Maungatua

About

Maungatua, known also as Mauka Atua is a prominent ridge in the Taieri Plains in Otago, New Zealand. It rises 895 metres (2, 936 ft) above the floodplain of the Taieri River, directly to the west of Dunedin's airport at Momona. It can be clearly seen from much of Dunedin's urban area, 35 kilometres (22 mi), and from as far south as the outskirts of Balclutha, 65 kilometres (40 mi) to the southwest. Lake Mahinerangi is located on the western side of Maungatua. The name Maungatua in Māori literally means "Hill of the Spirits", and is spelt Mauka Atua by Ngāi Tahu local to the Otago Region. The name is a reference to an ancestral chief who arrived on the Āraiteuru migratory waka.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.