War has commenced

Last Wednesday, the 17th was the 150th anniversary of the first shots fired in what became the First Taranaki Land War. It was a huge day - here is my schedule:

Tuesday

• 10am - blessing of the new carving on our ceremonial doors and the exhibition
• 11am - cuppa tea
• 4pm - powhiri at Kairo Marae. This is the closest meeting house to that actual spot and they held an evening of talks and discussion

Wednesday

• 5am - all my alarms go off
• 6am - meet at work to go in convoy out to Te Kohia, the site of the first shots
• 6.45amish - prayers, songs and speeches to remember those who died
• 8amish - back to work to help set up for...
• 9.15am - moving the opening from the landing to the foyer because it was tipping down rain then...
• 9.30am - the arrival of the first guests who helped set up chairs and gave valuable feedback on the sound checks and kept squeezing and squeezing so we fitted everyone in, followed at
• 10.15am - by the arrival of the Prime Minister, assorted ministers and other significant people (I held the umbrellas!)
• 11am - PM offically opens the exhibition and puts the first comment card on our wall
• 11.15am - cuppa tea
• 4pm - start setup for evening reception for the Govenor General
• 5pm - first guest arrives (plenty early having had to wrestle for a seat in the morning)
• 6pm - everyone seated and looking posh
• 6.15pm - arrival of the GG and his entourage
• 6.30pm - speeches, all fabulous
• 7.30pm - posh cuppa tea (wine and canapes)
• 10pm - door locked, go home

It was a huge day and there was lots of other stuff going on as well, like two treaty negotiation signings (big deal, trust me). Everyone was completely exhausted at the end of it but very, very happy that it had all gone without a hitch - as it should have given the number of meeting hours that were devoted to it.

Check out http://www.pukeariki.com/ to have a look at the Wars info on our web site.