Kihi Ngatai, the great-grandson of the Ngai Te Rangi tribal chief who defeated British forces at the Battle of Gate Pa in 1864, said the return of the paddle was important and would join other taonga of Hori Ngatai held by Ngati Kuku hapu.
Unravelling the mystery behind the paddle, and other paddles that adorned a wall of Mr Goodman's London home, happened while he was writing a biography on a relative killed in World War I.
Research led him to Radley Public School which helpfully supplied a list of other members of the Woodward family who attended Radley, including Alfred Woodward.
Everything fell into place when Mr Goodman saw that Woodward's short life included a stint in Tauranga from 1866-67 during his five years service in Australia and New Zealand.
He realised the paddles must have belonged to his great-great-uncle who died from typhoid fever on his passage home to England, two weeks after his 24th birthday.
Only the paddles stowed in the ship's hold survived to reach England, with all his personal possessions and papers in the cabin burned because of the fever.
Mr Goodman's fascination with the paddles began many years before he inherited them from his grandmother, when he discovered them in the attic of his grandparent's rambling home.
It's means a lot more to them than me, it is an important taonga [treasure].
He now knows that his great-great-uncle was deeply religious and probably had a lot in common with Hori Ngatai who, by the time the young English soldier arrived in Tauranga, had pledged that Ngai Te Rangi would never return to warfare.
Mr Goodman recognised that the paddle with "Ngatai" carved on it was probably Maori from his two years spent working on New Zealand farms in the 1980s. Once the paddle's link with Woodward was established, he sent a photo of the artefact to a cousin in the Waikato who then forwarded it to Ruth Woodward of Tauranga.
She realised the significance of the word ''Ngatai'' and contacted Kihi who confirmed the paddle must have belonged to Hori.
The clincher was when an internet search revealed an 1866 article published in the Tauranga Argus of an expedition to protect a surveyor from marauding Hauhau warriors. Lieutenant Woodward and Hori Ngatai were both named in the article.
Mr Goodman contacted the British High Commission in Wellington so that the handing over could be used to strengthen the relationship between Britain and New Zealand, and Maori and Pakeha.
Key messages of today's repatriation ceremony would be reconciliation, commemoration and a celebration of the Woodward's wider family connections with New Zealand.
Today's ceremonies would see Mr Goodman carry the hoe (paddle) onto the marae, accept the challenge and then lay it on a traditional mat. Tangata whenua would say a prayer over the hoe followed by speeches, with British High Commissioner Jonathan Sinclair and Mr Goodman speaking after their hosts.
His other paddles have been identified as Melanesian, most likely gifted to Woodward by his Auckland-based relative and missionary, Bishop Patteson.
