Kōrero: Shipwrecks

The Arahura River on the West Coast was a major source of pounamu (greenstone) for Māori. Māori tradition says that the Pounamu were originally a people from Hawaiki who escaped their enemies in a canoe, the Tairea. But when the canoe was wrecked, the Pounamu were turned into the greenstone boulders that can still be found in this river.