Gold at the DINZ Best Awards for Puhi Kai Iti / Cook Landing

Boffa Miskell consultants worked closely with the Department of Conservation, Gisborne District Council and Ngāti Oneone representatives in the initiative to recognise and acknowledge the voyaging traditions of both cultures as they navigated the Pacific.

Puhi Kai Iti/Cook Landing Site National Historic Reserve commemorates the first landing place of James Cook in New Zealand in 1769. The site is believed to be within a short distance of the actual landing site, and not far from Te Toka a Taiau where the first significant meeting between Māori and Europeans took place.

Though the project has its genesis in the 250th Anniversary of Cook’s arrival, the redeveloped space represents 1000 years of navigation and settlement in Turanganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne with sculpture and storytelling that acknowledges the ancestor Maia who landed at Tawararo (Kaiti Beach) and settled at the site, through to the landing of Cook at the same site 750 years later. These legendary Māori and European explorers were each leaders of their time, demonstrating great intelligence and bravery in their feats.

The judges’ citation noted: “This project beautifully details and integrates strong and complex cultural narratives, responding to a historically significant site and brief. Employing the power of landscape, materiality and craft — both traditional and contemporary — it sensitively recrafts the narrative of the significance of this site.