This study investigates hybrid compound formation of Maori and English terms in present day New Zealand English (NZE). On the background of Maori and English language contact, the phenomenon of hybrid compounding emerges as a process that, on the one hand, symbolizes the vitality of the Maori element in NZE and, on the other hand, marks the integration of Maori concepts in New Zealand culture. The investigation is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the most frequent Maori loans in hybrid compounds drawn from a popular New Zealand newspaper ("The New Zealand Herald"). While the quantitative part establishes the total number of Maori loans, their usage in hybrid compounds, and their individual productivity values, the qualitative investigation disentangles semantic referential patterns underlying the formation of hybrid compounds. This approach to analysing hybrid compounds unveils a series of referential clusters that emerge from the semantic frame of the Maori borrowings and that allow for a conceptual categorization of the hybrid compounds.