Mount Taupiri

About

Mount Taupiri is a hill at the southern end of the Taupiri Range in the Waikato. The highest peak in the range, it rises to 288 metres above sea level and overlooks Taupiri township immediately to its south. It is separated from the Hakarimata Range to the south by the Taupiri Gorge, through which the Waikato River flows from the Waikato Basin to the Lower Waikato. The Mangawara Stream joins the Waikato River at the base of the hill. Mount Taupiri is a sacred mountain and burial ground for the Waikato tribe of the Māori people. Until sometime in the 19th century a large Māori village or town, Kaitotehe, stood on the flat land on the other side of the river, below the Hakarimata Range. In early years it was the home of Pāoa, brother of Mahuta, before Pāoa moved to Hauraki. It became the headquarters of the Ngāti Mahuta people. Brothers Whare and Tapuae, grandsons of Mahuta and the leaders of Ngāti Mahuta, lived there. After the two brothers were killed, Tapuae's son Te Putu built Taupiri pā on the summit of a spur of Taupiri mountain, in the 1600s. When Te Putu was an old man in the 1700s, he was treacherously killed by Ngātokowaru of Ngāti Raukawa at Te Mata-o-tutonga, his home outside the pā by the banks of the Waikato River. He was buried at the pā, which thus became tapu (sacred) and was abandoned. Early European travellers in the area were obliged by Māori to cross to the o

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