Mount Ngongotaha, Rotorua

Walk #86, 16th April 2022

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.

Walk: Rotorua #23

Links

Mt Ngongotaha Jubilee Track

The Fairy Folk of Ngongotaha Mountain

“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.

Chapter II, The Fairy Folk of Ngongotaha Mountain

Source: Victoria University Library, Title: Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori, Author: James Cowan

Story: Patupaiarehe : Mt Ngongotaha

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.

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.

Rainbow Mountain, Waiotapu

Walk #78, 9th Jan 2022

Above: Bert explaining how they flew over this when his father was a pilot for Volcanic Wunderflights.

A short walk through native bush leads to a cyan coloured lake framed by red and white cliffs. The lake occupies the crater of Maungakakaramea, Rainbow Mountain. It’s still geothermically active so ducks can swim at one end while water boils at the other.

Walk: Rotorua 32

Links

Waiotapu Tavern, places to visit

To Tatou iwi

History, from the boards :

This is the tribal region of the Ngati Tahu, Ngati Whaoa tribe. According to their tradition their ancestors Tahumatua and his descendant Whaoa arrived long before the so-called “great migration.” The summit and slopes of the mountain supported a large Whaoa Pa.

In modern times the area was used for experimental forestry. Up until the 1960’s half-Clydesdale horses moved the harvested timber by verbal commands, without reins.

Lake Okareka

Walk 68, 24th July 2021

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.

Walk: Rotorua 25

Links

History of Lake Okareka

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.

Black Swans

The Redwoods / Whakarewarewa Forest

Walk 66, 9th May 2021

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.

Walk: Rotorua 24

Links

Redwood Memorial Grove track

Rptorua, Redwood Memorial Grove Track

The Redwoods, Whakarewarewa Forest

The Redwoods Tree Walk

The woman behind the Mary Sutherland Memorial Redwood: Mary Sutherland (forester)

Our Redwoods Tree Walk

City of Rotorua

Walk 59, 23 Jan 2021

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.