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.
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.
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.
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.
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