On The Marae

Our first trip out this morning was to Te Ohako marae. We arrived and formed up into two groups – women enter the marae first, followed by the men. We took our seats in the designated areas and were welcomed onto the marae with formal speeches, and then singing, and finally a hongi. Then we listened to Stan Pardoe, a prominent figure and historian in the Turanganui-a-Kiwa community, as he told us about the history of the area and what it was like growing up in the mid-century for Māori in and around Tairāwhiti. We also heard from some of the others, including a bunch of young people who had recently completed a course being run by the marae to train them for farm work, and were going on to work on nearby agriculture in various roles. Afterwards we finished the visit with the obligatory morning tea.

The next part of the morning was a visit to the Toko Toru Tapu church in Manutuke. This is one of the oldest churches in New Zealand, originally established by William Williams (original names weren’t a big thing in the 19^th century) and is in fact the fourth church to be built near this site – the others having been lost to storm, fire and disrepair. The fourth time, in 1913, they decided to build in something other than wood – they used bricks and mortar instead. The latest church was again in disrepair when the local community decided something must be done, and it has since been repaired, restored, and earthquake-strengthened (using fibreglass rods from Pultron, natch, for an invisible finish). The church is unusual as it contains Māori carvings throughout. Williams originally objected to using Māori symbolism in the church because, well, they can sometimes be a bit rude for churchy folk, so the carver, Rahuruhi Rukupō, changed the style but subtly worked in cryptic meanings to the carvings which went way over the head of the local missionaries. All this was explained by the architect who had overseen the restoration, James Blackburne, who had also been on the marae with us.

At midday we boarded the bus again for a visit to Eastwoodhill Arboretum, a project started in the 1950s by William Douglas Cook. In the 1950s he was mightily concerned about global nuclear war, and envisioned Eastwoodhill as a place to preserve Northern hemisphere species which could be destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. Since then the focus of the arboretum has changed, and moved away from the rather haphazard plantings to establish a 150 year plan to ensure the survival of both native and exotic species.

We had lunch at the café, and were very much taken with the rice salad, so I asked for the recipe. I haven’t worked out quantities yet, but it contains:

Brown rice
Curry powder
Cider vinegar
Brown sugar
Poppy seeds
Peanuts
Currants
Bean shoots
Green pepper

So I’m going to work on that and see if I can replicate it.

After lunch we took a guided tour with Dan Taylor, one of the curators, who explained about the vision of the arboretum and some of the species that were in it. We took in the existing Tree Cathedral as well as viewing the site of the new one, planted five years ago, which has the same dimensions as Westminster cathedral.

The existing tree cathedral...

...and the new one

But we’re not done yet! The final visit of the day was to the house of Dame Bronwen and Peter Holdsworth, founders of Pultron amongst other things, for afternoon tea (pink bubbles) and cake, in their garden.

Whew! Quite a busy day! We got back to the hotel with little time for a turn-around to get back out for dinner at one of Gisborne’s eateries…but none of us were particularly hungry, so settled for a mix of starters and one main course (me!) – snapper, which was overcooked and disappointing. Ah well, can’t win them all. And so to bed.