Son’s haka surprises mum
Royal-lover Tamzyn Pue thought the worst had happened to her son when he made international headlines - but was just as shocked to learn he was in the news for meeting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Ra¯kaiao Nuri, the deputy head boy at Ma¯ ori boys boarding school Hato Pa¯ ora College in Feilding, led a haka for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they were welcomed onto the Government House grounds with a hongi, po¯ whiri and 21-gun salute on Sunday.
The 17-year-old Taranaki boy had known for months about the opportunity but it all came as a surprise to his mother.
Pue, who was on her way back from the Ma¯ ori Radio Awards in Rotorua on Sunday, thought something terrible had happened to her son when she had dozens of missed calls and social media notifications from family and friends.
‘‘All I knew was I had 100 notifications on Facebook tagging ‘oh my god’,’’ Pue said.
‘‘People were phoning my workmates saying ‘where’s Tamzyn, it’s urgent?’. They were screaming, ‘oh my god, your son, your son’ and I thought what’s he done, what’s gone wrong?
‘‘Then someone said ‘your son is doing the haka for Prince Harry’.’’
Pue watched a video of her son performing a haka for the royals, who finished their New Zealand tour on Wednesday, in disbelief – especially since she’d spoken to him the night before.
‘‘I could have died. I said son, we have followed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on their journey, mummy is a huge fan.’’
But the 17-year-old, who often leads haka for his school, didn’t have quite the same view as his mum.
‘‘I didn’t think deal,’’ Nuri said.
‘‘But it was pretty surreal – I used to watch her on Suits.’’
Nuri said he and Hato Pa¯ ora head boy Caleb Matthews had the opportunity to talk to the pair after the haka.
‘‘They asked where our school was based and stuff like that. She said we were her favourite school so I’ll take that as a win.’’ it was a big