28/09/2026
Te Haa o te Ao — The Breath of the World — stands at Kerikeri’s entrance as a powerful local signal of the climate crisis.
Created by Chris Booth, this 15-metre sculpture draws on the history of nearby Mount Pōkākā, where Ngāti Rēhia once signalled urgent events to people across the Taiamai Plains.
Its suspended local boulders act as a visual barometer of global heating. As temperatures rise, the stones lift and tighten — showing the growing strain on the world. At today’s 1.5°C of warming, they remain in their highest, most stressed position.
Three birds watch in different directions: inland to our forests, farms and communities; across the wider landscape; and out to a warming, rising sea.
The message is clear: the world’s breath is strained.
The question is for all of us: when will our children be able to lower the stones?
At the entrance to Kerikeri, a town aspiring to become New Zealand’s first bilingual community, stands a 15-metre steel sentinel. It does not merely mark a place: it signals a crisis.
