Matariki ki te Maunga — Recloaking the korowai of Tauhara Maunga

Here is a funding application brief drawing on both programmes, modelled on the quality and structure of the example:

Project Story

Tauhara Maunga is a 65,000-year-old dormant volcano rising 1,088 metres above sea level, just 7 kilometres east of Taupō township. Under the continuous kaitiakitanga of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, the maunga is privately owned Māori land (Tauhara Middle 15 Trust and Tauhara Mountain Trust), opened to the public as a gift under the principle of manaakitanga.

More than 50,000 manuhiri walk its trails each year. Yet the ngahere that once cloaked this tīpuna has been stripped by decades of pastoral farming, and the stories, whakapapa, and living presence that make this place extraordinary remain largely untold.

Te Mana o Tauhara exists to change that.

Our Mission

Te Mana o Tauhara brings together the founding landowners of Tauhara Maunga (Tauhara Mountain Trust, Tauhara Middle 15 Trust, and Opepe Farm Trust) alongside whānau, hapori, and partners, to restore, reconnect, and regenerate Tauhara Maunga and its surrounding whenua. Our mahi is grounded in kaitiakitanga, guided by mātauranga Māori, and designed to create enduring benefit for the mokopuna who will inherit this whenua.

Background and Problem Statement

Decades of pastoral farming have stripped the native ngahere from the slopes of Tauhara Maunga, leaving retired farmland exposed to erosion and sediment runoff. Without active intervention, these effects will compound under current climate pressures. Introduced predators and invasive pests threaten every restoration gain. And while 50,000 manuhiri visit the maunga each year, Māori-led experiences that connect people to the cultural and ecological significance of this tīpuna remain largely absent from the Taupō visitor landscape.

The question for the founding landowners has never been whether to act. It has been how to act at the scale the maunga and surrounding whenua requires.

Our Response

This funding application supports two interconnected programmes at the heart of the Te Mana o Tauhara restoration kaupapa.

Tauhara Kitea is our flagship afforestation programme, converting retired farmland into permanent indigenous forest using plants eco-sourced from within the Taupō rohe. Since 2024, approximately 16,000 native plants across more than 20 indigenous species have been established across 16 hectares at a 96% survival rate. Delivery is led by Ngā Mahi Kaha Ltd, a Tauhara Collective enterprise whose kaimahi carry whakapapa connections to the whenua they are restoring. Every plant is a step toward recloaking the korowai of Tauhara Maunga.

Matariki ki te Maunga is our annual community celebration returning uri and hāpori to the maunga at the most significant time of the Māori calendar. Each event begins before dawn with a whangai te hautapu ceremony led by mana whenua, grounding the day in the reo, tikanga, and whakapapa of Tūwharetoa. Between 2024 and 2025, four events welcomed more than 1,000 participants from over 40 kura, kōhanga, and hapori groups. Ten school buses were provided to ensure rangatahi from across the district could attend. Two thousand seedlings grown by local tamariki through the Trees for Survival programme have been planted on the maunga by the children themselves.

The Opportunity

Tauhara Kitea and Matariki ki te Maunga are not separate programmes. They are two expressions of the same kaupapa: that the restoration of a maunga and the reconnection of its people are the same mahi.

A thriving ngahere creates the ecological conditions for taonga species to return. A community that plants together creates the human conditions for kaitiakitanga to endure. Every tamaiti who grows a seedling in their classroom and plants it on the maunga leaves with a relationship to this place that will outlast any funding cycle.

This is how restoration sticks. Not through contracts and deliverables alone, but through the living connection between uri and their tīpuna maunga.

Tracking Impact

Our impact is tracked across ecological and community dimensions. Ecological monitoring includes plant survival rates, species diversity, weed and pest pressure, and the return of taonga species to restored areas. Community impact is measured through participant numbers, kura and hāpori group engagement, uri employment through Ngā Mahi Kaha, and the depth of ongoing relationships between tamariki and the maunga.

We are also developing a Tūwharetoa-centric monitoring framework that integrates mātauranga Māori indicators alongside western ecological science, including tohu specific to the Taupō rohe such as the return of pikopiko and native manu to the maunga.

Our Experience

Since 2024, Te Mana o Tauhara and the Tauhara Collective have mobilised more than $2 million in direct investment and in-kind contribution toward the restoration of Tauhara Maunga over the next 10 years. Our programmes have achieved a 96% plant survival rate across 16 hectares of restored farmland, engaged more than 1,000 community participants in active restoration, and attracted a partnership network spanning iwi, government agencies, conservation organisations, corporates, and community groups.

We are a credible, experienced, and accountable kaitiaki of this kaupapa. And we are just getting started.