Young leader taken
The tragic death of a young Kiwi dad sparks memories from the friends, family and colleagues who knew him best. By Simon Hendery.
Shock and grief follow every sudden fatality, but when 23-year-old Te Pouwhenua ‘‘Pou’’ Waiwai died on a rural Hawke’s Bay road, the ripples from the tragedy spread wider than usual.
A tiny lakeside village is mourning the loss of a young man who was spoken of as a future leader of his iwi.
And hundreds of kilometres away, in a high-rise office in Christchurch, a top chief executive recalls the ambitious young man who showed a hunger for knowledge and rare business acumen.
But Waiwai’s widow and ‘‘one and only love’’ Toni says that of all the roles he took on, ‘‘being a great father and husband’’ was what he did best.
Waiwai lost his life in a singlevehicle crash on February 24 at Mangapapa Bridge, on his regular 60km trip home from his work at Lake Waikaremoana to Wairoa along State Highway 38 – the rugged Te Urewera high country link between Hawke’s Bay and the Bay of Plenty.
Police are continuing to investigate the Friday night crash but it appears that at the end of a typically long week, Waiwai may have fallen asleep at the wheel where the road becomes unsealed.
On top of his work managing iwi assets at Lake Waikaremoana, Waiwai picked up jobs as a selfemployed electrician on weekends and was deeply involved with the nearby Tuai community where he grew up, including chairing the local kohanga reo.
The phrase ‘‘wisdom beyond his years’’ is spoken regularly by those who knew Waiwai.
His uncle, Tuai kaumatua James Waiwai, says Waiwai had a deeply spiritual side and was among a handful of young people being groomed for leadership roles within the hapu.
‘‘He was a very intricate part of that plan – but obviously God’s plan was a bit bigger than ours.’’
The young man got on with everyone and was just as comfortable interacting with senior business leaders as he was immersed in iwi culture, James Waiwai says.
Genesis Energy runs three hydro power schemes in the Lake Waikaremoana area, meaning Waiwai grew up brushing shoulders with company executives who would attend community hui at Tuai.
Among those executives was Tracey Hickman, who would later hire Waiwai as an apprentice electrical fitter.
‘‘He stamped his mark on the Tuai site, even through his apprenticeship,’’ she said.
That included approaching chief executive Albert Brantley within weeks of starting his new job and telling him: ‘‘I want your job one day’’.
‘‘It wasn’t in an arrogant or cheeky way,’’ Hickman said.
‘‘It was so genuine that Albert said: ‘Who is this kid? He’s got potential to be [CEO]’.’’
Waiwai followed through, writing to Brantley to ask if he could ‘‘shadow’’ him for a few days to learn what his job entailed.
Brantley, who has since left Genesis to lead Otakaro, the postearthquake agency building Christchurch’s anchor projects, fondly recalls the experience after he agreed to the ‘‘unique’’ request.
‘‘Pou brought curiosity to these sessions, constant yet respectful challenges of ‘why’ and ‘how’, a desire to see the bigger picture and to understand the real reasons behind decision-making,’’ he says.
‘‘We talked about strategy, taking a long-term view and about focussing on objectives.
‘‘But mostly we talked about moral compasses, about caring for people that worked with you, about balancing work with family, about ‘doing the right thing’.
‘‘Pou was wise beyond his years, and these sessions made me realise again why I loved my job.’’
By then Waiwai was working for Genesis in Huntly, his wife Toni’s home town. The couple bought a home in the North Waikato town when he was 21 and Waiwai immersed himself in the local community, becoming a volunteer firefighter and chair of a local kohanga reo.
‘‘He was a hell of a nice guy,’’ says Huntly fire chief Craig Bush.
‘‘He wasn’t on our brigade very long but he fitted in quickly and was very well liked.’’
Last year, the couple’s second in Huntly, Waiwai’s father Frazer became terminally ill, prompting Pou and Toni to move back to Hawke’s Bay, where they bought