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 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.
|
"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 streets of Rotorua City are organised into a grid pattern that roughly runs from north to south, and east to west. Using a map of the city centre, let’s identify the city’s streets and look at some of the history behind these names.
WHAKAUE STREET: Whakaue was the son of Uenukukōpako. His wife was Rangiuru, mother of Tūtānekai. Later, Tūtānekai took on the name of his father and raised his people to become the tribal force known as Ngāti Whakaue.
PUKAKI STREET: One of six koromatua of Ngāti Whakaue, Pukaki was an 18th century rangatira (chief). In 1836 - three generations after his passing – Ngāti Whakaue strengthened Ōhinemutu in preparation for an impending attack. A carving of Pukaki was created as part of a gateway to guard the southern entrance to the village. The gateway was said to stand over 5 metres tall. In the 1850s, Pukaki was brought down and his lower portion was removed, thus transforming him from a gateway to a statue (tiki). He stood on the principal marae within Ōhinemutu until 1887. In that year, he was gifted to the Crown in good faith, as a symbol of trust regarding the Crown’s promise to develop Rotorua Township for the benefit of Ngāti Whakaue. Oddly, Pukaki ended up in the Auckland Museum and remained there until 1997. At that time, the Crown, Auckland Museum, Rotorua District Council and Ngāti Whakaue agreed that the best thing for Pukaki was to return him to Rotorua. In the interim, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand liked the look of Pukaki and used his image on its 20 cent coin.
ARAWA STREET: Named for the Te Arawa people.
HAUPAPA STREET: Rotohiko Haupapa was born in Ōhinemutu. A rangatira of Ngāti Tunohopu and a leader among the Ngāti Whakaue people, Haupapa was a competent speaker of both Māori and English. He held a number of administrative and judicial positions and was also active in local affairs as chief administration officer of Te Komiti nui o Rotorua (Great Committee of Rotorua) and a member of the inaugural Rotorua Town Board (1883). He was also instrumental in organising Māori education in Rotorua (See GC6VM59).
PUKUATUA STREET: There were two prominent men named Te Pukuatua in Rotorua when it was first established, the half-brothers Henare and Petera. Henare served with Captain Gilbert Mair’s ‘Flying Column’ and presented the Te Arawa challenge to the Duke of Edinburgh at Ōhinemutu in 1870. The street however is most probably named after Petera Tukino Te Pukuatua, one of the chief Ngāti Whakaue negotiators and a signatory of the Rotorua Township Agreement on November 26, 1880.
HINEMOA STREET: Hinemoa is well known for swimming from the beach near the rock Iriirikapua at Ōwhata to her lover Tūtānekai on Mokoia Island, drawn by the sound of his flute. Her father was Umukaria and her mother Hinemaru.
ERUERA STREET: It is likely that the street is named after Eruera (Edward) Te Uremutu. He was prominent in the Te Arawa claims in the 1870s – 1880s.
AMOHAU STREET: Te Amohau, was one of those chiefs approached by the Kingitanga movement of Tainui to stand as ‘Te Kīngi Māori.’ Te Amohau turned down the offer and suggested the Tūwharetoa leader Te Heuheu instead.
HINEMARU STREET: Named after the mother of Hinemoa.
FENTON STREET: Frances Dart Fenton (1824-1898). Son of Francis Fenton and Frances Ashby, was baptised at St Mary, Islington on 6 August 1824. He attended Sheffield Collegiate School, entered the law office of an uncle in Huddersfield, and was admitted to practice as a solicitor. In 1850 for the sake of his health, he sailed for Canterbury, New Zealand together with his cousin Joseph Armitage. They went ashore at Auckland and decided to remain there. On the 9th of December, 1858, he married Martha Connell, and together they had two sons and four daughters. Francis took an interest in Maori affairs and drafted the Native Lands Act of 1865 and in January 1865 was appointed Chief Judge of the Native Land Court. In 1880, 295 members of Ngāti Whakaue entered into a contract to set aside land for the formation of a township. The contract became known as the ‘Fenton Agreement’. Fenton negotiated the contract on behalf of the Crown.
TŪTĀNEKAI STREET: He is often referred to as the father of the Ngāti Whakaue people. Tūtānekai, whose home was on Mokoia Island, was a warrior involved in many skirmishes, though it is for harmony that he is now best remembered. It was his flute-playing that led Hinemoa on her epic swim to Mokoia Island.
RANGIURU STREET: Named after the mother of Tūtānekai.
AMOHIA STREET: Amohia was the fictitious heroine of a 488 page poem written by Alfred Domett (New Zealand Prime Minister 1862-63) called Ranolf and Amohia: A South Sea Day-dream. Her lover was an English sailor named Ranolf.
RANOLF STREET: The fictitious English sailor and hero of the poem, Ranolf and Amohia: A South Sea Day-dream.
THE CACHE: Located on Haupapa Street, this hide is a stone's throw from where I work. The cache is a small pill bottle inside a larger, camouflaged pill bottle. As with most caches in the Rotorua CBD, stealth is necessary. This hide is in a busy area - take care because some of the windows have eyes. The cache has room for very small items. Please bring your own pen/cil.