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Prince Harry has been welcomed to Te Waipounamu and off down to Rakiura Stewart Island as part of his short New Zealand tour.
Ngai Tahu elder Sir Tipene O’Regan, who was part of the powhiri at Invercargill airport, says the fifth-in-line to the throne was following in the steps of his grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh, who made an extensive journey to the region’s world heritage parks in 1990.
He says Maori have a long tradition of respect for the royal family dating back to the role of Queen Victoria as the named party in the Treaty of Waitangi.
They feel that has been reciprocated.
"When they started telling us in 1990 and theres a certain range of judges, Maori, and Mudoon, were telling us that Te Waipounamu was not subject to the treaty beacuse it came under British sovereignty by right of discovery, Her Majesty stood up at Waikawa Marae saying very plainly that whole argument was not acceptable to her and she was the one that honoured the event by pointing out that Te Waipounamu had come under British sovereignty by right of cession," Sir Tipene says
After visiting Halfmoon Bay School this morning, Prince Harry was flying to Christchurch.
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