Veteran Kiwi journalist and Cook Islands News publisher John Woods has turned his hand to woodturning and is utilising his new found skills with Cook Islands native timber.

Woods has turned and shaped tamanu timber in his Gisborne, New Zealand, workshop and created a range of handmade designer pens and pencils.

Woods, who last year studied traditional Maori whakairo under a master carver at Te Wananga O Aotearoa, sourced the wood for a one off set of pens from Palmerston Island through his friend Brent Fisher, whose wife Annie is a Palmerston Islander.

Annie was on hand in Rarotonga on Tuesday, when Woods presented examples of his work to King’s Representative Sir Tom Marsters.

Sir Tom, who was born on Palmerston, thanked Woods for the gifts and said he was delighted to receive artefacts made from native rakau from his home island. He asked Woods if he could make trophies from Palmerston tamanu.

Woods said he has been asked to supply a craft shop in Gisborne with his hand crafted writing instruments.

“I guess I will just have to make a few more using our own New Zealand native rakau.”  

Tamanu is also commonly known as mastwood or Polynesian mahogany. It has been used by shipbuilders for millennia because it grows tall and strong in sandy, rocky areas and is prized for its exotic grain and chatoyance.