A Maori organisation that had to fight for the return of ancestral land on the Kapiti Coast describes the experience as painful, arduous and frustrating.
Ngahina Trust says it is overjoyed the whenua in Paraparaumu is once again in the hands of its people, after buying 5.11 hectares back from the district council for $2.4 million.
Maori freehold farming land was originally taken under the Public Works Act, but not all of it was developed and it became surplus to council needs.
Trust chair Kura Taylor says it was a long journey to reclaim the land and the trust had to go to the High Court, who directed the Kapiti Coast District Council to return the whenua.
Ms Taylor says it seems wrong that it has to buy back land it once owned, but that is the way the system works.