One Marae, Many Carvings

During my travels around New Zealand last year (while researching the 6th edition of the travel guide Frommers New Zealand), I must have visited at least 250 marae. One that left a lasting impression on me, for its beautiful carvings, was Papawai Marae in Greytown, in the Wairarapa, north of Wellington. I've written about the history of the marae more fully previously (click on Papawai Marae in the label line below); and of the my personal connection to it. It must have been at least thirty years since I had last visited the marae and much has been done to restore it to its former glory. I spent many minutes there, leaning over the fence in the warm morning sun, reminiscing and thinking about the past, the history, the present. A lovely interlude on my day trip from Napier to Wellington.