PAUA SHELL !

We've probably sent you a souvenir made of paua shell, or sea opal.
Pāua is the Māori name given to a kind of large, edible sea snail. We had paua fritters at the Food Show a few weekends ago.
The shell is oval and the outside is often covered with greyish incrustations, which makes the inside (nacre) all the more surprising!
It is an iridescent swirl of intense green, blue, purple, and sometimes pink colours.
To Māori, paua are recognised taonga, or treasure, esteemed both as kai moana (seafood) and for arts and crafts.
Paua shells are often used to represent the eyes in Māori carvings and connected with the stars, or whetu, the eyes of ancestors that gaze down from the night sky. (My Maori IS coming along!)
The paua is iconic in New Zealand: its black muscular foot is considered a delicacy, and its shell used in jewellery.
It is forbidden to collect it using scuba gear, so only free divers can harvest it. And it's limited to 10 paua a day, per person. But there is a lucrative black market.