About Muaupoko

Kurahaupo te Waka
Tararua te Maunga
Punahau te Roto
Hokio te Awa
Muaupoko te Iwi

The navigational explorer Kupe is attributed with being the first to discover Aotearoa (New Zealand) and we the people of Muaupoko are his proud descendents. Kupe’s descendent Whatonga, captained the Kurahaupo Waka and settled in the virgin lands of Turakina to Whanganui-a-tara (Wellington) which was named after Whatonga’s son Tara, in the early 12th Century. Frequent excursions were also made to the South Island and some Muaupoko had settled there. At present the largest grouping of Muaupoko iwi members now reside within Levin (Taitoko) Horowhenua region.

Whātonga
At the time the Kurahaupō canoe landed at Māhia Peninsula its paramount chief was Whātonga. He was a noted Māori navigator and the grandson of the Polynesian explorer Toitehuatahi. He and his people settled first at Nukutaurua on the Māhia Peninsula.
In Hawke’s Bay Whātonga married Hotuwaipara, and they had a son called Tara. He was so named because just before he was born his mother pricked her finger with a tara, the spine of a fish.
Being of a restless disposition, Whātonga travelled south to Cook Strait. Here he discovered Wellington Harbour. He then travelled up the west coast to the Manawatū River. At Aokautere he settled and took a second wife, Reretua, with whom he had another son, Tautoki. Tautoki in turn would have a son – Tānenui-ā-rangi (also known as Rangitāne) – who was the ancestor of the Rangitāne people. They occupied territory at either end of the Manawatū Gorge.
After some years Whātonga returned to Hawke’s Bay, where he rejoined Hotuwaipara and Tara. They then travelled south to Wellington Harbour, and settled initially on Matiu (Somes Island). Later they moved to the largest island in the harbour, Motukairangi (now Miramar Peninsula).

Tara
Tara, Whātonga’s son, was the great-great-grandson of Kupe the Polynesian explorer. On his voyages Kupe had himself visited the Wellington Harbour region, leaving his name at various sites.
Tara had a son called Whakanui or Wakanui, who had a son called Tūria. Tūria married Hinematua and they had a son called Te Ao Haeretahi who married Rakaimāori. They in turn had a son called Tūteremoana who became the paramount chief of Ngāi Tara. His name has been given to rocks on a beach just north of the Whanganui River, to the highest point of Kapiti, and to a fishing rock just south of Barrett’s Reef in Wellington Harbour.

Tribal boundaries
Traditionally Ngāi Tara occupied the area bounded by the Tararua Ranges in the east and the Tasman Sea in the west, and from Rimurapa (Sinclair Head) in the south to the Rangitīkei River in the north. Some hapū (sub-tribes) settled in the Queen Charlotte Sound area in the 17th century.