National Park visitors welcomed by 2000-year-old carved logs

Thursday, 16 November 2017

A couple of 2000-year-old trees have been delivered for carvers to begin work on an ambitious project in Tongariro National Park.

After a year of negotiations and preparations the pou whenua project has finally started.

The project will see two pou whenua (carved land posts) installed at each of the Tongariro National Park's five entrances and two at the entrance to the Whakapapa Village. 

It has taken months of negotiations but the the two local carvers, Hayz Isherwood and Tururangi Rowe, are finally able to take to the wood with their carving tools. The 2000-year-old totara and matai trees were dropped off at the Cultural Hub in Whakapapa last week. 

Isherwood said the pou whenua will be designed in such a way to tell the history of the area and the people. 

'The representation will be talking about the culture and the heritage,' he said.

'Of what makes this place a World Heritage Park. We want to try and base the kaupapa around the lakes, the forest, and the environment and also the relationships the people have with those places.'

There are 12 pou whenua to make and Isherwood estimated each one would take about five months to carve. The entire project is estimated to take up to three years to finish.

Once each pou whenua is complete, they will be cast in concrete but with a timber finish.

The concrete replicas will be the ones that stand at each of the entrances and the originals will stand in the cultural hub in the Whakapapa Village.

'With them being cast in concrete, they will be there for thousands of years,' one carver, who wishes to remain unnamed, said. 

'We want them to look pristine.'

As the original pou whenua will be in the cultural hub, people interested in them can stop in and hear the history behind each one. 

The Cultural Hub features carvers and other artists and was opened last year in December by paramount Ngati Tuwharetoa chief, Sir Tumu Te Heuheu. The hub is opposite the Chateau Tongariro. 

The hub is a place to learn and hear about the area and to buy local art. 

Whakapapa Village's Shane Isherwood has been planning the move for over 20 years and said he wants people to understand the area better.