It means "hurry up" and he frequently dishes it out when trying to get his children ready for school, trying to motivate his players when coaching rugby, and occasionally it gets used at his work place.
The 43-year-old learnt te reo Māori right through secondary school, but as soon as he left school, other more distracting things occupied his attention.
So three years ago, he decided it was time to go back to his learning journey, mainly because he could trace his whakapapa (genealogy) back to Ngāi Tahu chiefs Karetai and Te Mātenga Taiaroa, and he did not want his generation to contribute to the death of the language.
He is encouraging southern residents to try out a few Māori words this week as part of this year’s Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (September 14-21).
"I picked up the Māori language again three years ago because it’s making a huge come-back and I wanted to be a part of that.
"I really wanted to make sure that it’s not a language that we say in 20 years, ‘Oh, people used to speak Māori, but they don’t any more’."
He believed his children and their children would be key to the survival of the language, so he was sharing part of his learning journey with them.
"I use it everyday. I’ll speak te reo Māori first to my kids, and then re-say it to them in English.
"They pick it up really quickly."
Mr Kramers said most of his te reo Māori learning was done online and in podcasts.
"The podcasts are great because I can listen to them while I’m on the treadmill at the gym.
"My day is immersed in it.
"The way that I introduce myself on email and my signature on email is in reo Māori, and my whole computer operating system has been switched over to te reo Māori.
"I greet people face to face in te reo Māori and people respond to it pretty good.
"Some say kia ora back, some people just say hello."
He also uses it while coaching school rugby teams.
"I think a lot of people are scared to respond in te reo Māori in case they get it wrong.
"But I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. It’s actually better if you try, and if you get it wrong, someone will help you.
"Up until this year, I was nervous to speak te reo Māori to someone, because I thought that if I said something wrong, it would offend somebody.
"But since I’ve started doing it, my ability to converse in Māori has got so much better, simply because someone else has helped me out when I get stuck and given me a better way to say what I want to say."
He said he was loving being bilingual.
"It’s been an awesome journey, and one that I’m going to continue next year."
Mr Kramers said his friends were very supportive of his journey.
He would often send them birthday messages in te reo Māori, and they would often Google translate it and then send a Google Māori translation reply.
"It’s really heart-warming for me because they’re trying.
"It shows that they care as much about my journey as much as I do."
He believed New Zealand was still a long way away from being like Western European countries, where most people could speak English, French and German enough to converse with each other.
"But I dream of a day when te reo Māori is accepted as much as English is, with no prejudice.
"I think that’s a future that’s not so far away, so long as the right people in the right places continue to promote the language.
"At the moment, there’s just too many people out there that think they don’t need the language, so why learn it.
"The younger generations are overtaking them, so in generations to come, that attitude will definitely disappear.
"We’re not a million miles away from that."
