Walk #177, 18th November 2025

This was an unusual walk, we made our way over a big sand dune to a hot water beach near Kawhia, which also goes by the name of ‘Te Puia,’ meaning ‘hot springs’.

The hot spots are directly out from the main track down the dune. As you can see this hot water beach is less crowded than the more popular and well-known beach at Hahei, Coromandel.

You have to go two hours either side of low tide. The hot water is found by digging into the sand with your toes. We found a warm spot and my husband Bert dug a hole for us to soak in with his father’s US army issue spade. As he dug I could smell the sulphur. The hole that I’d already claimed had water that was a bit hotter.

Unfortunately it started to rain, but we were already wet anyway and the wind wasn’t cold.

I recommend the walk for its sheer novelty value.

Walk: Waikato 7

History of Kawhia

Te Rauparaha

Descended from the giant Raukawa who’d leaped the Waikato River at Cambridge, Te Rauparaha had moved south from Kawhia in the Waikato during the Maori Musket Wars.  He was known as a ‘Maori Napolean.’  Unlike his ancestor, Te Rauparaha was short, but he was known to have six toes on one of his feet.

Te Ara: The Maori leader responsible for the greatest slaughter in the early nineteenth century was undoubtedly Te Rauparaha, a chief of the Ngati Toa tribe of the Kawhia district.

The Ngāti Toa chief’s name is a taunt to an enemy Waikato chief who, when he was an infant, threatened to kill him and roast him with edible rauparaha leaves. Kāwhia-based Te Rauparaha (? -1849) led Ngāti Toa in a lengthy war with the Waikato tribes before defeat forced his tribe out of the area.
Te Rauparaha

…

The giant Kawharu: Kawharu was a man of Herculean stature and strength. A rock fully 12ft high’ on the Aotea beach still bears his name, on the top of which this Goliath is said to have rested his chin while awaiting the approach (at a later dateThe Ngāti Toa chief’s name is a taunt to an enemy Waikato chief who, when he was an infant, threatened to kill him and roast him with edible rauparaha leaves. Kāwhia-based Te Rauparaha (? -1849) led Ngāti Toa in a lengthy war with the Waikato tribes before defeat forced his tribe out of the area.) of a hostile force coming from Kawhia to attack him.
Pas of the Past

…

When the people of Tainui made their first landing at Kawhia, they found there tribes of tangata-whenua who, states White, were known as Ngati Hikawai and Te Upokotioa. The newcomers appear to have encountered no serious opposition from these people, of whom, unfortunately, we know so little. Later on, however, we know that they were attacked, most of the men being killed while the women became slave-wives to the Tainui men.

Title: Tainui : the story of Hoturoa and his descendants, Author: Kelly, Leslie G. (Leslie George),
Published: Polynesian Society, Wellington, N.Z., 1949