Wainui Bay

Wainui is a Māori language term (wai meaning water, and nui meaning large, expansive). In other words, the name translates as big water.^[7] The umbrella entity for the three local iwi gives a meaning of "where the tidal flow leaves a big expanse of bay empty".^[8] It is one of many places named Wainui in New Zealand, for example, Wainui, Wainui Beach, Wainui in Akaroa Harbour.

There are three plausible explanations for the name Taupō:

1. In the sixteenth century a chief, Tūmatakōkiri, migrated from Lake Taupō to the Cook Strait area, thus it is conceivable he brought the name with him ^[7]
2. The meaning of taupō is ‘a rough black and yellow cloak’, made from flax leaves, and also ‘a rust-coloured earth of stone’. This same pattern is seen on the rocks here ^[7][9]
3. And lastly, the place used to be spoken of as Taipo.^[10] The iwi once revered a taipō, a many-scaled goblin, with the body of sea serpent and the head of a man ^[9] Although this is the least plausible name, because taipo is thought to be an 18th-century whaler's term for an evil spirit, and in the South Island Maori dialect the word for an evil spirit is atua ^[11]

Wainui Inlet is the estuary of the Wainui River that flows into the bay.^[12] It can be walked across within two hours either side of low tide.

Uarau Point is a prominent hill on the eastern shore of Wainui Bay.^[7][9] In Māori legend, a taipō (goblin, evil spirit) named Ngārara-huarau, protected this place. It remains a spiritual area, and some local people feel uneasy walking past the cave where he lived.^[7][9] According to legend, Ngārara-huarau dug caverns here.^[7] Underground rumbles from falling rock and cascading water continue today, and it is a dangerous area to traverse owing to many sinkholes.^[7]

Taupō Point is a 49-metre-high (161 ft) limestone outcrop on the eastern side of Wainui Bay.^[13] This steep, rounded, bush-clad knoll is linked to the granite mainland by a sandy isthmus. Four centuries ago, a pā stood there. Today, as then, it is a great lookout spot. Traces of trenches, terraces and cooking pits are now hidden under mataī, tītoki, nīkau and karaka trees.^[5][9][14]

A few steps away, is a lonely curve of golden sand known as Whariwharangi Bay. Abel Tasman anchored his ships off here.^[15][6]

Researchers into history debate whether or not waka landing sites at Taupō Point are the oldest maritime structures in New Zealand.^[16]

At the time of Tasman’s bloody visit to Aotearoa, the Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri iwi maintained a pā and settlement on the eastern side of Wainui Bay at Taupō Point and nearby Whariwharangi Beach.^[5][14] This is the closest site to where the Dutch voyager anchored, and it is most probably from here that waka and warriors paddled out to investigate his ships and intentions.^[15][6][17]

A drawing by Tasman's artist, Isaack Gilsemans, depicts ten men rowing a double-hulled waka, with another man standing on the prow. All the men have topknot hairstyles.^[6][18]

The settlement had houses were built low to the grounds, curved-roof cooking shelters, storage pits and high storage racks.^[6] The bay and inlet teemed with fish and shellfish, and an edible braken fern grew on the hillside.^[6]

A sign at Taupō Point, depicts the scene from 1844, with pā, palisades and waka landed on the beach, as drawn by surveyor John Barnicoat.^[19] A proverb, or whakataukī, inscribed on the sign reads:

Taupo sleeps beneath the sun: where are the people of the past?
Kei te noho a Taupō i raro i te rā; kei hea ngā tāngata whenua?'

Someone has scratched some graffiti underneath the whakataukī. It reads:

Ko hoki mai au... ete i o a mokopuna

Which may translate as "I will return... with some of my grandchildren."

In 2015, historical researcher, Rosanne Hawarden, claimed that a high-resolution image of the Gilsemans's 1642 drawing reveals waka landing sites on the shore by Taupō Point.^[20][21] In addition, Barnicoat's 1844 ink drawing of Taupō Point, shows waka on the same rocky beach, where large boulders have been shifted so waka could be hauled ashore.^[19][21] These tauranga waka are still visible at low tide.^[22]

On the other hand, a group of historians led by Abel Tasman expert Grahame Anderson, debunked Hawarden’s research, and called it "wishful thinking".^[16]

People arrive here on foot, or by boat, or kayak. The walk along the beach from Wainui Inlet to Taupō Point takes approximately 1 hour each way, and is best done at low tide.^[14][23][24] At high tide, some scrambling and climbing is needed.^[25] The track starts at the end of McShane Road, just past Wainui Inlet.^[25]