here is a site with a basic audio pronunciation guide: http://www.korero.maori.nz/forlearners/basics/pronunciation.html

there are five vowels, which each have a short (a, e, i, o , u) and a long (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) sound (much like English in that respect), then there are blends of two vowels together eg: ae, ai, ao, au, etc.. and there are the 10 consonants. The difference here is that Te Reo has an initial ng (as in the English sing, song, sung end sound) and a kind of “rolled” r. Once you have a good idea of the sounds, then the writing is pretty much phonetic,eg you see it you can say it, you hear it you can write it.

Anyhow, it is fun to see a Te Reo influence pop up in this context (and as you say the “Orehu”are only influenced by Maori,and this is a parallel universe anyway – at least I think it is…). BTW, as far as I can tell, based on permissible sound combinations, “Orehu”is a possible Te Reo word, although it isn’t in actual fact. At first glance I thought that name had been influenced by the Te Reo word “mōrehu” which means “survivors/remnants”.

arohanui, John

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Out of interest, I believe Maori is pronounced in three syllables Ma-o-ri, with the stess on the middle vowel. But I can’t be sure. I only spent my last school years here, so I never got the typical prep lessons for the language, and I’ve not considered learning it.