Te Puke Christmas parade: Tuku Hunt shines alongside Santa after tough year

Eight-year-old Tuku Hunt loved sitting next to Santa at the Seeka Te Puke Christmas Float Parade

If there was any doubt about Saturday’s Seeka Te Puke Christmas parade going ahead, it was dispelled with the first skirl of the pipes.

The rain was forgotten, the smiles were radiant and the atmosphere was joyful.

Schools, businesses and community groups all put in a huge amount of effort to decorate floats, cars, tractors and other vehicles for the parade led by a combined pipe and drum band made up of players from Te Puke, Whakatāne, Kawerau, Auckland and Bay of Plenty bands.

At the other end of the parade, Santa, for once, had to play second fiddle to his “little helper”, Tuku Hunt.

Each year, organisers EPIC Te Puke ask for suggestions for deserving children to sit alongside Santa at the parade.

Eight-year-old Tuku, from Te Ranga School, was nominated by her teacher Janine Paget.

Tuku’s older sister Jayzahn had Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare type of cancer, and died in July.

Tuku’s aunt Amiria Hunt says it was tough on everyone in the family, especially Tuku.

“But she’s so resilient and through it all, even though we were all going through that and she missed quite a lot of time off school, it didn’t stop her from achieving at school.”

The parade was led by a combined pipe and drum band.

Janine asked the family if putting Tuku’s name forward would be okay.

“We thought that was amazing. We thought what a cool opportunity it would be for her to experience that.”

When Janine told the family Tuku had been selected they, and when she found out, Tuku, were all excited.

Another aunt, Mareikura Winiata, who walked alongside the float, says Tuku loved being in the parade and it made her feel special.

“Her year’s been pretty tough and she’s not had a lot of attention over the last couple of years with her sister going through treatment, so it was pretty awesome and she had heaps of fun.”

Tuku told Mareikura she had the best view

“At one point she whispered to me ‘auntie, I’m not getting off this'.”

Amiria couldn’t be at the parade, but Tuku called her as soon as it finished.

“She was just super excited.

“She talked to me about going around and everyone she saw and how excited she was to see them and they were shocked and surprised to see her up there.”