I’d been driving for quite some time when I got to
Ruapeka Marae, near Fitzgerald Glade on State Highway 5 on the way to Rotorua, so I was more than happy to pull up on the wide road berm and sit awhile. When I lived in the North Island, I must have driven past this particular marae a hundred times and never really noticed it. This time was different. I pushed my seat back, opened the windows and just sat
listening to the birds, wondering what went on here on an average day.
There was no one about and I have since discovered it is
one of the many Ngati Raukawa marae – of the
hapu Ngati Tukorehe. Their wharenui is named Rangimarie and their whare kai is Te Aroha. It’s a pretty spot, with the bright yellow wharenui sitting to one side of a large paddock against the leafy native bush backdrop of
Tukorehe Reserve. Across the fields there was a small cluster of houses – one with this fabulous billowing clothes line. (I’m not sure why, but I find clothes lines full of washing a very appealing photographic subject). After I had spent a little time here, I drove on through Fitzgerald Glade and, seeing a sign for
Tapapa Marae, I swung immediately left off the highway and happily drove down a winding country road. I carried on for miles but I must have driven right past it because I ended up back out on the highway having completed a great big loop….and had to drive all the way back past Ruapeka Marae a second time. It was a fruitless search at one level, but on my two month trip around New Zealand in April-May,
I made many detours like that – and I loved every second of it.
http://ruapekamarae.wainet.org
Back in May, when I was edging my way north from Wellington, I was determined to stop at least one of the sign-posted marae. I had been unable to last year because of the large traffic volumes and my own time constraints. So this time, when I saw the sign pointing to Kikopiri Marae at the little Horowhenua settlement of Ohau, I turned off the highway and followed a narrow country road for a few kilometres.
It was a drizzly but sunny day and the short road leading to the marae on a small hill was muddy so I didn't even get out of the car. But I was taken with the prettiness of the scene - the little old marae peeping out from behind giant harakeke (flax) and what looked to be small kauri or totara trees. I haven't been able to find out a lot about the marae but it does appear to be an important centre for Ngati Kikopiri people and I was able to trace some lovely old photographs in Alexander Turnbull Library files, showing the marae between 1895-1906 - recognisable by the building's distinctive carved amo (the upright carvings on the front gable). According to my other readings, I think there may be a connection to Ngati Raukawa - some of whom migrated to Horowhenua in the early 1820s, to this area....though I can't be sure of that and am open to reader suggestions. www.kikopiri.whanau.org.nz 
