Pope John Paul II
Despite more than 30 years passing, Pope John Paul II is still the only supreme pontiff to have come to New Zealand’s shores.
Pahiatua Children
On 1 November 1944, 733 children, mostly orphans and half orphans, arrived in Wellington Harbour. They had lost their homes and family members following the 1939 German invasion of Poland and its subsequent occupation by the USSR.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
(1860 – 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation’s Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.