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.
The Tuia Mātauranga - Pōkai Whenua GeoTour: Tahi 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 piece.
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.
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Ōtāwhao Mission Station
Tainui Māori first settled the Waikato area as early as the fourteenth century.
Their forebears sailed to Aotearoa New Zealand from Hawaiki. The Tainui canoe is buried at Kawhia, and it was from there that the people consolidated and gradually spread, settling most of the Waikato and the King Country. It was a good area for settlement, with excellent growing conditions and river access. Many pā were established in Te Awamutu and its districts due to these favourable conditions.
From 1775 until approximately 1810 a number of prominent Waikato chiefs and warriors were born, including the first Maori King, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero of Ngāti Mahuta, Te Rauparaha of Ngāti Toa, Kawhia, and Hongi Hika, a Ngāpuhi chief from the north, who played a significant role in Waikato history. It was Hongi Hika who invaded the Waipā triangle in 1822 at Mātakitaki near Pirongia. The site of Mātakitaki Pā was well suited to traditional Māori hand-to-hand combat, but the pā’s inhabitants were defeated by the musket. This was the first time that European weaponry was used in the Waikato. The battle at Mātakitaki was where the musket overcame the taiaha. Waikato leaders were quick to appreciate the value of the musket in battle, and traders soon appeared amongst the Māori people, trading muskets for flax. This was the first contact between Waikato Māori and Europeans.
The introduction of the musket resulted in a period of intense tribal warfare.
In 1834 missionaries visited the district, bringing changes to the Māori way of life. By the 1840s, after intervention from Wesleyan, Church of England and Catholic missionaries, there was peace. At Te Awamutu there were two important pā; Ōtāwhao, a pā on the hill which is currently Wallace Terrace, and Kaipaka Pā, which is to be found at the end of what is now Christie Avenue. Ōtāwhao, named after the Tainui tupuna (ancestor) Tāwhao, was first visited by missionaries in 1834. It was at Ōtāwhao Pā that the first church was built in 1838, and where in 1839 Reverend Ashwell asked the Whare Kura (Christian Māori) to leave and set up a separate community at Te Awamutu. It was this act that led to the establishment of the Ōtāwhao Mission Station. Morgan, who resided at the Ōtāwhao Mission with his wife Maria from 1841 until 1863, made personal contributions to the history of the area in the mattersof religion, education and agriculture. During this period there was a significant increase in Māori involvement in agriculture, including the establishment of a number of farms and flour mills, largely funded by Māori parishioners. The resulting produce and crops supplied, amongst other places, the Auckland markets.
During this period, at the request of the parishioners, permanent church buildings were erected; St John’s (1854) at Te Awamutu, and St Paul’s (1856) at Hairini (Rangiaowhia). The mission buildings were leased by the New Zealand Government in 1862, and John Gorst, as Civil Commissioner of the Waikato, took over the Ōtāwhao Mission School. From within the mission site the printing press Te Pihoihoi Mokemoke began printing, in Māori, opinion opposing that of the King Movement newspaper Te Hokioi. In March 1863 Ngāti Maniapoto seized the government press, and only after negotiation returned it onto the Queen’s land at Te Ia.
After his return as governor on 1861, Governor Grey decided that the Kingitanga, with its determination not to sell land, presented a serious challenge to imperial authority. A string of redoubts from south Auckland was built in preparation for invasion. Between July 1863 and April 1864 Imperial troops and locally raised Pākehā units advanced south.
In 1864 the Ōtāwhao Mission Station site became the headquarters of General Cameron’s army.
At the conclusion of the Waikato Wars ex-militia and settlers became the first Europeans to populate Te Awamutu. This was followed by the opening up of the area with the railway in 1880, and further development of the economy through farming, particularly dairying. The sale in 1907 of the Ōtāwhao Mission Farm signalled the growth of the town of Te Awamutu.