Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata
Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata translates to ‘The Great Path of Te Rangihaeata’.
At a dawn ceremony on Wednesday 30 March 2022, an ope from Ngāti Toa Rangatira travelled the length of Transmission Gully to carry out an official karakia and blessing of the road before it was opened to the public.
Once the karakia was completed, we were then joined by our Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Raukawa whānau to pōwhiri dignitaries and local councillors, to officially open the road.
To represent our history and whakapapa in the area, Ngāti Toa gave a significant koha to the road by aptly naming it ‘Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata’ which when translated, means ‘The Great Path of Te Rangihaeata’.
About Te Rangihaeata
Te Rangihaeata, the nephew of Te Rauparaha, was a prominent Ngāti Toa chief and is closely associated with a number of significant battles in the Wellington region.
On 17 June 1843, Te Rongo, wife of Te Rangihaeata, had been killed by British settlers in the infamous Wairau Incident. This sparked a campaign of resistance to British settlement.
After returning to the North Island, Te Rangihaeata based himself at Mātaitaua Pā in Pāuatahanui where he led the resistance in the following years. St Albans Church in Pāuatahanui now stands on the Mātaitaua Pā site. Several skirmishes culminated in the Raid of Boulcotts Farm on 26 May 1846.
In response, Governor Grey illegally kidnapped Te Rauparaha at Taupō Pā (Plimmerton) on 23 July, and assembled an armed group of around 500 British troops, police, militia and allies and marched on Mātaitaua Pā.
Finding it deserted, they pursued the defenders, including Te Rangihaeata, through dense forest up the Horokiri Valley to Battle Hill. Te Rangihaeata held a defensive position on the unassailable razorback ridge near the summit of the hill.
On the morning of 6th August, the British attacked the defensive position and attempted to storm it. Return fire from the defenders halted the attack, killing three troops. The assailants then settled into a siege and bombarded the pā for several days with up to 80 shells fired from two mortars.
After losing about nine people, Te Rangihaeata and the 300 Ngāti Toa men, women and children at Horokiri, abandoned their stronghold a week later on the 13th of August and escaped to Paekākāriki and on to Porotāwhao in the Horowhenua.
With the expulsion of Te Rangihaeata and the kidnap of Te Rauparaha, Ngāti Toa finally conceded to Crown demands to end resistance to British settlement. In order to secure the release of Te Rauparaha, Ngāti Toa were forced to sell around 608,000 acres in the Wairau and 25,000 acres in Porirua as ransom for the return of their Rangatira. Te Rauparaha was eventually returned home, but Te Rangihaeata was never to return to Porirua and his Ngāti Toa people.
The new motorway Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata (“the great path of Te Rangihaeata”) follows part of the route taken by Te Rangihaeata and his followers while being pursued by the British, and is an acknowledgement of the history of the area and its prominence to Ngāti Toa and British colonisation.