October 17, 2012
Mauri stones for Taupo main street
Ngati Tuwharetoa have scoured their rohe for appropriate kohatu or rocks for a refurbishment of Taupo’s Heuheu Street.
The largest of the mauri stones was a five-tonne rock from the headwaters of the Waikato River in Tongariro National Park.
Bubs Smith of Ngati Hikairo says the rock from Waikato-Iti was part of a lava flow which had been smoothed out by glacier flows over thousands of years,
It sits alongside two rocks from near the top of another sacred mountain, Tauhara.
The rocks were delivered by the Army’s off-road recovery team after kaumatua had performed appropriate rituals on site.
Mauri stones are used to give a life force to wharenui, and elders say the Taupo rocks will affirm an unbreakable spiritual connection between the iwi and the surrounding lands.