Taumarunui, The Heart of the King Country

Piriaka Lookout, near Taumarunui

Earlier this year I made an extended road trip down to the South Island, staying with various friends and family along the way.  It was wonderful being able to see more of my own country and I thought perhaps it would be nice to record some of the places I visited during that trip.

Today I would like to show a little bit of Taumaranui, a town located in the heart of the King Country in central North Island.  The settlement grew up beside where the Ongarue River joined the Whanganui River, and was originally founded by Maori who used the rivers extensively as canoe routes.

On the main road there is a large boulder with a top hat sitting upon it.   An amazing site and I had to go and investigate further.  Apparently it commemorates the time when the Maori king, Tawhiao, threw his hat onto a map of the North Island during negotiations with Governor Grey and declared that all the land beneath his hat was banned to all European access.  And so the King Country came into being.

The Top Hat of King Tawhiao

Further along the road was another edifice, this time a moa made out of driftwood.  These huge birds were flightless and became extinct about 600 years ago.

Moa, made out of driftwood

Piriaka Lookout is only a few kilometres south of Taumaranui (say tower-mar-ra-noo-ee) and has a great area for pulling off the side of the road and looking out over the surrounding countryside.  I was fortunate to see an electric train on the Main Trunk Line below, and also got my first glimpse of the mountains of Tongariro National Park.

Passenger train on the Main Trunk Line

Distant view of mountains in the Tongariro National Park

Hope your day is a good one,

Margaret