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Ngāti Haua and Ngāti Koroki Kahukura have blessed the site of a new sculpture marking the last major military engagement by New Zealand troops in World War One.
The sculpture by veteran Ngāti Koroki Kahukura artist Fred Graham is a result of a sister town relationship between Cambridge and Le Quesnoy in France, which was liberated by the New Zealand Division a week before the war ended.
That connection is still remembered, and the town is the only one in France to mark Anzac Day.
Waikato Regional Council chair Alan Livingston says the sculpture will be unveiled on Armistice Day in November, only a year later than intended.
"Very special and of course Fred's done a superb job in his way of melding the Fern and the Eiffel Tower into one and it's going to be very special as you enter Cambridge," he says.
Brickwork around the base of the sculpture will echo the ramparts of the medieval town which were scaled by the New Zealand troops.
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