Mt Victoria / Matairangi Lookout - Wellington, New Zealand
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denben
S 41° 17.766 E 174° 47.655
60G E 315319 N 5426025
Mt Victoria is a prominent high point at the eastern end of the Town Belt’s horseshoe. It is a very obvious landmark and a focal point from the central city of Wellington. The site has significant historical and cultural significance to mana whenua.
Waymark Code: WMMZPQ
Location: North Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 11/29/2014
Views: 19
Mt Victoria / Matairangi Lookout includes the southern section of Lookout Road, the area around the Byrd Memorial, the lower car park and the lookout platform on top of the Mt Victoria summit.
The site is accessible, with car parking available at the lower car park off Lookout Road, and an informal track leading south along the Te Ranga a Hiwi ridgeline, to the site of the historical Te Akatarewa Pa.
From the Interpretation board:
"Mt Victoria/Matairangi has been a landmak for locals for hundreds of years. Whatonga, whose family first settled the area, was a leader of one of the great canoes migrating across the Pacific from Hawaiki, the traditional "homeland" of the Maori people.
The pa (fortified villaged) are known from these early times. One was along the southern end of this ridgeline - Akatarewa Pa. This is where Whatonga's great-grandson Hiwi grew up...."
From another Interpretation board:
"POU - The carved post on the ridge is a marker for the Maori Heritage Trail, Te Ara o Nga Tupuna (the Path of our Ancestors). The Maori Heritage Trail introduces you to the sites of early Maori settlement around Wellington, dating back hundreds of years, and the stories that explain names and landmarks such as Tangi Te Keo (the name given to the summit of Mt Victoria/Matairangi).
Whataitai was one of two taniwha (spiritual guardians) who, according to legend, inhabited the lake which is now Wellington Harbour. Whataitai died while attempting to escape to the open waters of Raukawakawa-moana (Cook Strait).
You can see Whataitai still...lying stranded by high tides, its back forming the land linking Miramar Peninsula (once an island) with the mainland."
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