Maori Place Names - 69

Waihao Marae

Waimate

South Island

May 2010, Ajr.

Braving the Wild Seas

People who love eating whitebait will do just about anything to get them - including braving the unpredictable seas at The Box on the South Island's southern east coast near Waimate. I took a whole series of photos of these whitebaiters, when I visited the nearby Waihao Marae to do a kai feature for Ngai Tahu's magazine Te Karaka. www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Scarecrow, Scarecrow!

I love the sense of humour

Of the people down at Waihao Marae

They made themselves a Maori scarecrow

To keep the birds off their big marae garden

Marae Interior

Waihao Marae, Waimate, South Island. Nov. 2008. Ajr

The Waihao Marae sits in a field on a quiet gravel road south of Waimate. It's just two kilometres from a dramatic shoreline, where locals gather the sea's rich bounty. It doubles as the local community War Memorial Hall for both Maori and Pakeha. This is the rear interior wall, where old photographs of wartime soldiers from the local community are displayed along with two traditional piupiu (skirts). It was a lovely space - restful, with a lovely welcoming feel to it.

Waihao Whitebaiters

The Box, Waihao River Mouth, Waimate, South Island. Nov. 2008. Ajr

I was transfixed the day I visited The Box at the Waihao River mouth just south of Waimate to see whitebaiters from the local Maori community at work. The seas were a bubbling, boiling mass of foam, the sudden waves unpredictable and dangerous; yet the whitebaiters waded in at just the right moment - a trick born of experience no doubt - and scooped their nets to catch those little silver slithers of fish most New Zealanders are willing to pay huge money for. The folks at the Waihao Marae are spoiled for choice when it comes to their favourite kaimoana (seafood). The area has long been a food basket for the local people and they still harvest tuna (eel), patiki (flounder, cod, whitebait and many other fish species.

Contemporary Kai

At Waihao Marae, Waimate. Dec. 2008. Ajr

Kai is the Maori word for food; Ngai Tahu is the major South Island Maori tribe (iwi). Put the two together and you come up with Jason Dell, Ngai Tahu, former executive chef at Blanket Bay, (now residing in Singapore), who a month or so back whipped up a culinary treat for us at Waihao Marae, south-east of Waimate, three hours south of Christchurch. Using the traditional foods of the marae – eel (tuna), flounder (patiki), yellow-eyed mullet (aua) and sea-run trout – Jason prepared a lavish lunch for the marae kaumatua. We started with tomato soup with Waldorf salad and eel (top left and bottom right); then raised our forks for sea-run trout set on a polenta cake and lobster ravioli; finishing with fresh bread, baked flounder and baked mullet stuffed with pickled mussels, tomato and an assortment of herbs. Not a bad way to spend a sunny day in the south. All this for another of TE KARAKA’s kai features. www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Traditional Gathering

Left: Freshly caught eel and Right; traditonal Maori Hinaki, both at Waihao Marae, Waimate. Dec. 2008. Ajr

In December, when I was down at Waihao Marae, near the coast just south of Waimate, researching another kai feature for Ngai Tahu’s TE KARAKA magazine, I managed to get this photograph (right) of a traditional Hinaki - or eel pot. These were usually made from mangemange, a climbing vine. The eels would swim into the narrowing ‘tunnel’ of the hinaki and not be able to get out again. Eel – members of the Anguillidae family and known as tuna to Maori – live in streams and lakes and form an important part of traditional Maori diet. The one shown in the left photograph, ended up as part of our lunch – served as a garnish for a very tasty tomato soup.