Grand Pacific Tours given a Rare Honour
Grand Pacific Tours, the New Zealand Luxury Coach Holiday specialist, was recently given a rare honour with a carving presented by Te Tara White, CEO of the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, Te Puia, which was designed and carved by Master Carver Clive Fugill.
Clive was amongst the first to graduate from the carving school 40 years ago under Master carver Hone Taiapa and took the honours as the top student of that time. His work continues to draw acclaim for its mastery of the art form and its representation of the traditional knowledge of the Maori people.
The carving represents a taurapa (stern post) of a voyaging canoe and conceptually captures the notion of Grand Pacific Tours and Te Puia, journeying together into the future. It depicts at the top of the taurapa, the coming together of New Zealand and Australia.
The dual feature in the central spine of the taurapa which merges on the top inner edge as a face represents the relationship between Grand Pacific tours and Te Puia.
The face at the point of merger is Grand Pacific tours – the figure at the lower inner edge of the taurapa represents Te Puia providing the cultural foundations and experiences for the journey.
The length of the inner edge of the taurapa represents the North Island experiences – the paua (abalone) shells represent the Grand Pacific Tours’ staff, who look after these experiences.
The length of the outer edge of the taurapa, represents the experiences in the South Island with the paua shell again denoting Grand Pacific Tours’ staff.
The taurapa is carved from totara a native New Zealand hardwood and is stained with traditional ochre derived from traditional sources.
Managing Director of Grand Pacific Tours, Peter Harding stated “We are deeply honoured and proud to accept this significant piece of work from the institute and send our heartfelt thanks to Clive Fugill for his time and effort in creating such wonderful carving.”
“It will take pride of place within our office.â€
A Report by The Mole
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