Paora Road (Pūniho)

Pāora Road is located just past Pūniho pā, 40 minutes drive south-west of New Plymouth on Surf Highway 45. It is a popular place for surfers looking for good quality surf breaks. Rocky Point, at the end of the road, seldom disappoints.

It is highly likely Pāora Road takes its name from the surrounding lands which were known as Pāora-Aneti. The hyphenated name was the result of a father-and-son combination where Pāora Tutaha married a local woman of the Ngā Mahanga-a-Tāiri hapū of Pūniho. The couple had only one child, a boy, named Aneti Te Haumoariki. Aneti later married but this union did not produce any children.

After Pāora died, Aneti became entitled to succeed to his father's interests in the land surrounding Pūniho but he did not take up the offer. Subsequently, Aneti died intestate which left both his and his father's interests in limbo. This triggered a number of Native Land Court claims to sort out the ownership of the block. Submissions and wills were produced in court and vigorously challenged by a number of eager claimants.

Pāora Road was gazetted in 1918 before being officially proclaimed a road on 20 February 1930. The remaining land interests of Pāora-Aneti were eventually sub-divided, leased or sold off to expand dairy farms along Pāora Road and surrounding area. The remainder of the land was set aside as a Māori reservation in 1928.

Today, approximately twelve parts of the original Pāora-Aneti land block remain.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.