Waipapa Marae celebrated its relocation and renovation in "a beautiful day" trust chairman Potonga Neilson says.
About 100 members of its three hapu and some friendly Waitotara farmers packed into its more than 100-year-old meeting house, Nga Paiaka, after the powhiri (welcome) on Saturday. There was talk, followed by a hangi meal with "just about everything you want to name," and entertainment.
Among the entertainers was a group of Nga Paerangi from Kaiwhaiki, who sang songs composed by Morvin Simon who died earlier this month.
"Everybody was transfixed by their renditions. It was quite sentimental," Mr Neilson said.
The Nga Rauru marae was moved from the floor of the Waitotara valley to a hilltop, after being flooded 2m deep in February 2004.
Mr Neilson had the job of getting it moved. The old house, Nga Paiaka, was calling to him.
"I'm a very spiritual man when it comes to my Maori culture and I believe I was getting messages from that house: "Take me up the hill"."
It took 10 years and $500,000 to do the job. A third of the money came from Nga Rauru's settlement group and the rest from Lotteries' marae heritage fund. The work was carried out by W&W Construction and subcontractors.
They moved the old house, and the newer dining room and kitchen were also moved and renovated. The marae now has two ablution blocks, one for the dining room and kitchen workers and another for people sleeping in the house.
Its new site is on 2.6ha that was originally in multiple Maori ownership. The Waipapa Marae Trust paid some of the owners, and now owns the land.
Shifting the marae has been a saga, and Mr Neilson is relieved it's over. Now people are asking to use it for reunions, which pleases the trustees.
But getting the marae shifted was just the start. To fulfil the dreams of the ancestors, people had to live around it.
"For us it's really just the beginning. A marae should have people living there," he said.
Records from 1916 show 96 families in the area. After the 1918 flu epidemic there were just two children and an old man left.
Members of the Nga Ariki, Nga Wairiki and Ngati Pourua hapu still owned 140ha in the area, in 30 leased blocks.
Mr Neilson wants people to return to live on it and farm it, "to get them out of town and out of gangs, especially the younger generation".
Occupying ancestral land and getting sustenance from it was the basis of Maori culture, he said.
Getting that to happen would be difficult with land in multiple ownership, and owners scattered across the world. But government was working to change the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act, which relates to multiply-owned land, and that could help.