On the Saturday before Columbus Day each year, Simon Leeming, New Zealand's honorary consul for New England, and his family host a traditional Maori feast called a hangi at their Concord, N.H., home. Five hundred people were expected at this year's event.

Simon Leeming's teko teko, a Maori figure that provides protection, is mounted on the hangi whare, built on top of the pit where the food is cooked. Instead of a weapon, the warrior holds a hangi shovel.