Two wero [challenge] exponents greeted the procession as military pallbearers with white-gloved hands resting on one another's shoulders handed the former archbishop over to Anglican Church leaders.
Inside, Patea Maori Club kaumatua Tupito Maruera acknowledged Sir Paul's Taranaki mountain in te reo as the coffin made its way up the cathedral aisle, reaching out a hand to softly touch it as it went by.
Sir Paul's daughter Sarah Reeves kept her tribute light and had the hundreds gathered laughing as she told of her father's love of pranks.
Last Friday, when family members were at the hospital and things were looking grim, her father motioned them forward, Judge Reeves said.
"We all leaned in, he lifted his oxygen mask and said: "Bugger."
People often asked her and her sisters Jane Reeves and Bridget Jakicevich what it was like to have Sir Paul as a father.
"Well, the answer is, as normal as you can get when your father is a priest, a bishop and a Governor-General.
"He worked huge hours and never learned to say no."
She paid tribute to the "true and steadfast" partnership of Lady Beverley and Sir Paul and finished simply: "We love you, Dad, rest well."
As the prayers continued, a Reeves mokopuna crawled from her second-row chair to give Jane Reeves and Lady Beverley a cuddle.
Earlier, her cousins had placed colourful notes and heartfelt messages on the coffin. One recalled the "best granddad in the world".
Outgoing Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand, Prime Minister John Key, Labour leader Phil Goff and Crown ministers listened as former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Don McKinnon spoke of Sir Paul's work rewriting the Fijian constitution and observing elections in Ghana and South Africa.
It was Sir Paul's gift of being able to talk with "kings and the common man" which made him an excellent special envoy to countries such as Guyana from 2002, he said.
Sir Paul was buried at St John's Theological College, Meadowbank.
