Every year on White Ribbon Day, November 25, a group of Tauranga locals climb Mauao to commemorate British backpacker Monica Cantwell.

This year they're inviting anyone who would like to join them to attend the annual informal memorial service near the summit.

Monica was just one week into a trip to New Zealand when, whilst walking the northern summit track on Mauao on November 20, 1989, she was raped and strangled. Her body was found three days later after friends reported her missing.

The man sentenced to life in prison for her murder, Charles John Coulam, now 52, was arrested a month later.

On White Ribbon Day every November 25, Buddy Mikaere, who organises a service on Mauao to remember Monica Buddy and others gather around a monument near the summit.

'We have a service up there every year, and then gather together afterwards and have a coffee at the Deck Chair Café which is also a fundraiser for Tauranga Women's Refuge,” says Buddy.

Monica Cantwell's memorial plaque on Mauao. Photo: Supplied.

'This year White Ribbon Day falls on Friday, November 25. The service starts at 7.30am and this year's speaker is Archbishop Sir David Moxon KNZM. We will also pause to remember Monica Cantwell, a young English manuhiri who should have been safe on our maunga but lost her life in tragic circumstances. Tauranga Women's Refuge will lay a wreath.”

In 2021, Tamati Tata, Commissioner Anne Tolley, Pastor Leanne Rolleston, Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Hazel Hape, and Peri Kohu along with about 20 others also attended the dawn service.

'For the first time last year, we also had a White Ribbon Day dinner and auction at the Tauranga Club. We'll do that again this year. We raised something like $10,000 last year for Women's Refuge,” says Buddy.

These days with hundreds of thousands of people traversing Mauao, the possibility of anyone being alone on the dormant volcano for more than a minute is rare.

Tauranga City Council report that so far this year Te Tihi o Mauao – the summit of Mauao - has had more than 318,811 visitors, with 297,147 people going around Te Ara Tutanga – the base track.

Last year there were 576,093 visitors to the summit and 499,093 who ventured around the base track of Mauao.

'Through the development of the Mauao Historic Reserve Management Plan in 2018, there was careful consideration around the use of the National Guidelines for Crime Prevention through Environmental design (CPTED) and how this would be used to generate behavioural effects reducing the incidence and fear of crime,” says Ngā Poutiriao ō Mauao chairman, Dean Flavell.

'For example, plant species that help maintain open sightlines and the positioning of wayfinding signage that encourages higher public usage.”

Dean says that with higher numbers of visitors using Mauao for recreation, fitness or simply relaxing – the presence of more people in the area helps encourage positive behaviour.

'One of the values of the Mauao Trust in association with Mauao is ‘Encouraging behaviour and activities that are mana enhancing towards others including generosity, care, respect and reciprocity',” says Dean.

The group that commemorated Monica Cantwell on Mauao in 2021. Photo: Supplied.

This value in Te Reo: 'Kia whakatītinatia ngā whanonga, ngā mahi hei hāpai I te mana o ētahi atu, a arā te Atawhai, te Aronui, te tākoha atu te tākoha mai”

Coulam, who was convicted of murder and assault to commit sexual violation in December 1989 has since been before the parole board a number of times, after becoming eligible for parole in 1999.

He has been diagnosed as having schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism.

Coulam met with the New Zealand Parole Board at the end of July, where it was decided he would be released on August 29, with special conditions.

'I'm very disappointed,” says Buddy. 'He came up for review last year and got turned down because he was found to be in possession of porno material.

'So, clearly he hasn't changed. It's one of those cases where life imprisonment should mean life.

'I'm no expert in this field, but clearly if he's got that kind of material, he's not learned anything from being in there and from all the treatment he's had. He's still the same monster he was 33 years ago.”

The board says all the special conditions are currently in place for life, and will be reviewed when he appears before the board again for a special monitoring hearing in December.

The morning service to mark White Ribbon Day at the Monica Cantwell memorial on the summit of Mauao is at 7.30am on November 25 followed by coffee at Deck Chair Café.