A 51-year-old university worker took his place on the ornately carved wooden throne of New Zealand’s Maori monarch today, hours before his mother, the late queen, was buried on a sacred mountain.

Tribal chiefs wearing wreaths of green leaves opened a traditional mourning period today for the revered queen of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who died after a long illness aged 75.