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
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