Pukaki - a comet returns, records the life and transformations of Pukaki, an ancestral father of Ngati Whalaue of Te Arawa; from mortal rangatira to carved ancestor at Ohinemutu, from curiosity on display at the Auckland War Memorial Museum to national icon in the Maori exhibition, climaxing with his return home to Rotorua in October 1997. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 drawings and colour photographs, this work will stand as a model for the management of tribal taonga throughout Aotearoa / New Zealand.