Omanawa Falls, Tauranga

Walk #182, 20th December 2025

This is the prettiest waterfall I have ever seen. A weir above the falls diverts some of the river through a power station so the falls are greatly diminished from their original power. Even so the area has still maintained its natural beauty.

Omanawa Falls was the first underground hydro-generating power station in the country and entire southern hemisphere. It was constructed in 1913-1915 for the city of Tauranga, which at that time had a population of around 1500 people .

Ngati Hangarau, the tribe who are kaitieke (guardians) of the area hold the river and falls as a sacred place.

There are three different viewpoints. We saw the falls from two of the lookouts but didn’t do the third, the Te Harikoa Lookout at the base of the falls. It would have taken an extra 662 stairs and 40 minutes; time we didn’t have.

What we did see was wonderful, a single drop waterfall in front of a cave, surrounded by native bush with the water splashing into a sapphire coloured pool.

As well as native birds the pekapeka, long tailed bats, have been recorded flying around the Omanawa Valley.

There’s a cafe at the car parking area near the start of the track.

Walk: Bay of Plenty 9

McClaren Falls is nearby.

Related walk

McClaren Falls

Links

The earliest people known to have lived in the Tauranga area are the Purukupenga, whose name alone survives, and the Ngamarama, who inhabited all the land from the Waimapu Stream to the Kaimai ranges. So numerous were these people that when the Tainui canoe passed through the Tauranga harbour, she made only a brief stay.
Source: Tauranga Local History

Ngati Hangarau, the guardians of the area, are a sub-tribe of Ngati Ranginui of the Takitimu canoe.

Omanawa Falls

Ngāti Hangarau Hapū Trust Chair Koro Nicholas
explains Te Toka Mauri stone at Te Rere o Ōmanawa –
Ōmanawa Falls site blessing.

Source: Tauranga City, Reopening of Te Rere o Ōmanawa, or, Ōmanawa Falls, 2023 (Event)

Mount Maunganui,Bay of Plenty

Walk #121, 25th April 2024

Mount Maunganui is a prominent Tauranga landmark rising 232 metres out of the sea at the entrance to Tauranga harbour.

The Patupairahe people gave the Mount the name ‘Mauao’ which means “caught by the dawn.”

Three pa sites have been found on the Mount. Ngati Ranginui held the Mount until around 1700 when they were defeated by Ngāi Te Rangi in the battle of Kokowai.

The Mount has been the site of many battles, the last being in 1820 when Ngapuhi, armed with muskets, took Mauao. The pa was never reoccupied.

This walk is around the track at the base of the Mount. We were running out of daylight so the top track will have to wait.

Walk: Bay of Plenty 6

Related walk:

Waikareao Estuary Walkway, Tauranga

Links

The Battle of Kōkōwai

The walk features a rock named Te Toka a Tirikawa, a landing site associated with the Takitimu canoe. On our walk in Mahia I learned that the Takitimu waka (canoe) was tapu (sacred) and the waka was not permitted to carry any woman or food on its journey. So the account of the Takitimu appears to be semi-mythological, although I have no doubt there was a real waka captained by a real man named Tamatea.

Wikipedia states Tākitimu was a waka (canoe) with whakapapa (ancestral lineage) throughout the Pacific particularly with Samoa, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand in ancient times. The Tākitumu was an important waka in the Cook Islands with one of the districts on the main island of Rarotonga consequently named after it.

This artwork at Mt Maunganui public library depicts the story of the mountain Mauao (Mt Maunganui).

Tauturangi Walkway, Opape, Bay of Plenty

Walk #102, 9th January 2023

The walk is next to Opape Beach. It’s an old coach road. There are some nice views from the track but the land is neglected. It doesn’t look like the track is used much. The views would be better if they cleared away the gorse.

The track is a joint venture between Nga Tamahaua hapu, Opotiki District Council and Environment Bay of Plenty. Which to me means no-one’s in charge of looking after the land.

Walk: Bay of Plenty 21

History

Opape

Story: Te Whakatōhea

Opape was originally Opepe:

“At Ngai Tama we have a really important historical narrative about the people who were there previously and were the early settlers. They were called Pananehu. Many of the women at that time were tiny women with small cervixes. When they mated with the Pananehu who were the giant people as we refer to them, many of those children died in pregnancy because the women’s cervixes were too small. The original name of Opape was Opepe. The name commemorated this event. Ngai Tamahaua has a waiata entitled “Me Penei Ana.” The waiata is unique to the hapu. It memorialises the loss of the children. We’re the only ones who sing it on ceremonial occasions and at tangi.

Source: Treaty of Waitangi claim Wai 1750, #C39

Te Porere Redoubt

Walk 9: Te Porere Redoubt, 28 Dec 2018

Click here for the video

Te Pōrere, in the shadow of Tongariro, is the site of the last major battle of the New Zealand Wars was fought on 4 October 1869 between Te Kooti and a combined force of Armed Constabulary and Māori fighters.

Te Kooti or an ally built this British style redoubt/pa but the angles were poorly sited and the horizontal loopholes prevented the defenders from firing down into the ditch, which the government forces speedily occupied after taking out two small detached positions.

The dead from Te Porere are buried on site. Te Kooti got away into the bush with other survivors.

Te Kehakeha led him and others ‘in the general direction of Te Rena via an old Ngāti Hotu track’. Te Rena belonged to the remnant of the Ngati Hotu. (Source: The National Park District Inquiry Report, Page 173.)

Walk: Central North Island 42

Te Kooti

“Perhaps time will allow us to see this figure in perspective, and help us to decide whether he was murderer, butcher, and slayer of innocent women and children. Or was he really a military genius, a Maori hero, who suffered defeat only twice in the long years of campaigning. Was he a prophet, a spiritual leader, who could refashion the adherents of a pagan cult into warriors who could fight with rules, who could show mercy to prisoners, who could begin and end the fighting with worship of God. Te Kooti Rikirangi Te Turuki—mystery man of the Maori race—we see him now in a clearer light.”
Article: Did This Change the Course of History? by Ernest E. Bush

Te Kooti – Wikipedia

*See page on Te Kooti’s war.

Tokaanu

Walk 7: Tokaanu

15th October 2018

Click here for the video

Tokaanu on the southwestern side of Lake Taupo, is near the small town of Turangi.

This short walk is next to the Tokaanu Hot pools, which I’ve found are well worth the visit after a day skiing on Mount Ruapehu. The path at Tokaanu wends its way past steaming pools and boiling mud.

Walk: Turangi / Taupo 39

History of Tokaanu

Wikipedia: Before the development of Turangi in the 1960s, Tokaanu was the main settlement at the southern end of Lake Taupo. It had been known to Māori for centuries for its natural thermal pools. The pools became a major stopover on the Grand Tour stage coach run from Wanganui to Taupo in the 1800s. Passengers arrived by stage coach from Waiouru, and departed by steam launch from the historic Tokaanu wharf onwards to Taupo.

Trevor Hosking, archaeologist for the Tongariro Power Development 1966

In the 1960s the country needed more power and numerous schemes had been mooted. The Tongariro Power Development was to be an important one which would involve thousands of acres of land as well as many rivers and tributaries in the area around the new town of Turangi and as far south as Waiouru. The Ministry of Works was in charge of the scheme and wanted things to be done correctly, and it was decided that the Historic Places Trust would have the responsibility of making sure the development progressed without destroying areas of historic or archaeological interest.

The Trust wrote letters to the Tuwharetoa Board asking for permission to undertake the work and recommended archaeologist Trevor Hosking for the job.

A Museum Underfoot

The book ‘A Museum Underfoot’ was published on Hosking’s work. On page 100, Hosking writes about his discovery of Ngati Hotu skulls:

Bones had turned up near the Tokaanu Stream. Some eight feet of pumice had been removed before the bones were discovered. The skull shapes were quite different and Trevor Hosking had access to the late Lesley G Adkins who provided him with his research papers on the Horowhenua burials and the types of skulls found in that area.

Adkin’s information tied in exactly with what Hosking had been turning up while working throughout the Turangi area. The loader driver had unearthed the skulls of a very early, pre-Polynesian people.

In Taupo these early people are known as Ngati Hotu and Korako. In Horowhenua they are Waitaha, down south Ngati Mamoe and so on. In most cases their history is lost in the mists of time. They didn’t survive the onslaught of the more warlike arrivals from the Eastern Pacific.

Category: Tribes