Thank you Martinborough

Day two of DIY Marae. What an amazing community we have. Our whānau do us proud. I have never seen our trustees smile so much. The mahi continues, with returning and new whānau each becoming part of our marae and making their mark. If your local in Marty take a drive along New York st and see the changes. Tênā koutou whanau xxx

Thank you Martinborough, I was feeling quite emotional when I wrote the above post, so proud of what we were achieving.  The DIY Team told us it was the easiest DIY they had done, which is a massive reflection of our get up and go as a community.  We managed to squeeze in a 100th birthday celebration (special thanks to Hawkins whānau who made the magnificent cake) for the DIY team, made especially poignant by the fact one of their key team members is moving on after 15 years..

The ringawera (kitchen helpers) had their work cut out providing kai for the four days for more than 100 people per day – breakfast from 6.30am  to dinner at 6.00pm. Our Army support couldn’t praise the kai highly enough and they are experts on DIY Marae Kai!

We need to acknowledge some of the local businesses who made our weekend so successful.  This is not the whole list but the beginning of a long list of thank you’s that the committee will be working through.

The financial contributors were Trust House Foundation, South Wairarapa District Council and private contributors.  Thank you all, it was a big relief to us as a committee when we reached our financial target.  

Support came from Carpet Court, Mitre 10 Pain & Kershaw, Watermart Wairarapa, Plumbing World, Department of Conservation, Martin Beveridge Ltd, Higgins and Martinborough Transport, Pak N Save Masterton, Premier Meats, Breadcraft Ltd, Wairarapa Eggs, Pinehaven Orchards, Parkvale Mushrooms, The Neighbourhood, Kitcheners, Clareville Bakery, The Yellow Dairy, Scotty’s Meats.

Wharenui – We cleaned and painted the carvings and the front wall on the front of the Wharenui.

Wharekai – has two new entrances, new lighting in the kitchen entry, new doors and the whole building got a paint job.

  Marae Atea – has new gardens, a new punga fence, native plantings, a concrete path and a new water feature.

Marae perimeter  – has had most exotics removed and replaced with native plantings and mulch

Tomokanga – We now have a Tomokanga (featuring 20+ year old carvings which have been cleaned and painted). 

Te Kupenga a Te Huki

• The pièce de résistance, in that it resisted all attempts to be done during the DIY weekend and took hours of time before (special thanks to these builders) and had finishing to do afterwards is the Tane’ Wharepaku which has a new floor, walls, and fixtures.  The Wāhine’ Wharepaku got a new wall.  We tried to swap them over, but there are too many tane on our committee!
• Southern Wall – has had a total replacement with new windows, insulation, and panels (this is what you can see from the rugby grounds)
• Eastern Wall, replace  panels and paint, insulate, new deck and stairs
• All the rubbish was removed from under the building

And to finish it off, I would like to give you an example of how DIY Marae engaged our community.  On the Wednesday morning a new resident having seen the signs for DIY approached a committee member in the street and asked about the project.  He was directed down to the marae, where he was given plenty of small tasks to do.  So he raced home, got his tool box and worked until 10.30pm that night and was there from dawn to dusk for the rest of the weekend, with his wife joining him for Saturday and Sunday.  Welcome to Martinborough!

We are starting a group email for Marae events, working bees and other activities if you would like to be a member of this please email hauariki@gmail.com.