As the new Rainbow Warrior anchored off Whangaparaoa Bay, near the East Cape yesterday, Te Whanau a Apanui greeted the Greenpeace crew with open arms.

People celebrating the fight to keep oil drilling out of the Raukumara Basin protested on Oruaiti Beach near where the movie ‘Boy' was filmed.

It is the first time both groups have met to celebrate oil giant Petrobras abandoning their oil drilling plans in the Raukumara Basin.

Te Whanau a Apanui were partners in the protest flotilla that in April 2011opposed deep sea oil rigging off the East Cape.

'Initially we felt lonely in the face of this David and Goliath battle and we were heartened when Greenpeace said they would stand by our side,” says Te Runanga o te Whanau chairperson Adelaide Waititi.

'Taking on the third largest oil company in the world is not something to do lightly. But it just goes to show that united we can win. It has been our recipe for success.”

The Rainbow Warrior anchored off Whangaparaoa Bay yesterday.

Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid says together with Te Whanau a Apanui, what the groups have achieved shows it's possible to protect coastlines and waters from deep sea oil drilling.

'It's an encouraging example to other communities who are under threat of deep sea oil drilling off their coasts.

'We do not need to do this to be a prosperous nation, we have choices. Having the new Rainbow Warrior here to celebrate this win is very fitting as she is an example of choosing to do our campaigning in a smarter, cleaner way.”

Protests were sparked after the Government signed an agreement for deep sea oil surveying in 2010 without consent from Te Whanau a Apanui.

The protests lasted two years and included:

- A 42-day flotilla involving seven protest vessels that interrupted Petrobras' oil survey ship.

- The arrest of Te Whanau a Apanui fisherman Elvis Teddy after the oil ship was told by tribal leader Rikirangi Gage, ‘We won't be moving. We'll be doing some fishing.'

- Anti-oil drilling messages in windows, on gates, shed, letterboxes along 320 km of road between Opotiki and Gisborne.

- The confirmation that the stance was right when oil washed up on across the Bay of Plenty out past East Cape.

In December the Government issued three new permits for deep sea oil exploration in the Pegasus Basin (off Wairarapa, Wellington and Kaikoura) and the Great South Basin (off Dunedin.)