Final Day at Waka Will Be The Biggest Yet

The ‘Wall of Honour’ at Waka Maori is filling up as former All Blacks and Maori All Blacks that come in sign the wall that is part of Maori Rugby Exhibition.

Former Maori All Black coach Matt Te Pou says a great feature of Waka Maori has been the way the guys have responded and turned up at the waka to sign autographs and have pictures taken.

“We have our core group who are always there and then we have others coming through all of the time. Buck Shelford has been in a quite a few times. It was great to see Michael Jones in yesterday and Kees Meeuws was a great crowd pleaser. Hika Reid has been here a lot of the time and has had a ball.”

Te Pou says people come in and look over the wall and see names like Brian Lochore, Ian Jones, Terry Wright, Melodie Robinson, Governor General Sir Jerry Mataparae, Prime Minister John Key, Jim Coe, Wayne Ormond, Jim Love, Rua Tipoki, Bull Allen, Grizz Wyllie, Frano Botica, Piri Weepu, Terry Wright, Murray Pierce, Kieran Read, Glen Osborne, Aaron Pene and Waka Nathan.

“We have a few of the players from the other World Cup teams as well which is nice to have.

He say the Maori Rugby Exhibition is usually one of the busiest parts of the waka.

“We encourage all the guys we see to come in and say hello to the people who are out enjoying themselves.”

The 3D theatre has been constantly busy and feedback has been fantastic particularly from the visitors from offshore about the story of creation told from a Maori perspective.

Project director Ren Blair says numbers are now over 300,000 visits with the final day today expected to be huge. We have clickers at the entrances so while we can’t tell who has been back multiple times we can be sure the numbers moving through are reasonably accurate.

“One woman yesterday said she had been back in three times with her kids to get more All Black and Maori All Black autographs.

"I have been particularly proud of our team of hosts who have created a welcoming feel for Waka Maori."

At Waka Maori from midday today is a guitar jam and performance with Billy TK jnr, Hawaiian knife and fire dancers at 2pm, Dee Letoa, Rosita Vai and the Samoan Church Choir at 4pm, then DJ Poroufessor at 5pm, plus more impromptu entertainment leading up to the rugby broadcast.

Waka Maori also includes the artisans village – where there’s carving and weaving, ta moko (tattoo) and valuable contemporary Maori arts for purchase.

Waka Maori is part of the REAL NZ festival.

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