Maori Cemetery

At the end of the long sandspit Tuarawhati is the old Maori cemetery. Substantial gravestones have been erected over the graves of Julia and Hemi Matenga. Julia died in 1909 and Hemi in 1912. A news report at the time of Hemi's death stated that it was the biggest tangi ever held in the Nelson district.

Not all the graves in the small cemetery are marked but one deserves some comment. The whaler Arthur Elmslie married by Maori custom Nga Bouka, a chieftainess of the Ngatikoata tribe, later being married British-style by a missionary, possibly Rev. Samuel Ironside. They had several children but none lived to maturity. Early in 1847 Elmslie paid a visit to England and during his absence his wife died and was buried at Wakapuaka.