Architecture - Traditional and Contemporary.

There's something wonderfully unexpected about coming upon a Marae in the middle of highrise architecture.

That's what I thought when I spotted Auckland University's Nga Wai o Horotia Marae, dwarfed by the towering highrise on Symonds Street in Auckland a few weeks ago. Wonderful iron gates of a contemporary design too - I wonder who designed those?

As I travel New Zealand I'm so used to finding marae tucked away down little side roads, often well off the beaten track, that I did a double-take when I first glimpsed this one and wondered if I might be imaging it.