Photo / Supplied
Tiwini (Steve) Poharama Hetet (Ngāti Kinohaku, Ngāti Rora, Ngāti Maniapoto) celebrates "100 years around the sun" today.
A regular at a Papamoa gym in the Bay of Plenty for the last decade, the centenarian with a happy disposition and great health, often jokes about his "life membership" of the fitness centre, his whānau says.
An avid gardener, sports enthusiast and crossword expert, Hetet will enjoy his 100th birthday celebration with whānau and friends over Zoom.
Hetet with great grand-nephew Lee Ostler. Photo / Supplied
Early Life
The youngest of five children to Tūheka Taonui and Rangimārie Hetet, he was born at his whānau Oparure homestead, just out of Te Kūiti. But sadly when he was 16, his father died suddenly aged 49, leaving his young widow to raise their family.
Despite being a single parent, his mother Rangimārie went on to support her family and achieve many great things, including an honorary doctorate from Waikato University for her services to traditional Māori arts and in 1992 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Remarkably, Dame Rangimārie also celebrated being a centenarian, living until she passed in 1995 aged 103.
Hetet was two years old when his whānau moved away from the King Country to Rātana Pā where his father Tūheka, a skilled builder, was asked to take up the position of head foreman for the building of the Rātana temple.
After four years in Rātana, the family returned to Oparure where Hetet started school as a 6-year-old. After nine years, he left for St Stephens Māori Boys College, before enlisting in the armed services in 1939 - firstly, following the steps of his older brother Bill, into the army then switching to the navy.
Brothers Bill and Steve Hetet. Photo / Supplied
Married Life
It was in the navy during a break that Hetet would meet Nita through a fellow navy officer. But the situation was not without the potential marriage being subject to a tono - a formal request of marriage requiring the mutual agreement of the parents. After navy life, he and Nita married in 1948.
Maniapoto Māori Tennis Team: Second from left Steve Hetet, nephew Maha Hetet Tuke Tere (standing). Photo / Supplied
He tried his hand at farming, before an opportunity arose which would see him begin work in Lands and Survey and progress to working 40 years as a public servant.
Dame Rangimārie Hetet, Steve Hetet, Ponga Barton and Nita Hetet. Photo / Supplied
Family
He and Nita raised a whānau of five, living for long periods in Te Kūiti, Whangarei and Rotorua before retiring to Papamoa. Nita passed in 2019.
Hetet's daughter Christine lives with him and is supported by the extended whānau.
He is the eldest surviving descendant of Louis Hétet, of French-Welsh heritage, who married Rangituatahi, the daughter of the influential Ngāti Maniapoto chief, Taonui Hīkaka around 1840.