Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy welcomed in Whakatāne

New Zealand Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy and husband Sir David Gascoigne were welcomed on to Whakatāne's Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi campus with a pōhiri this morning.

As part of the pōhiri, Awanuiārangi's council chairman Sir Hirini Moko Mead spoke of the time when he and Reddy were both at Victoria University and how both had been immersed within the education sector for many, many years.

"You were a junior lecturer and then lecturer within the law faculty while I was the founding Professor of Māori at Victoria," Moko Mead said.

Moko Mead also spoke of Reddy's parents Neil and Kay Reddy, who were both schoolteachers.

"My wife June and I were headmaster and senior mistress at Minginui Māori School when you and your parents were living in Minginui," Moko Mead said.

He went on to talk about Ngāti Awa's relationship with the Crown, adding it had not always been a partnership that was envisaged when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.

Moko Mead also spoke of establishing Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and what it hoped for the future of the establishment and for its students.

While in Whakatāne, Reddy spent time with young robotics students and student nurses working with HoloLens technology.

HoloLens was the first head-mounted display running the Windows Mixed Reality platform under the Windows 10 computer operating system.

The day ended with a reception for stakeholders and organisations involved with Dame Patsy's visit.

On Thursday Dame Patsy will be officially welcomed to Rotorua at Te Papaiouru Marae.

After the pōhiri in the morning, she will visit the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute at Te Puia, with a reception for Rotorua community organisations that evening.

On Friday she will visit the Fire and Emergency New Zealand National Training Centre before heading to Scion to find out more about their research into kauri dieback.

Then it's a trip to innovative library and children's healthcare hub Te Aka Mauri and a final stop to see the restored Te Arawa Soldiers' Memorial in Government Gardens.