The Thames-East Coast Line. OwhāTroa:

O = food for a journey; wharoa = long-continued or lasting for a long time. Otorohanga is a name of similar meaning in one sense.

Waikino:

Bad water.

Waihi:

Fishing water, apparently referring originally to the ocean beach.

Tahawai:

Sea shore, water side.

Katikati:

To bite frequently, or nibble.

Omokoroa:

O = food; mokoroa = a large white grub found in the kahikatea and other trees. Also the place of Mokoroa.

Te Puna:

The water-spring.

Otumoetai:

The tide standing still as if asleep. Compare with Tennyson's lines: “But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam.”

Tauranga:

The resting-place; anchorage.

Matapihi:

Window.

Te Maunga:

The Mount; the famous fortified hill Maunganui (“great hill”) on the east side of Tauranga Harbour mouth.

Papamoa:

Level cultivation ground with beds or raised plots.

Rangiuru:

The western sky.

Paengaroa:

Paenga = site of a building, &c.; roa = long.

MāTniatutu:

A plain or level expanse grown with tupakihi or tutu bushes.

Pongakawa:

Ponga = the fern-tree Cyathea deal-bata; kawa = unpleasant to the taste, bitter. Kawa was also a ceremony in which a sprig or branch of a shrub, sometimes a small plant pulled up, used in house-opening ceremonies.

Pukehina:

Puke = hill; hina or hinahina = the small tree Melicytus ramiflorus, or mahoe, commonly called white-wood.

OtamarāTkau:

A famous ancient pa of large size overlooking the Bay of Plenty in the mouth of the Waitahanui stream. O = the place of; tama-rakau = the warriors (lit. the young men who bear arms).

Pikowai:

Crooked or curving stream.

MatataT:

To carry on a litter. Also, part of a charm or incantation in legend—“Matiti, Matata,” meaning “Open up, split open,” addressed to a magic rock of refuge.

AwakāTponga:

Fern-tree stream.

Awakeri:

A ditch or trench dug out.

Whakatane:

An historical name, dating back several centuries to the arrival of the ancestral canoe Mataatua. Wairaka, the daughter of the chief Toroa, jumped ashore with the end of a line here, when the canoe was in difficulties entering the mouth of the harbour, saying as she did so: “Ka whaka-tane ahau” (“I shall act like a man”).

Peka-tahi:

The single branch.

TāTneatua:

Tane the God. The name of a celebrated ancestor of the Urewera tribe who explored these parts, in the Whakatane Valley, and travelled to the heart of the mountains at Ruatahuna. The township (now railway terminus) founded in 1896, when the Opouriao block was subdivided for close settlement, was named after him.