Whether you Traveling in New Zealand or just opened its’ map, you meet strange and funny sounding names of cities, mountains, rivers and other places. These names are among few things that remained untouched by the European “invaders”. One of the causes to this fact is the information that these names possess. This information is vague at first glance, but it is really very enriching when studying Maori legends and heritage. Maori named different places using parts of words. These names have rich meanings, describing events that took place at that particular location. Whole legend can be condensed in a single word. When you start getting familiar with different Maori words, magnificent ancient scenes are being unveiled to you. Before Europeans came to New Zealand Maori had no written language, and each tribe had somewhat different language. Many years have passed before Maori legends were put on paper, and this is one of the causes to the fact that some Maori names have several different legends about them. In this article I will describe only a few meanings of place names that I think to be most interesting.
First Maori reached New Zealand in AD 600-800 from their home in Polynesia on canoes. They called their home HAWAIKI – legendary land, where Maori souls will reside after death, and then return back to earth. Many places in New Zealand are called after the Maori people who first discovered it and their canoes, for example Mattaatua, Takitimu, Tainui, Te Arawa, Aotea, Tokomaru, Karahaupo, Horouta, Uruao, Mahuhu and Arai I te Uru. About forty different names begin with: Ngati, Ngai, Nga, Te or Te Ati, which describe different Maori tribes.
Let’s finally begin with the names:

AHIMANAWA: Ahi means fire and Manawa means heart.
Nobody knows what exactly occurred regarding this name, but it is known that about two hundred years ago a daughter of one Maori chief named Te Kohipipi was killed. To revenge her death did something at night to surprise his enemies, killed them, and in early morning cut out their hearts and took them home. On his way, while walking on mountain ridge he made a lunch stop and cooked and age some of those hearts. Ever since this mountain ridge is called Te-Ahi-Manawa-a-Te-Kohipipi, which means the fire of Te-Kohipipi hearts.

AHIPARA: Ahi again means fire, and para is a kind of fern roots. So this name means “fire for cooking fern roots”

AHUAHU: Ahu – to pour sand (English name – Great Mercury Island). Maori use repetitions of same word to emphasize the positive outcome of an action. In this case Maori person named Paikea reached this island on the back of whale. After this unusual journey he was freezing and poured warm sand on himself in order to get warmed up, and this is how the island got its’ name.

AHURIRI: (Napier). Maori named Tu Ahuriri discovered a lagoon, in which Pauas (mollusks) were dying because of constant flooding. Tu Ahuriri organized works to clean a path to the sea to stop this flooding, and later this area was named after him.

AKAROA: Aka – bay, roa – long. Long bay.

ANAWHATA: Ana – cave, Whata - food warehouse. Cave to store food.

AORAKI: (Mount Cook) Ao – cloud, Raki – sky. Cloud in the sky. There is a legend telling that a few heavenly children reached earth in canoe. This canoe became the South Island of New Zealand, and Aoraki who was the captain of the canoe became a mountain in the South Island.

AOTEAROA: This is one of the names of New Zealand, which means “The Land of the Long White Cloud”. Legend tells that fist married couple that reached New Zealand named it AOTEAROA. The husband was named Kupe and his wife’s name was Kuramarotini.

TAUNATAWHA… : Full name is Taunatawhakatanghangakoauauolanateapokawhenuaktanalahu. This name is in the Guinness records book as the longest name on the planet. This is a small hill (305m above the sea level), with a name consisting of 85 letters. Translated it means “Place where Tamati, a man with big knees, called earth-eater, walks from mountain to mountain eating them on his way, and playing on flute for his beloved” How poetic!

KORORAREKA: Korora means blue penguin and Reka means tasty. An old chief became ill and said to his sons – I would like to eat a penguin before I die. After long and hard search only one blue penguin was found. When penguin was cooked and ready, chief was so weak that he couldn’t chew, but he managed to drink a penguin soup and mumbled “Ka reka te korora”, which means “Tasty blue penguin”. Many years after this a city was built there. Its English name is Russell.

These are truly fascinating pieces of history that are elegantly told by the Maori names of different places of New Zealand.