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.
Mangaweka is a sleepy place where the Rangitikei River flows past cliffs of white papa. The very grandly named main street of Mangaweka is now devoid of traffic since State Highway 1 bypassed the main street in the late 1970s.
It’s a town where time seems to have stopped. The unaltered buildings in “Broadway” are from a previous century.
Many buildings stand empty, but Mangaweka still has a school, library, hotel, and a DC3 plane on the main highway which operated as a tearoom.
Manga means stream and weka means woodhen.
Mangaweka was one of the first towns on the North Island Main Trunk Railway to get electricity. The Mangaweka Power Station project commenced in 1911, originally it was intended to serve as a water resevoir.
Little remains of the tiny power station and a small building containing historic photos shelters the site. The walk to the resevoir intake is across the road. The path is through a beautiful small gorge which follows the Mangawharaiki River. The resevoir is intact but the brick-lined intake tunnel to the right is blocked by a log which wedged there in 1937, causing the power station to finally close down.
Broadway, Mangaweka
Walk: Manawatu 22
Mangaweka Scenic Reserve
I think there was supposed to be a viewing point by a Kahikatea tree but we couldn’t find it. The track is not well maintained. The walks are not clearly marked but there’s a good view of the town of Mangaweka from the road by the entrance. Part of the walk is on the old main trunk railway line which is littered with broken pieces of the white papa rock. There’s a large matai and other trees like rimu, tawa and titoki trees in the reserve.
Every New Zealand town has it’s ‘thing’ and for the Bay of Plenty town of Katikati it is haiku.
A quiet walk alongside the Uretara River in Katikati, behind the main street, features thirty boulders engraved with haiku. It is the largest collection of “haiku stones” in English in the world.
Haiku Path, Katikati
There were some murals I liked as well. This one was my favourite as I’m a descendant of settlers who, in coming to New Zealand from Europe, Scotland and England, made the longest journey.
Finally, there’s a small scale replica of a kauri driving dam in the main street on the left as you’re heading for Tauranga. To see a working model, join us on our walk to the Kauaeranga Valley model dam near Thames.
The walk starts off at the rock of Pohaturoa. Matters of war and peace were discussed and debated here. The rock now serves as a World War 1 memorial.
Most of the original cave in the rock has been replaced by a road. The remaining arch has an ugly frame under it.
Desecration is the word that comes to mind when I look at what remains. It’s a pity there wasn’t any forethought about preserving the landmarks when the town was planned out. They should have listened to the Maori.
The town is pretty. There’s a marina behind the main street where you could get on a tour for White Island. (You can’t go there now because the volcano erupted in Dec 2019.)
Pohaturoa rock
left: Me at Pohuturoa rock and right: the entrance to Muriwai’s cave
History:
In local Māori tradition, the Mātaatua waka (ocean-going canoe) was the first to land at Whakatane, approximately 700 years ago and many iwi can trace their origins to ancestors on the Mātaatua canoe.
Toroa, the captain of the Mataatua canoe, had been instructed by his father to look for three landmarks in his search for Whakatane – the Wairere Falls, Muriwai’s cave, and Irakewa rock.
“There is a land far away that is a good place for you to go to. There is a waterfall at that place and a cave in the hillside for Muriwai. The rock standing in the river is myself.”
Te Toka o Irakewa (Irakewa rock) was destroyed in by the harbour board in 1924. The rock’s remains can be seen by the riverbank – but we did see Wairere Falls and Muriwai’s cave.
Pōhaturoa, a rock in the centre of Whakatāne, is now a memorial to those who fell in the First World War. But long before this the rock was a sacred place for Ngāti Awa. In its tunnel (once a cave) young warriors were tattooed, and in the nearby Waiewe Stream newborn children were immersed in a form of baptism. Twelve Ngāti Awa chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi here on 12 June 1840.
“Ngāti Awa are the descendants of Te Tini o Toi, the original inhabitants of the region, and the people of Mataatua waka.”
According to Elsdon Best, the task of Ngati-Awa when dwelling at Whakatane, Ohiwa, and Opotiki was continuous fighting against Maruiwi and Ngati-Ruatamore.
Unfortunately this iwi, along with other Maori, believe they own the water. Their website contains this statement in Maori: “We, the indigenous people of Mataatua, believe that the freshwater of this country is a legacy from our ancestors, down to the generations that live in this changing world, and to the rising generations.”
In New Zealand, no-one owns the water. If we tried to make it so all New Zealanders owned the water, the Maori will say the water is theirs, and ownership would turn into a political hot potato.
Chinese bottling plants like Nongfu Spring take advantage of “no-one owning the water.” They take it for cents on the dollar and turn into plastic. This is how the Resource Management Act is exploited by foreigners.
“It’s really, really difficult for an everyday New Zealander to navigate this kind of system when the government is relying on us, as citizens, to uphold the RMA. If you look at it, they spend $30 million a year enticing overseas companies to come here, but only spend less than a million supporting everyday kiwis who are fighting gross consents like this in court. It’s diabolical really.” Source: Community takes fight against water bottling plant to High Court
1818 – Bay of Plenty Ravaged: Episode 25 (Musket Wars #7) In January 1818 Te Morenga, a Ngapuhi chief, lead a war party to the Bay of Plenty. A month later, Hongi Hika lead another war party to the same area. The Bay of Plenty became a killing ground as the musket armed Ngapuhi wreak havoc on local Maori.
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