Michel Tuffery MNZM is an eminent Wellington artist and sculptor with a wide range of national and international commissions. His giant kina (sea urchins) sculpture comprises nine shells in two sizes, the larger weighing over seven tonnes. The kina are raised from the seabed and held against the south-facing seawall at Kumutoto by stone rip-rap, which is visible at low tide. At high tide the stone and the lower portion of the kina shells are under water.
Ngā Kina acknowledges the history and physical geography of the area including the Kumutoto stream which flowed from Woodward Street to the sea and the location of the Kumutoto Pā. The use of the Kina shell forms can also be interpreted as a reference to a midden, a shell mound that may have existed on the Pā. Ngā Kina provides a strong and conscious link to the Mana Whenua of Wellington.