Two centuries ago, the great leader Te Peehi Tūroa of upper Whanganui hapū Te Pautokotoko led 300 of his warriors in a war party alongside Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II of Ngāti Tūwharetoa.
The party pushed through to the East Coast, returning home to their rohe in the central North Island as victors.
It was far from the last time Te Peehi and Mananui would work together in conflict in the coming decades.
Jumping to the current day, the descendants of Te Peehi and Mananui are working together once again with judicial reviews of the Crown’s actions in the wake of the failure of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts.
Judicial review applications from Te Pautokotoko and Ngāti Tūwharetoa are being heard in a five-day hearing at the Wellington High Court this week.
Formerly allied in battle, now in the courtroom.
Hayden Tūroa, a direct descendant of Te Peehi Tūroa, says the settings aren’t all that different.
“Tūwharetoa’s ariki, of the Te Heuheu family, and the Tūroa family have held an alliance for at least the last 250, if not 300 years in this manner.
“We’ve always worked together to resolve these kinds of conflict; that even predates the Tuku.”
The Tuku was an agreement between Ngāti Tūwharetoa paramount chief Horonuku Te Heuheu Tūkino IV and the Crown, seeking protection of the sacred mountain peaks through the formation of one of the world’s earliest national parks.
“It’s so fascinating that our ancestors were thinking of ways to protect the tapu of our mountains. I think that’s still what we’re trying to do, and our two families continue to be on that same pathway together. We’re very aligned.”
However, their alignment with the Crown over the tuku has faltered.
In 2025, the late ariki Sir Tumu Te Heuheu, the paramount chief of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, penned a letter to senior government ministers saying the tuku had not been fulfilled.
He said interactions with ministers and the Department of Conservation throughout the Ruapehu Alpine Lifts sale and concession process suggested the Government didn’t intend to honour the tuku of 1886, but rather “to alienate Ngāti Tūwharetoa and neglect opportunities for partnership and meaningful collaboration”.
“Ngāti Tūwharetoa it seems has been a mere afterthought.”
Te Heuheu told the ministers he wished to discuss the retreat of the Government from the maunga.
Hayden Tūroa says his family have been involved in the Ruapehu ski field process since before the watershed meeting of June 2023 that tipped Ruapehu Alpine Lifts into liquidation.
The Department of Conservation issued a 10-year concession to Pure Tūroa Ltd in 2024. Then this year, the department issued another 10-year concession to Whakapapa Holdings Ltd
Concessions to operate the Whakapapa and Tūroa ski fields were issued without cultural assessment reports, and Māori groups like Pautokotoko and Tūwharetoa feel they weren’t listened to.
The point of Pautokotoko’s judicial review isn’t to end skiing on Rupaehu or shut down Whakapapa Holdings or Pure Tūroa, Hayden Tūroa says.
Rather he wants confirmation that the Crown acted illegally in their decision-making and that they will work meaningfully with Māori in future conservation processes.
Te Pautokotoko is seeking a declaration that the Department of Conservation failed to comply with section 4 of the Conservation Act when issuing the Pure Tūroa concession, and that any future dealings with this concession must give effect to section 4.
Section 4 requires anyone working under the act to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi when interpreting or administering anything under the Conservation Act.
The legal action argues the Crown treated the law as imposing only a nominal duty to consult mana whenua – which did not have any, or any significant, bearing on its ultimate decisions about granting the concessions.
It is also seeking an order quashing or setting aside variations to the Pure Tūroa concession, sending the applications back to the Department of Conservation to remake decisions.
The judicial reviews were lodged too late to challenge the initial Pure Tūroa concession, but Pautokotoko is seeking a declaration that the process to award the second concession was unlawful and of no effect, as well as an order quashing or setting aside the second concession and sending the application back to the Department of Conservation to remake the decision.
None of this ends skiing on the mountain, but seeks reconsideration of the terms on which it can be approved.
Timeframes to approve these concessions were rushed in to get the ski fields out of the hands of liquidators and receivers and operational in time for winter, meaning the processes ran for a few months.
Ruapehu Alpine Lift’s concession took more than a year.
The judicial review is scheduled to take place from June 15 through to June 19 in the Wellington High Court.
