Ok, Ok, I realise that eight Monarchs might not make a real cluster, for those who have seen them in their hundreds or even thousands, however I have never seen clustering Monarchs so it was good enough for me.
The sun was shining directly on the low branches of the Pohutukawa tree, that they were clustering on, as they sat on the branches facing towards the sun with their wings open.
Two flew up and circled about together and then went back to the branch. Two others also did a few twirls in the air together and they too went back to the branch. Then I noticed several others circling above nearby trees, so perhaps there were about eight in total.
I was quite taken by surprise and stood watching, rather than photographing them, for too many minutes. What a joy to see.
I'll certainly be going back there again. For anyone in the Paihia area, I have marked the location on the map, with a purple "star". It's a big Pohutukawa on the village green, near to the corner of Marsden and School Roads.