Waiariki-o-Āio and Tapuiti

The central pou shows the ancestresses of the Waihao – Waiariki-o-Āio and her daughter-in-law Tapuiti - who arrived many hundreds of years ago at the mouth of the Waihao River. They were part of one of the great migrations of people across the

Pacific in the waka Uruao, and were among the first tangata whenua of Te Wai Pounamu/the South Island.

When Waiariki-o-Āio first saw the snow on the Southern Alps she said it looked like waves breaking over an ocean reef. This is how the alps were named Te Tiritiri-o-te-Moana/the illusion of the ocean.

After landing at Whakatu/Nelson the travellers split into two groups to explore the land and the coast before meeting again two years later at the Waihao River.

According to Māori tradition, the women loved the flavour of the hao/short-finned eel caught in the Waihao. Its abundance encouraged some of the explorers to settle nearby and to name the river and the place. Their descendants still have a marae here.

The colours of the central pou reflect the hues of water, earth, stone and sky in the Waihao landscape.