"We are honoured to have someone of his calibre contributing an authentic and unique work that acknowledges where the quarry came from as well as where visitors to the eastern bush are going to."
The society has set up a Givealittle page to help raise the $13,600. Mr Cross said the park had money in the bank but this was needed for long-term maintenance and park development.
"Fundraising for the kuwaha is the only way we can go forward with the project."
Mr Wharekawa, 70, said it would take a couple of hundred hours to carve the three pieces of totara needed for the kuwaha. The centrepiece would be Tane Mahuta, the Maori god of the forests and birds.
"It will signify that people are entering into a cultural area," he said.
He relished the opportunity to create art that told the story of the park.
Mr Wharekawa's first carving was at the age of 16, before he entered the building trade and spent the next 30 years working in Auckland. During that time he did odd jobs for a master carver including the marae at Bastion Point.
His life took a new direction when he entered a radio-controlled helicopter competition in Tauranga. While here, he was tapped on the shoulder and told about how a canoe was being built for the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1990.
"They said, 'You had better give us a hand.' That was 1989 and I ended up taking over the project."
It was only 18 weeks before Waitangi Day so the decision was made to create a mould of the waka in blocks of foam and then cast it in fibreglass. Several other waka at Waitangi were also fibreglass.
Mr Wharekawa decided to return to Tauranga permanently in 1995 and graduated with a degree in carving from Te Wananga o Aotearoa. The year-long course included undertaking three carvings and cultural studies. "The carvings weren't easy."
He was now semi-retired. "I'm trying to do nothing, but people say 'Nah'."
