Mayor Chadwick wants to swap chains for cape

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick announced her desire for Te Puia to make her a traditional cape to wear at official engagements at the first meeting on council on Tuesday.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick says she would like a small cape made that she can wear at selected official engagements.

During her inauguration speech on Tuesday Mrs Chadwick announced her desire for Te Puia New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute to make her a "small cloak or cape" for official engagements that would signify the council's new relationship with Te Arawa.

"A small cape would better reflect Rotorua today as well as being more practical than the mayoral chains which are heavy and can be pretty unwieldy," she said.

"A cloak which past Rotorua mayors wore was replaced in more recent years with the mayoral chains and a small cape would be the next iteration."

She said the chains would remain an important symbol and there would be times when they would be more appropriate to wear - "for very formal, symbolic occasions like citizenship ceremonies for example".

"For day to day mayoral receptions and other functions though, something less formal is appropriate and I think a small cape would be more suitable."

The council's chief executive office manager Craig Tiriana said the mayor had asked for something more significant that signified where Rotorua was at right now and where it was headed.

"We have had an informal, initial discussion with Te Puia which is keen to be involved, but there's no detail or budget worked out as yet.

"We're at a very early stage and we need to work it through.

"We're looking forward to talking with Te Puia further in the near future to discuss how we progress this appropriately," Mr Tiriana said.