Whenua Makarore

Makarore is the correct spelling for the Makarora River which flows into the northern end of Lake Wānaka. Manga, or maka in the Kāi Tahu dialect, means stream. However, the meaning of rore in this context is unknown. The Makarore was part of the principal travel route over Tioripātea (Haast Pass) that connected Central Otago with Te Tai Poutini (the West Coast). During the 1879 Smith-Nairn Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Ngāi Tahu land claims, Ngāi Tahu kaumātua recorded Makarore as a kāinga mahinga kai where pora (Māori turnip), kāuru (cabbage tree root), aruhe (bracken fern root), weka, kiwi, kākāpō, kea, kererū, kākā, and tuna (eel) were gathered.

2019-0660, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Collection, Ngāi Tahu Archive / Photograph: Tony Bridge