At the end of 2012 Hospice West Auckland embarked on a new journey to build four specialist palliative care bedrooms at Hospice House on Te Atatu Peninsula. On Friday 4 October 2013, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, the Right Honourable John Key officially opened the first two bedrooms in the ‘Kowhai Suite’ in an early morning blessing. In 2014 two more specialist palliative care bedrooms were completed, bringing the total to four beds available for the people of West Auckland, meaning patients no longer needed to travel out of the area for short stay Hospice care.