Arrival of the Aotea Waka in Aotea Harbour
Turi was the great navigator who voyaged from Rangiatea to New Zealand, probably about fifty years before the arrival of Tainui, approx 800 years ago.
He made his first settlement in the bay he called Hawaiiki, where his canoe Aotea could be safely moored in the Te Kowiwi stream; probably at that time at the very foot of the kidney-shaped hill upon which he built a fortified village.
That village was called Turi Matai Rehua because Turi here awaited the return of the star Rehua, which indicated the coming of summer, so that he could resume his voyaging.
It was probably further developed by later generations into the formidable fortress its remains show it to have been.
Turi was a notable navigator and was called 'Turi He Patea Taipo Moana', or 'Turi who gulps the ocean'.