The Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour is about having fun discovering the history of Aotearoa New Zealand by finding sites of significance in local communities from early Pacific voyaging and migration, European settlement to present day. The interaction between people, and people and the land have provided a rich history that the GeoTour invites you to explore.

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The Prophet and the Prime Minister

This cache is part of the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour (TMGT).

Rua Kēnana Hepetipa (1869–1937) was a Māori prophet, faith healer and land rights activist. He called himself Te Mīhāia Hou, the New Messiah, the successor of Te Kooti Arikirangi, Hepetipa (Hephzibah) who would reclaim Tūhoe land that had been lost to Pākehā ownership.

Rua met with the then Prime Minister Joseph George Ward on the beach at Whakatane in March 1908.  This was later described as the 'Ceremony of Union': Rua accepted Ward's argument that there could be no separate Māori government but concluded that there would be the same laws for Māori and Pākehā.

A portion of an article from the Rotorua Telegraph covering the meeting is attached.

The cache was placed very close to where this historic meeting took place.

The cache keeps being removed so in order to claim it:

please email the FOUR digit code on the Lamp Post at this site to

GC8D40N@gmail.com

and you will receive the TMGT code word back by email.

If, for some reason, you do not receive the code back, please contact the cache owner immediately through the geocaching.com message app and we will respond as quickly as we can.

The above photograph shows how the area looked around the beginning of the 1900's.
 

To be able to complete this Geotour and receive your special geocoin, remember to take a note of the codeword on the log book of the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded from here. If the passport is unavailable for any reason just keep a note of the codeword and try again later.