By Lachlan Forsyth
The waters where the legendary Paikea rode in on the back of a whale are also are the waters Brazilian company Petrobras has been given permission to explore for oil and gas reserves.
But drilling for oil is not welcomed by local iwi, and not wanted by a lot of people who live along the coast.
“There's no way that we should be jeopardising our coastline like this,” Dominico Zapata of Boardriders Against Drilling said.
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The Petrobras permit covers 12,000 square kilometres of the Raukumara Basin, from four to 110 kilometres offshore, at a maximum depth of 3,000 metres.
New Zealand will receive just a small percentage of any profits made from the resources.
“The country benefits from this - 5 percent comes to the country. The rest goes offshore, and we carry 100 percent of the risk. The maths doesn't add up. I'm no mathematician but I know that doesn't add up,” said Ani Pahuru-Huriwai of the Ahi Ka Action Group.
It is an economically deprived area where jobs are hard to come by, but despite the promise of riches form exploration of the Raukumara Basin, the general consensus along the coastline is that there is just far too much risk for far too little reward.
Unemployment in the Opotiki district is around 10 percent, the median income just over $17,000.
But even the prospect of job creation from any future oil industry hasn't changed opinions.
Opotiki district councillor Barry Howe says priorities are different on the East Coast.
“They're not worried about being rich or making mega-bucks, they're happy as long as they've got their kaimoana and their food source there,” he said.
The rugged beaches of the region are undeveloped, untouched. And all along the coast are people who rely on them.
“Here it's two-thirds are opposed, up the coast it’s 99 percent opposed, and if anywhere in the country needs jobs and economic prosperity its the coast, but they're saying the cost is too high and they're not prepared to wear it,” said Manu Caddie, Gisborne district councillor.
Opposition to off shore oil prospecting started with a hiss and a roar in June last year.
But perversely it was the grounding of the Rena off Tauranga that may have given this protest movement its biggest surge in popularity.
Since then, community meetings have drawn in more and more locals, concerned by what is happening off their coastline.
Ani Pahuru-Huriwai says that since the Rena disaster, any who previously supported the drilling have changed their minds.
“If there's any positives out of this, it is the fact that those in favour of deep sea drilling up where I am are now no longer and they're firmly against it.”
Yes, the oil was from a ship and not from a well, but it was an ugly black tide on white sandy beaches - massively damaging images for the pro-exploration lobby.
“Oil in the water is oil in the water, no matter where it comes from,” says Manu Caddie.
And perceptions of a slow, oil clean-up response only gave the protesters more ammunition.
“Whether or not in the event of a spill or in event of an accident our country is prepared, our government is prepared enough to manage a spill or an accident because a spill like we've seen at Rena, would destroy us, destroy our iwi,” says Robert Ruha of Te Whanau a Apanui.
Last year, an explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico showed what can happen when risk becomes reality.
“The world knows what happened there. And they know that the biggest economy in the world couldn't deal with it and they couldn't clean it up. I don't see how New Zealand’s going to be capable of doing the same,” Dominico Zapata said.
That up swell of opinion in the many small, sparsely populated East Coast towns has given campaigning candidates fresh fodder in the election lead up.
“If they strike it rich there might be dozens of wells there. What the Deepwater Horizon shows and what the Rena shows is that accidents are real, it only takes one well to blow out for New Zealand to face a ginormous environmental catastrophe,” said Green MP Gareth Hughes, who grew up on the coast.
Throughout the East Cape and Bay of Plenty, from the old couple fishing for kahawai off the coast of Gisborne to the surfers of Mt Maunganui, there is a growing bond of opposition to oil drilling.
“When you realise that they're going to be drilling in waters deeper than the gulf, and that we don't have the capabilities to deal with a spill, then the public starts to wake up and go ‘oh hang on something’s not right here’,” Dominico Zapata said.
“Our concern is for the environment, our concern is for our way of life, our concern is we are only a small iwi of 13,000 descendants, and we have this huge taniwha sitting above us and it's almost like we're a threatened species,” said Robert Ruha.
Watch the video for the full report
Campbell Live's series will continue tomorrow night with the pro-drilling position.