TE AHUREI was a place of learning, as well as the burial site of the Tainui waka.
TE AHUREI is the Kāwhia hilltop burial place of the Tainui Waka – and locals have been working hard to plant out the historic site with native vegetation.
Horahaere Scott, from Onepu Charitable Trust, which was responsible for the project, said the last planting took place at the time of Matariki (July 16).
Tainui’s earliest tūpuna in New Zealand had a close connection to the site.
“When the Tainui waka first landed in Kāwhia, Hoturoa and Rakatāura went up, on Te Ahurei, and gave thanks to our atua for the safe journey over here,” Horahaere said.
The hill was a place of learning – the site of the first wānanga in Aotearoa.
Ray Montgomery, the owner of the nursery that provided the plants, said it was virtually New Zealand’s first university.
“They used to take young people who showed promise … they took them there and they taught them on top of the hill,” he said.
“We’ve been planting natives on there.
“All our plants have come from the Kāwhia Moana Native Nursery.”
“All of the plants on the site are natives: koromiko, harakeke, cabbage tree, ake ake, wīwī – those are the main ones. And shiny leaf coprosma [Coprosma repens]. ”
