Spectacular Opening Ceremony – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

World Masters Games gets underway

By Tony Farmer

The build up to the ceremony to be held in Eden Park began late afternoon following an afternoon spent with many other sportspeople registering for their events in The Cloud on Auckland’s waterfront.

I even had a game of table tennis there hoping that one of my heroes. Sir Peter Snell, would show up – but unfortunately he didn’t, at least not when I was there!

The Opening Ceremony was a spectacle my wife and I will never forget. The use of light and sound was amazing and the laser and light show was simply the biggest ever to be seen in New Zealand.

Great performances

The Maori performing Arts Group Te Waka Hurai, performed with a band which contained some of New Zealand’s finest musicians. Their tunes contained familiar songs for locals, but also songs for overseas participants. What a privilege also to see The Modern Maori Quartet and other brilliant performers.

We were both mesmerised by the spectacular movement and dancing which took place in the centre of the arena and choirs from the stage and one favourite for us was the singing of Poi E made famous by Dalvanius Prime and The Patea Maori Club.

My wife Maureen, had been fortunate enough to see the documentary of Poi E followed by a short Q & A, and an added bonus of an ‘off the cuff’ performance of the song from some members of the Patea Club which will stay in her mind forever.

Part of the action

Another highlight was discovering that the watch-like wrist bands that had been taped to the backs of seats flashed and illuminated at different times of the night, filling Eden Park with 28,000 different lights and creating an amazing spectacle.

All participants were seated with their individual sporting colleagues and then, as thirty feet high symbols depicting each individual sport tracked across high and above the stadium, took their turn parade round the track.

We listened to speeches by the Mayor of Auckland and the Prime Minister among others, to open up the Games, but the real V.I.Ps on the night were the performers and the individual participants about to embark on a fantastic week of Sport.

New Zealand certainly did itself proud on the night.

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.