comes from a distinguished East Coast Maori family.   His grandfather was a driving force behind the gifting of the land on which Te Aute College now stands.    At 97 he is one of the two living survivors of 28 Maori Battalion.    He joined up in 1939 having lied about his age (he was only 16) and served continuously through the Greece, Crete, North African and Italian campaigns before returning to New Zealand in 1945.    He was a member of  C Company (the Cowboys) and was with Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu when he won his posthumous VC assaulting Point 209 in the battle of the Tebaga Gap. 

Last weekend our daughter along with her partner Dan, grandson of Ratapu, were, at Epineha’s behest, at the newly opened 28 Maori Battalion Museum at Waitangi to pay their and his respects to his mates.   They found the experience intensely moving with Epineha’s name engraved on the wall.  Epineha is too frail to travel but he was there in spirit to meet up with his mates again.    He knows he hasn’t got too long left in this world and, truth be known, he is anxious now to join them.  

A living piece of New Zealand history.