A Dutch crew paddles Te Hono ki Aotearoa on a canal in Leiden after Sir Hekenukumai Busby handed over the waka to Holland's national ethnology museum in 2010. Photo / Peter Hilz
Two members of a Dutch waka group are among mourners travelling to New Zealand to pay their final respects to Sir Hekenukumai Busby today.
Koos Wabeke and Peer van der List are founder members of the waka group at Leiden University's Njord Royal Student Rowing Club, which was set up
in 2010 to crew and maintain the waka taua Te Hono ki Aotearoa.
The 14-metre fully carved waka, whose name translates as The Link to New Zealand, was built by Busby at Aurere in Doubtless Bay for Museum Volkenkunde, the Dutch national ethnology museum. He also built them a waka tete called Tāhimana (Tasman) for training purposes.
Wabeke said the group was saddened and shocked by the sudden loss of Busby at the weekend.
''He's the one who built our waka but, more importantly, he's the one that trusted us,'' he said.
