENIC AND CULTURAL TOURS
Onepoto Beach Road
Hicks Bay East Cape
Ph: + 64 6 864 4694
E-mail:
Website: eastcapefishing.co.nz