The Tuia Mātauranga Pōkai Whenua GeoTour follows the footsteps of early explorers of Aotearoa New Zealand taking you to places where leaders of the past searched for food, resources and ways to adapt and survive in this new land.
Use the Pōkai Whenua GeoTour as your classroom to explore the stories of the past, in the present, to preserve what is unique in Aotearoa New Zealand for the future.
Collect the codewords to get the Geocoin puzzle pieces
To be able to complete this GeoTour and receive your special Geocoin collectable, remember to take a note of the codeword placed in the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded here.
63 of the 150 Pōkai Whenua GeoTour caches will contain a randomly placed special FTF token (a replica of the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour commemorative coin). This is yours to keep! If you find more than one, you might consider leaving it for the next person who finds the cache.
PWGT3 Area 1 Tamati Pirimona Marino
Tamati Pirimona Marino through his parents, Ringahuri of Ngāti Tama/Te Atiawa and Roka of Ngāti Rarua, Marino (also known as Te Pua Ringahuri) was related to all three mana whenua iwi of Mohua (Golden Bay) after the Tainui Taranaki conquest (1828-1830). His pā was at Aorere, where he had considerable land interests. He was baptised Tamati Pirimona (Thomas Freeman, after a Nelson boatbuilder) and married the same day (14 May 1843) to Erena Te Kehu by Samuel Ironside, a Wesleyan missionary based at Port Underwood.
Marino's generosity and hospitality to surveyors and officials were frequently remarked on, and when Brunner and Heaphy returned from their 1846 West Coast expedition they found Marino and Hemi Kuku (of Te Rae - between Pūponga and Pakawau) "... as assiduous in affording them provisions, even to tea and sugar, as Europeans ... could have been, and finally brought them to Nelson in a canoe as soon as the weather would permit".
Tuckett, who thought very highly of him - "... in integrity of character Ireno is really singular and conspicuous" - was impressed by Marino's insistence that flour and sugar, intended as gifts for him, should be shared with Europeans at Motupipi who had only Māori food.
Marino's 34-foot schooner, the Erena, named for his wife, was registered at Nelson in December 1845 under T. Freeman and S. Strong; Strong, a Nelson merchant, was listed as security for money and goods he advanced Marino to complete the vessel. In 1847, dissatisfied with the arrangement, Marino sued Strong in "the first case of a civil nature between an European and a native"; the Court found for Marino, awarding him £27. Marino often captained the vessel himself, shipping coal from Massacre Bay, pigs and potatoes from Queen Charlotte Sound, and passengers to the North Island. The Erena was wrecked in 1850 on its way to Kawhia "... owing to a singular mistake of her mate", a drunken Pākehā.
The 1857 Collingwood gold rush severely challenged Marino. As chief of the district he welcomed and fed hundreds of Māori miners, but his people eventually found that "feastings and koreroing with every fresh arrival was not a paying occupation".
In May 1860 Marino accompanied James Mackay Jr to the West Coast to extinguish Poutini Ngāi Tahu's interests there. Marino witnessed the Arahura Purchase Deed as a rangatira who had already sold his interests in the lands, and to ensure reserves were allocated for his whanaunga (kin). By signing the Arahura Deed the Poutini chiefs surrendered their customary title to nearly 3 million hectares in return for £300 and 10,224 acres (4,138 hectares) in reserves. Of that, 3,500 acres were reserved as an endowment “for religious, social and moral purposes” while the other 6,724 acres were for the use of Poutini Ngāi Tahu.
When the gold focus shifted to Buller in 1861-62, Marino's status was extremely valuable. He dissuaded Waikato Māori from exacting utu after a female relative was murdered, adjusted disputes, and was acknowledged by both races as chief. He and fellow chiefs hosted an excellent dinner of "sucking pig, fowl, beef, plum pudding, fruit pies etc" for all diggers to celebrate Christmas 1862; Marino proposed a toast to the Queen.
Tamati Pirimona Marino successfully combined his responsibilities as rangatira with the qualities necessary to succeed in the new society formed by colonisation. He was widely admired by Māori and European alike.
Marino and Erena lost at least one child. Erena's fate is unknown, but in the 1860s Marino's wife was Riria Wikiato. He died in 1877 without issue, and relatives from all three of his iwi inherited his interests at Aorere and Westport. He is buried in the historic cemetery at Collingwood.
How to find this cache...
At Waypoint 1:
Near Tamati Pirimona Marino's grave you will find some information panels. Have a read and discover some more local history and work out the following information to find waypoint 2...
Waypoint 2 is at S 40 41.ABC E172 40.DEF
A = Battle of Trafalgar Bicentenary Commemoration, October 2A05
B = Although B2 years had passed since the Battle of Trafalgar, ...
C = The ___ lonely landlubber is Wellington, ...
D = Number of listed naval heroes plus the number of listed classic naval battles.
E = The number of 'the small house at centre right'
F = In F857, half the world away in England
At Waypoint 2 (use the sign on the right hand side to find wayoint 3)
Waypoint 3 is at S40 41.PQR E172 40.STU
P = Lookout 1P MIN
Q = Number of C's on sign
R = Number of V's on sign
S = Number of E's plus Number of N's on sign
T = Number of B's on sign
U = Number of K's
At Waypoint 3...
❷ First word, third letter
❹ First word, fourth letter
❹ Second word, fourth letter
❶ First word, third letter
❼ First word, first letter
❷ Second word, first letter
❾ First word, second letter
❺ First word, first letter
❶ First word, first letter
We hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit of local history