Pukaki to get new, safer home | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

His image is on the front of New Zealand's 20c piece and he has stood guard over the city for the past 13 years - but the time has come for him to be moved.

The carved image of Te Arawa/Ngati Whakaue tipuna (ancestor) Pukaki is getting damaged in its present location in the Rotorua District Council's Civic Centre and will soon be moved to the city's museum.

Rotorua Museum of Art and History director Greg McManus said the environment inside the Civic Centre was unsuitable for the long-term display of a wooden carving.

"... there's a huge variation in temperature and relative humidity between day and night and between seasons. When there's such variation the wood continuously expands and contracts, causing deterioration over time."

Mr McManus said after restoration Pukaki would become the centrepiece of a new Te Arawa exhibition in the museum's soon-to-be completed south wing.

Pukaki, a warrior leader of Ngati Whakaue, lived on Mokoia Island and at Parawai (in Ngongotaha) in the mid-1700s.

He was carved by Te Taupua of Ngati Whakaue in 1835 from timber that originated out of the Ngongotaha Stream. He was a gateway carving that was part of the original fortifications built to defend Ngati Whakaue from Te Waharoa of Tainui. In the 1850s Pukaki was modified from a kuwaha (gateway) into a tiki (statue).

As a gift made to the Crown in 1877, Pukaki was received by Judge Fenton on Te Papaiouru Marae in Ohinemutu.

Pukaki was then placed in the Auckland Museum where he remained until presented back to his descendants in 1987.