Governor General Dame Sylvia Cartwright performed her last official duty at Waitangi on Thursday.
Dame Sylvia opened a new wing at the Waitangi Visitors Centre in her role as chairperson of the Waitangi National Trust.
She says the $800,000 extension to the centre is a tribute to the work of a highly competent Waitangi National Trust Board and its staff.
The suite of offices and function rooms, which opens into native forest, has been paid for by the board's own earnings from activities at Waitangi over the years.
Advertisement
Dame Sylvia says the management of the estate is a model for bicultural teamwork for New Zealand.
She credits that for the growing visitor numbers and an increasingly celebratory mood on Waitangi Day in recent years.
