Nga Kuri a Wharei has proven to be an elusive site for research. Although it is relatively straightforward to present different accounts of Nga Kuri a Wharei as a boundary marker, conflicting sources mean that this report makes no attempt to pinpoint its exact location. As will be shown, various sources place Nga Kuri a Wharei at different points along the Western Bay of Plenty coast between Waihi Beach and Bowentown. Tangata whenua may be able to provide more specific information to the Waitangi Tribunal.
3.1 TRADITIONAL BOUNDARY: ‘Mai Tikirau ki Nga Kuri a Wharei’
Nga Kuri a Wharei marks the western boundary of the territory inhabited by the descendants of the Mataatua waka. This territory is traditionally described as ‘Mai Tikirau ki Nga Kuri a Wharei’. This area covers the Bay of Plenty from Cape Runaway to Nga Kuri a Wharei.99 The Western Bay of Plenty tribe descended from Mataatua is Ngaiterangi iwi.
Whanau a Tauwhao are a hapu of Ngaiterangi who inhabit the Otawhiwhi (Bowentown) area. Stokes provides the following description of Whanau a Tauwhao and their relationship with Nga Kuri a Wharei:
At Otawhiwhi, they are the guardians of the western outpost of the Mataatua waka - Nga Kuri a Wharei. This Hawaiki name was originally applied to some rocks on the mainland at Moehau [Coromandel]. It is sometimes said these rocks were opposite the place where the canoes gathered off Ahuahu, Mercury Island. This name was referred to in the rahui composed by Muriwai, sister of Toroa, commander of Mataatua, after her children were drowned at sea - Mai I Nga Kuri a Wharei ki Tikirau. Today this name marks the western boundary of Mataatua settlements at the stream called Waiorooro, between Waihi Beach and Bowentown.100
A slightly different description of the location and meaning of Nga Kuri a Wharei was given to the Bay of Plenty Times in 1974 by George Bryan, a Whanau a Tauwhao kaumatua:
their mainland border was marked by two mounds named, “Nga Kuri a Whare” two small mounds near Emerton Road, Athenree.
George Bryan says the history of these little mounds goes back to the arrival of the Mataatua canoe in the Bay of Plenty over 600 years ago.
The mounds represent supernatural dogs which came in the canoe, and travelled from Whakatane to Athenree.101
No other written traditional accounts of settlement or events at Nga Kuri a Wharei have been located. There is, however, some indication that the beach area was an ancient settlement site. Stokes quotes the following description by Mair of an ancient
99 Evelyn Stokes, A History of Tauranga County, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 1980, p 25
100 Evelyn Stokes, Whanau A Tauwhao: A History of a Ngaiterangi Hapu, Occasional Paper No 8, Centre for Maori Studies and Research, University of Waikato, Hamilton, 1980, p 5
