Sights in Whakatane
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A
Whakatane Museum & Gallery
This impressive regional museum has artfully presented displays on early Maori and European settlerment in the area: taonga (treasures) of local Maori trace their lineage back to the Mataatua canoe. The art gallery presents a varied program of NZ and international exhibitions. It's rumoured to be relocating: call the number if it's not where it's supposed to be.
reviewed
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B
Pohaturoa
Beside a roundabout on the Strand is Pohaturoa, a large tapu (sacred) rock outcrop, where baptism, death, war and moko (tattoo) rites were performed. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed here by Ngati Awa chiefs in 1840; there’s a monument to the Ngati Awa chief Te Hurinui Apanui here too.
reviewed
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Te Papaka & Puketapu
On the clifftops behind the town are two ancient Ngati Awa pa sites – Te Papaka and Puketapu – both of which offer sensational (and very defendable) outlooks over Whakatane.
reviewed
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C
Te Manuka Tutahi Marae
The centrepiece of this brand-new Ngati Awa marae isn't new: Mataatua Wharenui (The House That Came Home) is a fantastically carved 1875 meeting house. In 1879 it was dismantled and shipped to Sydney, before spending 71 years in the Otago Museum from 1925. It was returned to the Ngati Awa in 1996. Still a work in progress when we visited, a cultural experience for visitors is planned: until its completion you can enter the marae and check out Mataatua Wharenui from the outside (behave respectfully).
reviewed
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D
Muriwai’s Cave
The partially collapsed Te Ana o Muriwa (Muriwai’s Cave) once extended 122m into the hillside and sheltered 60 people, including Muriwai, a famous seer and aunt of Wairaka. Along with Wairere Falls and a rock in the harbour-mouth, the cave was one of three landmarks Toroa was told to look for by his father Irakewa, when he arrived in the Mataatua waka.
reviewed
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E
Wairere Falls
Tumbling down the cliffs behind the town, picture-perfect Te Wairere (Wairere Falls) occupies a deliciously damp nook, and once powered flax and flour mills and supplied Whakatane’s drinking water. It's a gorgeous spot, and goes almost completely unheralded: in any other county there's be a ticket booth, interpretive audiovisual displays and a hotdog van!
reviewed