We'd started outside the Te Wharewaka o Pōneke (waka house) a vast building in the shape of a traditional cloak. “Our vision is to return a strong Māori presence to the waterfront,” says Taupuruariki Brightwell, one of our guides for the two-hour waka tour. Māori culture is experiencing a revival, but nowhere is it more obvious than in the nation's capital. The new Te Tauihu te reo Māori policy – named after the ornately carved figurehead of a waka – aims to make Wellington a Māori language city by 2040, the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi.