Pou blessed

Tahuna Pod Hostel staff celebrate after a Maori blessing of a newly erected pou outside the soon-to-open hostel in Queenstown on Tuesday.

Owner Cedric Hockey said the pou, which is 3.6m tall and weighs more than a tonne, was similar to totem poles of North American indigenous cultures, and told the story of a pair of lovers and a taniwha.

Designed by his wife, Wiki Walker, it had been carved from a 300-year-old totara tree toppled in a storm near Franz Josef two years ago.