A Maori meeting house a long way from home is in need of urgent repair.
The British have sought some Kiwi expertise to help restore the whare hidden away in the English countryside.
The meeting house, Hinemihi, was one of only a few that survived the Mount Tarawera eruption. In the 1970s it was restored by using a photograph taken shortly after the explosion.
The whare was purchased for fifty pounds back in the late 1800's by a former Governor of New Zealand and brought to his estate in Surrey. It is one of only a handful of historic meeting houses outside of New Zealand.
After a century of harsh English winters, the British National Trust wants to breathe new life into Hinemihi.
"She is really an important building and a lot of people don't understand that...a lot of people see her as the garden hut at the end of the garden next to Clandon Mansion," says Lisa lawler
But she's family to James Schuster.
"It's like seeing your great great grandmother... it's almost like she smiles at me because she someone from home, one of her descendants has arrived," says Schuster.
The meeting house was carved by his great great grandfather 126 years ago.
And now Schuster is in charge of restoration.
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