This is a two hour return walk between two of the lakes of Rotorua. The walk starts at Korokitewao Bay at Lake Rotoiti and ends at Lake Rotoehu.
In 1823 Hongi Hika attacked Arawa in Rotorua. He had muskets and he was bent on revenge. They dragged their war canoes from Lake Rotoehu across to Lake Rotoira using the track as a portage, and from there through a canal into Lake Rotorua.
A small loop track leads to Hinehopu’s tree, a sacred matai at the side of SH30. Hinehopu was hidden here as a baby and it’s where she met her husband to be, Pikiao. (This is from a different time and not related to Hongi Hika’s attack on Rotorua).
Hinehopu’s Matai tree
Korokitewao Bay, Lake Rotoira, where the track begins
One of Hongi’s war canoes was made into a pataka that is now at Te Papa. See the walk at Papaitonga Scenic Reserve, Levin where the pataka from Te Takinga, Lake Rotoiti ended up before being donated to the Dominion Museum.
On the point on the left hand as the bay is entered, where the trees dip their thirsty branches so low that they touch the water, once stood Te Ari kainga, a village of the ancient lake people …
The Rotorua district is full of lakes and these two don’t disappoint. They are water filled volcanic craters where the water level rises and falls from year to year. Blue Lake (Tikitapu) drains underground to Green Lake (Rotokakahi) which is 20 metres lower.
Blue Lake is named after a lost tiki. Green lake is named after freshwater mussel.
You can’t walk around Green Lake, it is privately owned by the Maori. Blue Lake is a nice walk, mostly under trees with views of the lake all the way.
Blue Lake, TikitapuGreen Lake, Rotokakahi
Walk: Rotorua #27
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There’s stone pataka on the south-east shore of Green Lake, near the former village of Epiha. It’s like the one at the Buried Village at Tarawera, without the ornamentation.
There are two tracks, I recommend the nature trail.
The Jubilee track is straight up for an hour with no views. It was a nice walk with friends, great for my friend who wanted exercise, meh for me.
This walk had the most fungi I’ve seen anywhere.
At the start of the walk is a large rata, the only one in the reserve.
The Patupaiarahe
This mountain used to be the home of the ancient patupaiarehe. They weren’t fairies, some looked like Maori, some like Europeans.
The name Ngongotaha is derived from an encounter with them. It means to drink water from the calabash, which was offered to Ihenga (the grandson of Tamatekapua) by a patupaiarehe maiden when he was exploring the country around Rotorua. There’s no water up the top of the mountain and Ihenga was thirsty.
Normally the elusive patupaiarehe had no truck with Maori but Ihenga made friends with them and he eventually lived near the mountain on the banks of the Waitete Stream.
The patupaiarehe left the mountain and moved west after the Maori accidentally or deliberately burned them out.
“The name of that tribe of Patu-paiarehe was Ngati-Rua, and the chiefs of that tribe in the days of my ancestor Ihenga were Tuehu, Te Rangitamai, Tongakohu, and Rotokohu. The people were very numerous; there were a thousand or perhaps many more on Ngongotaha.
They were an iwi atua (a god-like race, a people of supernatural powers). In appearance some of them were very much like the Maori people of today; others resembled the pakeha race. The colour of most of them was kiri puwhero (reddish skins), and their hair had the red or golden tinge which we call uru-kehu.
Some had black eyes, some blue like fair-skinned Europeans. They were about the same height as ourselves. Some of their women were very beautiful, very fair of complexion, with shining fair hair.
They wore chiefly the flax garments called pakerangi, dyed a red colour; they also wore the rough mats pora and pureke. In disposition they were peaceful; they were not a war-loving, angry people.
Their food consisted of the products of the forest, and they also came down to this Lake Rotorua to catch inanga (whitebait.)
There was one curious characteristic of these Patu-paiarehe; they had a great dread of the steam that rose from cooked food. In the evenings, when the Maori people living at Te Raho-o-te-Rangipiere and other places near the fairy abodes opened their cooking-ovens, all the Patu-paiarehe retired to their houses immediately they saw the clouds of vapour rising, and shut themselves up; they were afraid of the mamaoa—the steam.
Fairy Springs: so named because the Patupaiarehe would descend the slopes of Mount Ngongotaha to visit the springs at night and to drink from the waters.
Fairy Springs, Mitai Maori Village
Nearby Rainbow Springs: A rainbow would appear over the spring, therefore Rainbow Springs is another name given to this location.
Unfortunately the wildlife park that was here has been closed after 90 years of business – because of the Covid lockdowns.
There are some beautiful lakes in the Rotorua lakes district, and Lake Okareka is my favourite. This lake is in the same area as Lake Tarawera and the Blue and Green Lakes. I’ve canoed on it and ridden on the hills above. If you like bird watching there are lots of noisy water birds to see.
I like the Black Swans the most because they weren’t believed to exist. New Zealand’s Black swan was hunted to extinction by the Maori but black swans were brought over from Australia in the 1860s and there’s a population of approximately 50,000 today.
Patupaiarehe : The very rugged badlands of the central North Island became the sanctuary for early Patu-paiarehe tribes fleeing from the Eastern coastline of New Zealand over in the Hawkes Bay District or from the western coastline around Taranaki. The Ngati-Hotu of Hawkes Bay, first fled to the inland lakes. In the Rotorua District this included lakes Rotorua, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu, Tarawera, Rotomarama, Rerewhakaaitu, Rotoehu, and Rotama. The Patu-paiarehe tribes seemingly subsisted well in the district and their underground dwellings or other structures can be found throughout the area to this day. On the Western side of Lake Rotorua they occupied the high ground of Ngongataha. Source: Whakahoro
Lake Okareka : “Ōkareka means “the lake of sweet food”. In early times, Māori grew sweet potatoes or kumara around the outside of the lake.
This forest stretches from Rotorua City to the Blue and Green Lakes and there are heaps of tracks to choose from. We did the half-hour Redwood Memorial Grove track.
The North American redwood trees were planted in 1901 as part of an experimental forest to see which imported trees grew the best in New Zealand.
The Redwoods Tree Walk is also here, where you can walk on 28 swing bridges suspended above the understory layer. It costs $35 each and the night walk is included in the price. I recommend it.
The walk starts at the very Edwardian Government Gardens. From there, we walked to the lakefront, then Ohinemutu and finally Kurau Park. We walked back through town and finished at the Princes Gate.
The highlight of the walk for me is the window at St Faith’s Church, Ohinemutu, of Jesus walking on the water wearing a feathered cloak. The soldier’s graves next to the church are buried above ground because it’s a thermal area.
Ohinemutu is a Ngati Whakaue settlement. They’re an Arawa tribe. The 1887 carved meeting house of Ngati Whakaue is named for the captain of the Te Arawa canoe, Tama-te-Kapua.
Rotorua is the town my husband considers his hometown. His family moved there from the USA when he was twelve so the walk was a trip down memory lane for him.
There are two walks from the landing, the talk to the right takes you to the place where Green Lake flows into Lake Tarawera. The walk to the left takes you to Maori Rock paintings. The sign by the Tuhourangi iwi is very faded but this is what it says:
The rock art was restored by archeologist Trevor Hoskings. In 2009 Trevor Hosking, of Taupō, received the Queen’s Service Medal for services to the conservation of historic places. Mr Hosking had been actively involved in the restoration and protection of historic places in the Taupō area for more than 50 years. He worked to ensure the protection and restoration of local sites of significance, including the Armed Constabulary Hall, burial caves on Motutaiko Island, Rauhoata Cave, the Napier/Taupō Armed Constabulary Redoubts, the Te Porere Redoubt, the Tarawera rock drawings, and the Opepe Canoe. Source: Turangi Museum
The Tarawera rock art is mentioned in his book A Museum Underfoot, page 137-140.
Walk: Rotorua 28
Lake Tarawera
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Rock Art
Rock art in New Zealand is generally associated with the limestone shelters of the South Island, but already the New Zealand Archaeological Association lists 140 rock art sites in the North Island, most in the central plateau region … There are differences. The North Island has more carvings, the South Island more drawings. Abstract motifs dominate in the North, more figurative forms in the South.
And there are regional variations. In Tokoroa and Rotorua, drawings and carvings of waka are common—the best known being the vivid armada drawn in red on the edge of Lake Tarawera—while in Taranaki, the spiral, circles and other “classic” Maori motifs predominate.
The village of Te Wairoa was established in 1848 by Christian missionaries as a model village. It was buried in the 1886 eruption.
This stone pataka was one of the first structures to be excavated. It was discovered by Vi Smith, the landowner while they were having a picnic by the Te Wairoa stream.
Stone pataka at the Buried Village, Te Wairoa
The pataka is much older than the village structures and was probably built by the first people to live in the lakes area. See my post on Lake Okataiana.
There’s another stone pataka on the south-east shore of Green Lake, near the former village of Epiha.
From the boards: Okataina means the lake of laughter. It was an important link in pre-European times where canoes were carried from Tarawera to Okataina, and from Okataina to Rotoiti. Okataina road follows one of these ancient portage routes.
In 1823 Te Koutu Pa was attacked by Hongi Hika using a portage route.
Met at the Te Koutu pa site, Lake Okataina
The lake has no surface outlet – it drains by seepage through fissured lava towards Lake Tarawera which is about 20 metres lower in elevation. Because of this, the lake levels fluctuate dramatically with the rainfall.
In 1883 the area was covered in volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Tarawera.
There are small caves at the pa site. Tarawera ash has made it appear that caves were dug below ground level when in reality you had to step up to enter them. Some caves are characterised by a slightly domed ceiling. Some are L shaped with straight walls and a perfect gable ceiling, the outside is characterised by an extra recess for the door.
Ngati Tarawhai, a sub-tribe of Te Arawa are the principal iwi associated with the Okataina district. In 1921 they gifted the foreshores of Lake Okataina to the crown to be set aside as reserves.
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Toitu te whenua – leave the land undisturbed.
Walk: Rotorua 29
★★★★★
History
In previous times this area was settled by different iwi (tribes) who either pre-dated or derived from Te Arawa Waka. According to Ngati Tarawhai history, the first people to settle in the area was an iwi called Te Tini o Maruiwi (the myriads of Maruiwi.) They were followed by Te Tini o Ruatomore (the myriads of Ruatomore) who were to later adopt the name Ngati Kahupungapunga. Source: Lake Okataina Scenic Reserve history
The last stand of Ngāti Kahupungapunga was at Pohaturoa Rock.
THE MARUIWI FOLK OF THE BAY OF PLENTY DISTRICT: Volume 37 1928 > Volume 37, No. 146 > The Maruiwi folk of the Bay of Plenty District, by Elsdon Best, p 194-225
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