Overhead there are four lanes of State Highway 2 traffic thundering by at 50 km/hr.

But just below, in a quite a different world, in the dimness of a pedestrian subway that just about never was, the artists are oblivious.

They’re transforming the walls of the Bayfair motorway tunnel into a 30 or 40 metre storybook. A mural.

“The theme is the species of animals that once inhabited the area,” says Stuart McDonald – ‘leading hand’ of a team from the family-owned and run Ahipoutu Collective, which has been commissioned by the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi to paint the tunnel.

“Animals that were special to our people, and some that are still special.”

Like the Tītī, the muttonbird, or sooty shearwater, that adorns the Matapihi entranceway to the tunnel.

Muttonbirds at Bayfair? Really?

“Yup, there used to be a lot of muttonbirds round here, but now the only place you might find a few is Karewa Island,” says Stuart. Karewa Island is a small predator-free wildlife sanctuary 6km off Matakana Island.

Learnings

The storybook will also teach us Matapihi was renowned for its rich water resources. “Where we’re standing was a river that flowed out to the sea.” So here’s stuff to be taught and learned about Matapihi and its people.

There’s a bluetooth speaker booming out rap beats in the tunnel. But it’s the meditative state that comes with mural painting that’s medicine for this artist. “I lost a son to cancer seven years ago, but the artwork puts me in a state of calm,” says Stuart.

He’s in that zone right now. “Happy to chat but can I carry on painting?” And he does.

Art and artists 

Inside the tunnel Picasso is at work on the wall.

Yes Picasso!

Not the influential Spanish 20th Century co-founder of the Cubist movement but Picasso the tattooist, carver and painter out of Tokoroa.

“Dad loves art and artists,” says Picasso Amouta.

Hence the name.

He has a sibling called Dante after the English Pre-Raphaelite artist and another called Degas after the French Impressionist.

Picasso’s passion

But our Picasso is an accomplished artist in his own right.

“Never got into tagging or graffiti – was no good at it.

This is my passion.”

He’s four years into his ‘apprenticeship’ with Stuart.

Stuart ‘I’m the uncle’ McDonald – he leads the team painting its story on the Bayfair subway, and carving and tattooing its mark on the cityscape. Photo John Borren.

And also just starting out on his tā moko journey.

“I try to put the young ones into the space where they feel they might want to do it too,” says the boss, the teacher and artist.

“I started my moko 17 years ago.

"I still have living and learning to do. So no! Not finished yet. Still some to go.”

His grandmother was the first in the family in a long time, to get the markings, the moko kauae or chin tattoo.

“When I asked her if I could get one, she said as long as I smiled.”

Right on cue, the finely-tattooed face explodes with a trademark grin and he heaves with laughter.

Grandmother would approve.

Stuart, along with the four street artists, two full-time carvers and five tattoo artists in the collective are quietly but very visibly transforming the landscape of Bayfair, Baypark and Matapihi – one mural at a time, one tā moko at a time, one pou whenua or carved land post at a time.

“Ahipoutu is the name of our collective and also the name of our whenua, our papakainga just up the road from here.

We’re all from Matapihi, all born and raised around here.

We are proud of who we are and want to engage.”

People listening 

And they’re making a bold visual statement – like the three imposing pou whenua installed on the Baypark roundabout, like the murals on the noise wall along the rail corridor at Bayfair.

And there are more pou whenua planned – for the Bayfair roundabout right above our heads.

“You will see our work going up especially around road developments – part of an agreement between Waka Kotahi and tangata whenua.

"We are given the opportunity to tell our story through our art.”

And people are listening to that story.

“We see some of the locals two or three times a day going back and forth through the tunnel.

"They stop, they chat and they really like it. It’s cool.”