Skip to main content

Kōrero: King Country region

Tainui landing site, Kāwhia

Image
<em>Tainui</em> landing site, Kāwhia

Kāwhia is the place where the ancestral waka (canoe) Tainui landed for the last time – so it is sacred to the Tainui people. The waka was tied to this pōhutukawa tree, known as Tangi-te-korowhiti, and was later buried behind Maketū marae near the present-day township. The tree was still standing in the early 2000s. It is not known when this photograph was taken.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury

Reference: MB 118/13099

by W. Beattie

Permission of the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Kerryn Pollock, King Country region – Māori settlement and occupation, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/34838/tainui-landing-site-kawhia (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Kerryn Pollock, i tāngia i te 6 December 2011, updated 1 March 2015.