"I can't imagine anyone ever doing that at the Last Post, or on Anzac Day," Mr King said. "That's a comparison to me, that's how much it means to me to do a powhiri for my people, and for my land."
As Kaiwero - a role he likened to a sentinel - he had to uphold the prestige of the occasion, and importantly protect the sacred thread of Mauri (life force) between the Marae (the soundshell), and the colonnade gate during the powhiri.
"I heard the first [conch blow] and started getting all psyched up, because it's a huge job. Second blow I became fierce," Mr King said.
"The third blow goes off and I kicked into gear. I took about two steps and then this poor tourist guy walked right in between that sacred line. I was at the peak of my ferocity and he comes right into the middle and he looked quite happy ... but I was so angry.
"I did a few movements to try and move him away, he didn't know what to do. In the end I swung at him in all my ferocity and stopped just before his head, he got a huge fright. He moved out of the way so I carried on and I performed my wero (challenge)."
Afterwards, Mr King said he tried to find the tourist so he could explain the importance of the pohiri, and why he had acted aggressively.
"Not to disrespect him, but to keep the Mauri intact. That was more important than anything else for me so that our blessings, and everything we were trying to achieve would go directly towards Napier City and the Art Deco festival."
Although he thought the tourist would not have understood the sanctity of the powhiri, Mr King said he hoped this was a reminder to respect any occasion.
"There can be a notion with foreigners, or people that aren't aware, that it's a performance. But it's not a performance, these are our ancient traditions."
He said it was even more important now to preserve these customs "because it's no secret our reo is slipping, our traditions are slipping."
His advice was to always pay attention to what was happening, "just stop and have a look and consider what's going on and what's at play. And for other people who are in the know, support and help those people who don't know.
"Just little things like that which I think we can all work together to strengthen our knowledge."
Art Deco Trust festival director Glen Pickering said he did not think the incident had taken away from the ceremony at all.
"The fact of the matter is that the tourist didn't understand culturally what was happening, so he came up to the warrior who was laying the challenge. His role was to keep that challenge up so at the end of the day he was great".
