Hand of blessing: Hariata Tahana

Archdeacon Hariata Tahana is generous to a fault.
The hardworking, ever-smiling Anglican minister, who seemingly appears at the opening of every Wairarapa building and every exhibition, is always on hand to bestow a blessing or help with a powhiri.
She said part of the reason for that, and by her own admission, was that she just can't seem to be able to say no.
"Sometimes my own whanau say, 'You need to say no' but I say what if someone in our family needed [a blessing] and someone said they wouldn't do it for us? The only time I'll say no is when I'm not well."
Known to many in the Wairarapa, Hariata, or Auntie Sally as she likes to be called, was born in Gladstone, the fourth of 13 children, and was adopted out to a family "across the road".
There she grew up with another adopted boy, with full knowledge that her family was living close by.
After attending Gladstone School, she didn't go to college, instead becoming increasingly involved in the Anglican church in Cole St, Masterton, while working diverse jobs including matron's assistant at a home for troubled girls in Featherston and bus driver for Gladstone School.
After years as a lay reader there, she became a minister at the church in 1984, and since then has worked non-stop serving the spiritual needs of the Wairarapa.
She also sits on a host of boards including the Wairarapa Anglican Trust and Papawai Kokirikiri education board, and is an advisor to the Wairarapa Hospital.
When asked about how she managed the countless weddings, taonga blessings and tangi she officiated at she smiled.
"I'll [do a blessing] for anyone that wants me," she says. "Sometimes other people from different faiths will ask me to do their tangis or weddings. And I say to them - the Catholics and Ratana and those - I say you need to get in touch with your minister, but they say they want me, so I do it.
"But it's amazing that some of these people say, 'We don't want that God stuff'. Then I say you've got the wrong person. Because with me you'll always get the God stuff," she laughed.
In 2005 she was made an archdeacon and to this day still ministers to her Cole St flock, although now with the help of three other women priests. It is a life she has enjoyed, and it is obvious she loves the people of Wairarapa and the region itself, where she has always lived.
Asked what has driven her for more than 25 years, she said she just liked to help people.
"To be loving and kind to one another, that's what I say. Reach out to others and try and be a good person."
Hariata has no plans to retire from the ministry.
"I love being with people and I always used to like being with kaumatua, and now I'm one of them. The people say to me when are you going to retire? And I don't like that word. I'll just keep going, one foot in front of the other. It's just a slower pace now."
And there, again, is that sparkling smile.