Just over the bridge from Kerikeri's Stone Store lies Rewa's Village. It's a reconstructed fishing hamlet overlooking the estuary and was originally built in the 1960s to raise money for a legal battle to save Kerikeri Basin from profligate development.
Last year, ownership was handed over to local hapu Ngati Rehia and the plan over the quiet winter months, when regular tourists are fewer than in summer, was to use the site to demonstrate the work of weavers from around New Zealand. For a variety of reasons that didn't eventuate so the village was offered to traditional Maori healers and herbalists and as far as anyone can ascertain it's unique in New Zealand (in recent times anyway) that time-honoured forms of Maori therapy have been conducted from a pa site. Rawinia Pere says they get visitors from all over the world.
"We talk them through the process and they ask us questions and how we do things and they accept that and feel RAWI, REWA AND REVIVAL Hands of Spirit Maori Healing. Rawi Pere (left) and Teri Hei Hei Webb at Rewa's Village in Kerikeri. fulfilled. They will look at us and ask 'how did you know that'? They might have experienced physical massage but the spiritual side they haven't experienced so we are spreading our message around the world."
The three healers - Rawi Pere, Ngawiti Hei Hei and Teri Hei Hei Webb - can work singly or in tandem. In addition to deep tissue massage (mirimiri) they look spiritually at a person's requirements in a similar way to what's commonly called a reading but from a Maori perspective. And they work on the chakras, the energy points in the subtle or aural body.
The tranquility of Rewa's Village is apparent to nearly every visitor and which Mr Hei Hei explains spiritually as 'having a korowai (cloak) around us'. Mrs Pere and her husband Ngawiti Hei Hei run Nga Ringa Wairua (Hands of Spirit) offering rongoa (traditional medicine) through healing, prayer and blessings. It's a holistic approach with an understanding of unseen forces that can affect natural balance.
"We looked at the relationships among Maori and they weren't quite gelling so we needed to bring them all together again in a peaceful manner. In the olden days it was about squabbling and intertribal warfare and we are now looking at things from a better angle," says Ngawiti Hei Hei.
As for the future, that's explained as being in the hands of the gods - an appropriate analogy given the techniques used in these forms of healing. Part of Rewa's Village could be used permanently as a healing centre but that has still to be determined. It's not hard to feel that some how, some way, the potential will be well guided.