Tag: Trevor Hosking

Lake Tarawera, Rotorua

Walk 49, 31st October 2020

Lake Tarawera walk to rock paintings

There are two walks from the landing, the talk to the right takes you to the place where Green Lake flows into Lake Tarawera. The walk to the left takes you to Maori Rock paintings. The sign by the Tuhourangi iwi is very faded but this is what it says:

The rock art was restored by archeologist Trevor Hoskings. In 2009 Trevor Hosking, of Taupō, received the Queen’s Service Medal for services to the conservation of historic places.  Mr Hosking had been actively involved in the restoration and protection of historic places in the Taupō area for more than 50 years.  He worked to ensure the protection and restoration of local sites of significance, including the Armed Constabulary Hall, burial caves on Motutaiko Island, Rauhoata Cave, the Napier/Taupō Armed Constabulary Redoubts, the Te Porere Redoubt, the Tarawera rock drawings, and the Opepe Canoe. Source: Turangi Museum

The Tarawera rock art is mentioned in his book A Museum Underfoot, page 137-140.

Walk: Rotorua 28

Lake Tarawera

Links

Rock Art

Rock art in New Zealand is generally associated with the limestone shelters of the South Island, but already the New Zealand Archaeological Association lists 140 rock art sites in the North Island, most in the central plateau region … There are differences. The North Island has more carvings, the South Island more drawings. Abstract motifs dominate in the North, more figurative forms in the South.

And there are regional variations. In Tokoroa and Rotorua, drawings and carvings of waka are common—the best known being the vivid armada drawn in red on the edge of Lake Tarawera—while in Taranaki, the spiral, circles and other “classic” Maori motifs predominate.

Set in stone, NZGeo.com

The Pink and White Terraces

The famed Pink and White Terraces, an eighth wonder of the world, were buried by the Tarawera eruption.

The Pink and White Terraces by Carl Kahler, painting is hanging at the Chateau Tongariro.

The Pink and White Terraces: Sound Archives: the Mt Tarawera Eruption

The Tarawera Eruption

Mount Tarawera in Eruption, June 10, 1886, from Wairoa

A phantom canoe was believed to have been seen by tourists at Lake Tarawera eleven days before Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886.

The Eruption of Tarawera (2000) Part 1

Te Wairoa

The Buried Village, Te Wairoa

The village of Te Wairoa was established in 1848 by Christian missionaries as a model village. It was buried in the 1886 eruption.

This stone pataka was one of the first structures to be excavated. It was discovered by Vi Smith, the landowner while they were having a picnic by the Te Wairoa stream.

Stone pataka at the Buried Village, Te Wairoa

The pataka is much older than the village structures and was probably built by the first people to live in the lakes area. See my post on Lake Okataiana.

There’s another stone pataka on the south-east shore of Green Lake, near the former village of Epiha.

Stone pataka at Green Lake

The Maori record that the original people, Ngati Ruatamore, were exterminated at Te Wairoa.

The carving below in the Buried Village museum is also much older. As you can see from the diorama, Lake Okataina is in the same area.

Tokaanu

Walk 7: Tokaanu

15th October 2018

Tokaanu hot springs

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.

 

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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.

Turangi

The Ghost Museum