Nga wai hono i te po

Nga wai hono i te po Paki was born on 13 January 1997, the third child and only daughter born to Tūheitia Paki and his wife Te Atawhai. Māori is her first language. She has been deeply immersed in Māori culture and traditions from an early age. When Nga wai hono i te po was nine years old, Te Atairangikaahu died and her father became Māori king. Nga wai hono i te po travelled to Taumarunui with her family to receive instruction from priests for Confirmation, and made her first Confession in a chapel at Hopuhopu, near Ngāruawāhia. In 2007, she was Confirmed and received First Communion at a Mass during the Koroneihana celebrations on the first anniversary of her father's coronation. She received a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waikato. She finished a BA in Tikanga Māori and Reo Māori (Māori language) in 2017 which she completed in 2020. She received a moko kauae (chin tattoo) in 2016, at age 19, along with her mother and her cousin Nanaia Mahuta, to celebrate her father's tenth anniversary on the throne. ==Early career==

and David Gascoigne at Koroneihana 2019 Nga wai hono i te po started to take a more prominent role in the Kīngitanga in her early twenties as she began to represent her father at cultural and political events. In 2022, she met with then Prince Charles in London. She was a board member of the Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development. ==Accession and reign==

Nga wai hono i te po acceded to the throne at the age of 27, the second-youngest to do so. The wānanga was convened by the Tekau-mā-rua (the Kīngitanga advisory council), a diverse group of prominent Māori iwi leaders, academics, executives, and politicians from across many iwi, and presided over by Tumu Te Heuheu. On 19 November 2024 in Wellington, she joined tens of thousands of people in the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, a nationwide protest against the ACT Party's Treaty Principles Bill. On 19 May 2025, Nga wai hono i te po made her first official visit to Whakatū Marae in the South Island's Marlborough District, where she was welcomed by the leadership of the eight local tribes. Koroneihana 2025 was the first anniversary of her accession, and was hosted at Tūrangawaewae marae. 9,000 people attended the ceremony including Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. During a public address on 5 September, Nga wai hono i te po talked about Māori identity in modern New Zealand. She also launched two economic initiatives: namely a summit to develop economic opportunities for Māori and a seed investment fund supported by Māori entities. Nga wai hono i te po and New Zealand Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Richard Kay led a New Zealand delegation to Abu Dhabi which met with Emirati Princess Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi to strengthen bilateral cultural and trade relations on 7 October 2025. On 29 November 2025, she launched a new multimillion dollar Māori investment platform called the "Kotahitanga Fund" at the inaugural Ohanga ki te Ao Māori Economic Summit in Hamilton. ==Notes==