Arapawaiti Pa, Otaihanga

It was also the site of the old hotel of coaching days which later became the homestead of Mr H. C. Field - NOTE: According to Alan C Field: this should be H. A. (Henry Augustus) Field (H.C. Field was his father and he lived in W(h)anganui). The name is sometimes (probably incorrectly) spelt Arapaoaiti, and Simcox uses Ara-paua-iti which he translates as "path, shellfish, small". Mere Pomare explained to the Maori Land Court in 1890 that the name of this place was brought down from Taranaki. "It came from Onaero where it was the name of land belonging to Ngati Kaitangata," she said.

There is no reason to suppose that the name of this place at Waikanae is in any way connected with the Arapaoaiti of Queen Charlotte Sound which was so named because of the downward stroke (paoa) with which Kupe killed an octopus near the entrance to the sound. An Arapawa on the Whanganui River is said to commemorate the drowning there of a slave of Kupe named Pawa.

E.J Wakefield also gave his version of Arapawaiti's meaning. During his journey along this coast in 1840 he reported having passed Whareroa and Wharemauku: "After a short rest I went to Arapawa-iti, or 'small canoe channel', the village of the Whanganui people. Passing through the large village, and crossing the high sand hill at the back, we came to the banks of the Waikanae River - here narrow and deep. We followed the stream for about 200 yards and then diverged across some fertile potato grounds on a sandy flat in the midst of which an oblong stockade surrounds the dozen houses of which the village is composed.

Arapawaiti was mentioned at the Ngarara hearing of 1890 by Eruini te Marau as part of Ngati Rahiri territory, and according to Watene Taungatara it was at one time a cultivation of the chief Tuhata. Tamihana te Karu also described it as a cultivation clearing of his parents who were of the Kaitangata hapu. Although sometimes referred to as the Whanganui pa the main hapu living there was an Ati Awa one called Ngati Rukao. There had apparently been a great deal of intermarriage with the Whanganui people. The chiefs residing here at the time of Kuititanga were according to Matene te Rangihapupu, Rangiwhakaruru, Rangitauhuku, Te Miti, Te Hore, Rangihauku and te Aunga. The Whanganui chief Te Kurukanga was also living here in 1839.

Carkeek, W.C. The Kapiti Coast: Maori tribal history and place names of the Paekakariki - Otaki district. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1966.

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