Papamoa Primary School got a special treat today, as Graham Hoete, aka Mr G, paid the school a visit to start work on a mural.

Mr G was approached by Kahurangi Poa, who is the lead teacher of Maori at the primary school, to come and paint the mural for the school.

'My schedule is really flat busy at the moment but I do have a couple of pockets to do stuff like this. Because at the end of the day for me, it's inspiring the young ones and telling the local story through art,” says Mr G.

'It is a big part of my art as well, which is educating people and the different aspects of local history.”

The mural painting is taking place all day today, but Mr G isn't worried if he doesn't get it done today.

'I'll see how it goes, because it don't like ignoring the children, but at the same time I have a mural to paint.”

'We will see how we go, I'm going at a pretty nice pace, I may finish it today, I may not. I don't want to rush it. At the end of the day, I want to produce something that looks really nice and has that quality to it.”

Mr G has split the mural up into four different sections, focusing on four main aspects of the area.

'It's quite generic but it all comes back to the history of Papamoa. One segment of the mural highlights the harakeke, flax, which is a huge part of the history here in Papamoa with the flax trade and all that sort of stuff,” says Mr G.

'Then we've got Moana, the sea, looking out to Motiti Island from Papamoa Beach. I'm also from Motiti Island so I thought that was really cool.”

'I will also paint four koru in the mural which represent four main waka that do have historic stories that are linked to the Papamoa area.”

'I am going to paint the Papamoa Hills as well which is a huge landmark here, and also I am painting a portrait of a young girl who actually has strong whakapapa links to the Tauranga Moana as well.”

'I'm just going to be painting one of her eyes and I'm going to be painting a silhouette in the reflection of her eyes, like her ancestors, again just connecting the past, present and future.”