Kahui Road (Rahotū)

Kāhui Road runs west from Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki (formerly Egmont National Park) to the sea. It passes through Rahotū and was named after a local rangatira with a fluctuating reputation.

Born in 1846, as a young man Wiremu Te Kāhui Kararehe had been connected with Te Ua Haumēne and the more militant followers of his Pai Mārire religion. However, by the time a reporter met him in 1872, Te Kāhui was described as “a tall, intelligent looking chief” too busy constructing roads at Te Namu Pā to make trouble.

Later that year a scandal involving Te Kāhui and Lydia (Rīria) Tinirongoā Holder was covered by the press. The couple had met at Parihaka and fallen in love then left their spouses to elope. Te Kāhui’s hapū, Ngāti Haupoto, paid the price when relatives of the abandoned husband and wife raided their village. Whare were burnt and livestock seized according to “the law of muru”. Once peace was restored, Te Kāhui and Lydia were allowed to live together in Rahotū and went on to have nine children.

In 1878 Te Kāhui purchased two expensive threshing machines to harvest 300 acres of wheat. The newspapers were delighted that he appeared to have realised the advantages of “European habits and ways of life”. Readers were no doubt disappointed to learn later that he had joined prophets Te Whiti and Tohu in their struggle to retain Māori ancestral lands, this perfidy cited as proof that he was “slippery as an eel”.

Jailed in 1880 for resisting Pākehā surveyors, upon his release Te Kāhui confined himself to working within the legal system to help Māori landowners affected by confiscation. He established a school at Rahotū, became involved in local politics and was published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society. By the time Te Kāhui died on 7 September 1904, he was once again hailed as “a loyal subject” of the Crown.

Kāhui Hut is also located on the western side of the maunga, a six-hour return walk from Kāhui Road. Built in 1903 on an ancient pā site, the rotting cabin was dismantled in 1955 and rebuilt by the Taranaki Alpine Club two years later.

 This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.