The earliest known name for Te Aroha maunga is Puke Kakariki Kaitahi the place where the Kaka parrots flocked to feed. It is symbolic that the mountain supplies an abundance of food and resources.⁴

Tane Mokena, a descendant of Te Mokena Hou, a rangatira of Te Aroha⁵, spoke of the ancestral connections of Ngati Rahiri Tumutumu with the mountain and springs:

The hot springs lie at the base of Te Aroha Mountain, right beneath Whakapipi or Bald Spur. The springs flow out of the heart of the mountain, so I cannot talk about the significance of the springs without first talking about Te Aroha Mountain.

Te Aroha mountain and the Kaimai Ranges are closely associated with our ancestors. Te Aroha mountain itself is traditionally associated with the ancestor Te Ruinga. On one side, Te Ruinga descended from Raukawa, on another side he came from this area. Twin peaks stand atop Te Aroha mountain. The higher one bears the name Te Aroha-a-uta, and the lower one Te Aroha-a-tai.⁶

Tane Mokena described burial caves of ancestors on the mountain and the tapu associated with them:

Associated, as they were, with the ancestors and the tapu state of death, mountains were perceived as eerie, tapu places – spiritual halfway stations between this world and the next. Mountains were places where earth – the realm of mortals – met the sky – the realm of the supernatural. Te Aroha mountain was such a tapu mountain. In a number of traditional stories Patupaiarehe inhabit its misty peaks. Patupaiarehe seemed to slide in and out of this world and the next. They both embodied, and intensified, the tapu nature of the mountain.

Our ancestor Te Ruinga came from the mountain; he descended from the spirits who inhabit its misty peaks. The Hot Springs at Te Aroha, because they flow out of the heart of the mountain, are also part of the mountain, and also partake of the tapu associations of the mountain. The Hot Springs symbolise the giving, caring nature of the mountain and the ancestors.

The hot springs which lie at the foot of Mount Te Aroha were a very special place to our ancestors. They rise out of the base of the tapu mountain, and right underneath Te Ruinga’s pa site at Whakapipi, were considered to be very tapu, and had to be approached with respect and caution.⁷

It is not in dispute that Ngati Rahiri Tumutumu have occupied the Te Aroha district for many generations. When the title to the Te Aroha block was investigated by the Native Land Court in 1869, Ngati Haua’s application was vigorously opposed by Hauraki leaders,

4.Document J20, p 7

5.Tane Mokena’s role in aspects of early Te Aroha township history is described in sections 11.2 to 11.4 below.

6.Document G22, p 3

7.Ibid, pp 7-9