Maori Culture

The Manawatu Gorge in the North Island of New Zealand is often called a unique landform because its river flows from one side of a mountain range to the other rather than from a divide, as do most rivers.

The seven distinctive peaks that mark the Cape Brett peninsula’s dragon-like spine are said to represent the seven waka from the great migration when Maori sailed from their mythical homeland of Hawaiiki 1000 years ago.

Wai-o-tapu is a unique geothermal area located in the centre of the Taupo volcanic zone.

Hell's Gate and Wai Ora Spa, Tikitere is a unique place of extreme contrasts. Visitors walk past steaming fumeroles and pools of boiling mud so violent they are unnerving.

Long before Europeans came to Aotearoa New Zealand, Whirinaki Forest has special significance to the early Maori iwi (tribes) of Te Urewera.

“Gliding Peak” is the literal translation of the Mâori word Taranaki – which fits with the Mâori legend of how Mt Taranaki came to where he now resides.

Parihaka Pa, the sanctuary of Mâori leaders Tohu Kakahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai, is spiritually and historically unique. It was here that these two leaders preached and practiced unity and passive resistance, long before Gandhi.

Hekenukumai Puhipi is NZ’s most celebrated traditional Mâori ocean voyager. He has dedicated a lifetime to the rediscovery and retention of the ancient instructions left by Kupe.

Everybody who has visited Rotorua, New Zealand and gasped in awe of its calderas, crater lakes, trout, native bush walks, geothermal mud pools and geysers, skied or snowboarded, owes it to the presence of volcanoes.

In the past (Pre-eruption) Te Wairoa was a mix of Mâori and European settlement, working together to transport, host, entertain and guide tourists visiting the famous Pink and White terraces on Lake Rotomahana, beside Lake Tarawera.