The night of the fire at Waiohiki Marae in March 2002. Photo / NZME
About 200 people, mainly from Napier hapu Ngati Paarau, are expected at the opening of a new wharenui at Waiohiki Marae near Taradale on Friday.
It's been an almost 20-year-dream and a decade-long planning and building process for a whare replacing the former whare Te Huinga, which was destroyed by
fire in March 2002.
Marae trust chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby said the new building of steel and concrete has been designed to avoid any similar catastrophe but also for the protection of four historic pou tokomanawa, which were returned recently from Hawke's Bay museum the MTG.
The pou commemorate four rangatira killed in the 1824 Battle of Te Pakake, and were features of Waiohiki wharenui Hau Te Ananui, which was destroyed by fire about 1918, about the time of the great influenza epidemic.
The new whare, designed initially by late father-and-son architects Paris and Nick Magdalinos, will be named Hau Te Ananui, and is effectively stage one of a redevelopment that will in the future include new whare kai dining facilities.
