My weekend involved another pilgrimage.
While others headed north to Eden Park, a small group of our whanau went in another direction, far from the madding crowd of a cricket match, to a beautiful Marae named Maungarongo, at the base of Mount Ruapehu in the carrot capital of Ohakune.
We went as a convoy to take back what Maori call the Kawemate (the spiritual essence) of our grandson, who had passed away just before Christmas.
The pilgrimage was about returning his kawemate to the ancestral homelands of his father and his father's people of Ngati Rangi.
What happened over the weekend were a series of revelations that words in this column could never cover or do justice to but I will endeavour to paint a picture.
Part of the healing process was to hikoi up to the hem of Mount Ruapehu - a solid hour plus walk, to a sacred little lake known as Rotokura or the lake of ancient knowledge.
Sounds like a scene straight out of a Hollywood mystery movie huh and it was, the only difference being that this was the real deal and not Disneyland.
There we walked through a canopy of native bush under a korowai or a cloak of karakia (prayer).
Each one of the 40-strong party offered up thoughts, messages and prayers with waiata, until eventually we arrived at a pocket of paradise like no other I have ever been to before, and without sounding like a sweet-as kumara, I have like the song says "been everywhere man".
It was what I would have called in my hippy days far out and trippy and leading us along this magical mystery tour was a master in ancient karakia and storytelling, with a cool last name - Che Wilson, a gifted orator, young statesman and future leader of Maori in this country.
On arrival, we immersed ourselves in water that felt more like a cooling cloth of velvet and the walk back to our cars was in a shroud of silence that left me in no doubt our little mokopuna had heard our prayers.
If the power of prayer was prominent at Eden Park for a few hours and their pleas were answered by the cricket gods then I am in no doubt it was ever present everywhere at Maungarongo Marae as it was up on Lake Rotokura and its healing waters from the maunga (mountain) of Ruapehu above.
The mystery of karakia has always been a bob each way with most or many including Christians, but when you see it applied as I did over the weekend to offer a solace of healing for those who have just lost a loved one, you begin to understand why coming together as a korowai of caring whanau is something that should be done at every opportunity.
Karakia just may be the panacea for this problem world we live in today.
Even if you don't believe, the collective consciousness of good people sending out a positive message can and does work.
Just ask those gathered at Eden Park or on Maungarongo Marae. When people pray there is an aura of honesty that is rare in today's fast 'n' furious, cut 'n' paste, instant everything world.
When people pray it gives someone - or something out there in the universe and above the long white cloud - time to listen.
It gave us precious time to take our thoughts across to the other side of the veil, to a little man who left a huge hole in our hearts that only love can fill.
Ko Tahi Aroha - Moemoea moko.
-broblack@xtra.co.nz
Tommy Wilson is a best-selling author and local writer.
