SOME MAORI PLACE NAMES.
The following are the meanings of a number of native place-names in the Te Awamutu district; some of these names are now for the first time placed on record:—
- Te Awamutu: The end of the river; i.e., the head of canoe navigation.
- Rangiaowhia: Beclouded sky.
- Kihikihi: Cicada, tree-locust.
- Orakau: The place of trees.
- Paterangi: Fort of heaven; i.e., the pa on the high part of the ridge, the skyline.
- Waiari: Clear water.
- Mangapiko: Crooked creek.
- Te Rore: The snare.
- Mangatea (on the Manga-o-Hoi, where the mill stood): White stream.
- Matariki (a short distance above the bridge at Te Awamutu, right bank of river): The Pleiades constellation; also reeds used for lining the interior of a house.
- Te Reinga (old village site behind R.C. Church, Rangiaowhia): Leaping, rushing; thus the place of leaping, the final departing place of spirits of the dead.
- Hikurangi (the Rangiaowhia heights above the Manga-o-Hoi; Gifford’s Hill; also place on Pirongia-Kawhia Road): Skyline; horizon.
- Pekapeka-rau (swamp between Hairini and Rangiaowhia): Place where the native bat was numerous.
- Tioriori (native village, near where the Hairini cheese factory now stands): A kind of kite, made of raupo.
- Tau-ki-tua (the site of the English Church at Rangiaowhia): The farther ridge.
- Te Rahu: Basket made of undressed flax.
- Te Rua-Kotare (Taylor’s Hill, or Green Hill, north of Te Awamutu): The kingfisher’s nest (in hollow tree).
- Tauwhare (ancient pa on cliffy right bank of Mangapiko River, above Waiari): Overhanging.
- Tokanui: Great Rock.
- Waikeria: Dug-out waterway, or watercourse gouged out.
- Otorohanga: O, food carried for a journey; torohanga, stretched out. According to a Ngati-Maniapoto tradition, a certain warrior chief who set out from this spot for Taupo with only a very small quantity of food caused it by supernatural means to “stretch out” and to last until he had reached his destination. Hence the name.