Pool move to return sacred burial site to Māori

Monday, 4 March 2024

The removal of Thames Centennial Pool from its current site of 50 years will cost $3 million with the land eventually returned to mana whenua.

With age and ailing maintenance requirements, Thames Centennial Pool facility which sits on top of a sacred urupā is set to be returned in 2027 as the district looks to establish a replacement facility elsewhere.

It’s a decision that has been years in the making for local mana whenua, Ngāti Maru.

Approximately $3 million has been allocated in the Long Term Plan to remove the old pool and reinstate the land to a plain recreational site.

The town’s Centennial Pool has sat on site since 1975 and a skate park was added to Taipari Park years later, which has already been removed.

Two options have come out on top for a replacement facility to be shifted elswhere- a $40 million localized pool deemed the “lowest capital cost option” or a $70 million regional aquatic centre to serve the surrounding district. The third option is no new site.

A business case into the two alternative projects was set to be completed by July 2024 while public consultation is ikely in April.

The localised pool facility would operate out of Thames High School site and be almost double the water volume of the current Centennial Pool with a 7-lane 25-metre lap pool, a heated programme pool, a spa pool and a splash pad for toddlers, children and families.

Operating costs would range from $967k in year 1 to $1.14m in year 10.

Meanwhile the larger sub-regional option would almost triple the water-space of Centennial Pool equipped with an 8-lane 25-metre pool, a terraced 165 person seating area, a spa pool, a hydro-slide option and a cafe.

It would be located along SH26, Kōpu south with operating costs ranging from $1.35m in year 1 to $1.53m in year 10.

Five years ago, Thames Coromandel District Council made a commitment to return the sacred burial ground the old park sat on in stages over the coming years.

“The process was triggered by ongoing discussions between the leadership of Ngāti Maru and Council over several years. Ngati Maru families are the original owners of the land,” Mayor Len Salt said.

“Discussions over several years lead to this. Reserve management plans back as far as 2006 signal that the long-term view was the removal of public facilities to other appropriate venues.”

The Thames and Thames Coast Reserves Management Plan (December 2019), which included a public submission process, formally signals the intention to return of the land to Ngāti Maru.

The skate park facilities are being removed from Taipari Park starting from 20 March 2023.

Members of Ngāti Maru Rūnanga had always desired that one day the concrete foundations above the koiwi (bones) of their ancestors would be removed.

The pre-European urupā once sat adjacent to a traditional pā site.

The return of the site had been “years in the making” and it was a relief to have it come to fruition,Ngāti Maru Rūnanga chairperson Wati Ngamane said during an initial story in 2023.

At the time the pool was being constructed, the words of a karakia (blessing) were spoken to their dead loved ones, Ngamane said.

“It’s something that has been a long-term project to get the land back and to get the recreational facilities removed from there… Our tupuna are buried in there,” he said.

“It was always marked as an urupā, but at that time the pool was built there was very little consideration given to things like native burial grounds.”