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• A hand-carved pou, washed away by Cyclone Gabrielle, was found on Mahia beach after 20 months.
• Bevan Taylor, the pou creator, is glad it was found but has concerns about its condition.
• Restoration work at Tangoio Marae aims to recreate lost carvings and decorations.

A hand-carved pou washed into the Pacific Ocean by Cyclone Gabrielle has been found after 20 months in the sea on a beach nearly 100km from its home.

Before the cyclone, the pou took pride of place outside Tangoio Marae, 25km north of Napier, but went missing when the marae was hit by devastating floodwaters on February 14, 2023.

It was found on Taylor’s Bay in Mahia on Monday morning, 650 days after it disappeared.

Tohunga whakairo at Tangoio Marae and creator of the pou, Bevan Taylor, said it was good that it had been found so it could be returned to its original marae, but he isn’t holding his breath over its condition after a near two-year journey at sea.

“It’s possibly pretty well-damaged, I would say,” Taylor said.

“We’ll have a look at it. But we will lay it to rest if it’s damaged beyond repair.”

Taylor’s daughter Elaine Cook said she felt “emotional our taonga found its way back to land, after all this time”.

Tohunga whakairo at Tangoio Marae Bevan Taylor is glad to see his pou returned to its home, but he isn't sure about its condition after 650 days at sea. Photo / Paul Taylor

When spoken to, Taylor was in the midst of planning the pou’s return to Tangoio. He said he was unsure why the taonga decided to show itself now.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, it’s like probably that person we’re still looking for [missing man Joseph Ahuriri].

“The different currents out there in the ocean, it’ll come in and then it’ll go to a certain place where it can’t come, and then all of a sudden it appeared on a Mahia beach.

“It’s nice to know we’ve recovered it. It’s really nice to know. But we couldn’t be waiting around for it to show up when restoration work was undertaken, we’re still doing restoration work. That’ll be another at least two years ‘til we get to the final stages of it all.”

Taylor said it was a shame Gabrielle came along and “did what it did”. The marae grounds and right up to Tangoio Beach had been combed for carvings, and were still missing.

He said there was still a lot of work needed to do to repair Tangoio Marae to its former glory, but he sees the restoration work as “an opportunity to do a real recreation work on all the tukutuku, the kōwhaiwhai, and the carvings”.

“That’s why it’s going to take us another 24 months to do that – it’s a huge task and I’m not looking forward to doing it because it’s very fiddly.”

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region, along with pieces on art, music, and culture.