The Te Ahu community achievement

The architecturally stunning concept is representative of all the major elements that comprise the topography and history of the Far North catchment area that stretches from North Hokianga to Cape Reinga and back down to Kaeo.

The mythical tail of the stingray hooked by Maui (Te Ika-a-Maui) is North Cape and the depiction is artisitcally imbedded in Te Ahu's atrium floor under multiple layers of epoxy resin. The concrete was buffed before the resin covered the artwork so what one's feet walk over is actually sitting below the surface.

The wave-like panels that grace the library roof represent sand dunes and at the same time act as acoustic dampners. Akauri tree portraying the forests of the Far North creates a canopy above the reading space. It was designed and manufactured by model-making studio, Human Dynamo

Workshop, in Wellington who also made the Kupe panels that hang from the walls. Dissecting the reading space overhead is a swing bridge designed as a 'youth' area which is already a hit with kids.

There are currently three upright pillars (pou) standing in the atrium with two more to be added around the time of Matariki, the Maori new year in mid-June. These seven sisters of Pleiades represent the seven peoples of the Far North-the five tribes, the Pakeha and the Dalmatian communities.

Overhead, dozens of white perspex godwits hang from the ceiling. They 'fly' in three different wing patterns and are double-strung to stop them from spinning. It will take a couple of hours to clean them every six months or so.

The huge floor-to-ceiling glass panels that surround the semi-circular atrium are angled just as they are in lighthouses and on a summer's day refract light to form indoor rainbows.

On most days during the building process there were between 20-30people employed on the project, 80% of whom were local with the other 20% made up of suppliers from elsewhere. The landscape design contract was awarded to a Kaeo company and not chosen on a 'value-based' presentation but was 'concept-based'. The best, not necessarily the cheapest in other words.

These are Te Ahu's architectural, artistic and construction facts and reasonably well documented. What isn't outlined in brochures or on the website are the headaches that occured during the build that took 18 months from go to whoa and gave Mark Osborne, Chairman of the trust that administers the centre and Project Manager for the build, a few sleepless nights.

The entire project nearly tipped over half way through. It had something to do with budgets and there's a reluctance on Mr Osborne's part to talk about it. His Worship the Mayor isn't quite so shy. In an interview with Focus in January this year Wayne Brown described this jittery juncture thus: ''It (Te Ahu) was an unfinished symphony so we sacked all the Auckland advisors and hired local people. Now the cinema is open, we've redone the old hall and there's a library, museum, i-site and council offices in this amazing building.''

The glass panels on the front of the building had to be sent to Christchurch since that's the only place in New Zealand that has kiln capacity big enough to toughen and harden the 4.5 metre-long glass sheets. They were to seal the building, to close it off, and were waiting to be sent back up north as the earthquake struck last year and remitted them almost back to sand. Another lot had to be imported and the delaying domino effect put back other indoor finishing work by around eight weeks.

The concrete floor of the atrium cracked slightly after it was laid and after the floor mural was finished. It has had to be patched but deft repair work makes those cracks barely discernible.

The exterior landscaping block work is slightly incomplete waiting for the finishing blocks to come from Australia and at the time of writing they were still in the port of Tauranga, arguably the busiest port in the country thanks to the interminable industrial strife at the Ports of Auckland. It's yet another impacting domino effect outside the

control of Te Ahu build management.

Still, all good things come to pass and although these delays are an intrinsic part of the build history they can now largely be consigned to the past. Te Ahu is up and running and includes a movie theatre which in itself will beanew experience for a whole generation of Kaitaia kids. There hasn't been a cinema in town for 20 years.

There is still much to do. The computer room housing around 20 monitors has yet to be used; sponsorship and naming rights for some meeting rooms is in the discussion stage; the floor in the auditorium (which isn't new, but refurbished matai) might have to be replaced in the future.

Locals need educating on the protocols of building use-muddy gumboots indoors aren't welcome footwear-and staff are hoping some idiot won't pick up the little stones that fill the recessed gardens outside and chuck them at the windows.

Te Ahu is a catalyst for a cohesive community and rightly stands as a tangible example of social endeavour.