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

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.