Gumboot-clad Taika Waititi cooks Christmas hangi in backyard of his $10m Point Chevalier mansion

• Taika Waititi has dug and built a hangi in the backyard of his Auckland mansion.
• In a video on Instagram the director can be seek tending to a firepit while wearing a Russell Crowe T-shirt and gumboots.
• Waititi and wife Rita Ora purchased the Point Chevalier home in 2023 for $10.5 million.

Christmas has got off to a roaring start for Taika Waititi and pop star wife Rita Ora.

A video posted on social media shows the Academy Award-winning film-maker has taken catering into his own hand this year, building a roaring hangi in the backyard of his Point Chevalier mansion.

This morning Vas J Morgan, an English television personality and close friend of Ora, posted a video to his Instagram account that showed Waititi, shovel in hand, standing next to a dug-out pit and a wood pallet alight on a pile of stones.

The Hunt for the Wilderpeople director — wearing Red Band gumboots, a straw hat, red Wayfarer sunglasses and a T-shirt with a collage of Russell Crowe on it — appeared to be explaining the process of building a hangi to his guests. His words were inaudible as the video was soundtracked by the Ed Sheeran song I See Fire.

Taika Waititi is spending Christmas Day 2024 building a hangi in the backyard of his Point Chevalier mansion. Photo / @vasjmorgan on Instagram

Morgan captioned the clip: “@taikawaititi and his Hangi!! a traditional New Zealand Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven.”

Ora can be glimpsed in the background, keeping her distance from the blaze and her shovel-wielding husband.

Last night the Hot Right Now singer, who earlier in the day shared a photo taken while on a walk in Point Chevalier, posted a video sharing her anticipation for the day.

“One more sleep till Christmas, I’m so excited but I ate too much,” she said to the camera. “It wasn’t a good idea going into the sauna after I’d eaten, I feel sick.”

Ora presumably will have time to regain her appetite before Waititi lifts his hangi. Morgan’s clip was posted just after midday New Zealand time and it appeared no food had yet been dropped into the hole. The average hangi burns for at least three hours.

Ora and Waititi purchased the waterfront home in Point Chevalier in July of 2023 for an understood price of $10.5 million, a price record for the Auckland suburb.

The three-storey home sits atop a cliff on a 620sq m section, with views across Waitematā to Te Atatū Peninsula and Hobsonville Point. It was built in the 1990s and underwent renovations a few years ago, with a pool, bathrooms and new kitchen added to the property. Even so, it appears that nothing beats the allure of cooking outdoors.

Ora and Waititi are spending Christmas in Aotearoa, but Ora is expected to shortly depart the country. On December 31 she is scheduled to join Ryan Seacrest in New York City’s Times Square to co-host the ABC’s New Year’s Eve broadcast.