AOTEA HARBOUR
Welcome to the most tranquil harbour in New Zealand
This site is dedicated to our tupuna (ancestors) who have passed on and left behind this land. To our generations that continue to walk in their footsteps; to reaffirm their culture and beliefs, so we can learn from the past, and take hold of our future.
I ngā wā o mua ki te ngaro haere ngā kai moana, ka rāhuitia kia huhua ai taua kai.
Nā John Apiti, tētahi tohunga, te rāhui kia toe ai taua kai. He momo tapu te rāhui.
Sun setting over Aotea Harbour (photo: Davis Apiti)
Aotea Aotea
So beautiful and free
What is it that connects you and me?
Is it my heritage?
Or is it the sea?
I've seen your many faces in a storm
And through the blistering heat
I have felt your frost upon my feet
And still you are so beautiful to me.
The pohutukawas that shower your landscape
With crimson red like a sunset.
I've walked your hills,
Fished your waters,
Swam your rivers,
And have slipped on your black sand.
I know of a place where the flounders roam
Of a giant, a stone lizard
And a taniwha hole
Where time stands still
Where your people chant and sing their songs
Of your mountains
And of ancestors passed on
Aotea Aotea
You'll always be home to me
No matter where I roam
My heart yearns
My thoughts turn
And I'm glad to see you
And my Uncle John ...
by Davis Apiti
So beautiful and free
What is it that connects you and me?
Is it my heritage?
Or is it the sea?
I've seen your many faces in a storm
And through the blistering heat
I have felt your frost upon my feet
And still you are so beautiful to me.
The pohutukawas that shower your landscape
With crimson red like a sunset.
I've walked your hills,
Fished your waters,
Swam your rivers,
And have slipped on your black sand.
I know of a place where the flounders roam
Of a giant, a stone lizard
And a taniwha hole
Where time stands still
Where your people chant and sing their songs
Of your mountains
And of ancestors passed on
Aotea Aotea
You'll always be home to me
No matter where I roam
My heart yearns
My thoughts turn
And I'm glad to see you
And my Uncle John ...
by Davis Apiti