Aro Valley connection - Kelburn to Te Aro

The awa flows above ground through Waimāpihi Reserve from the Zealandia ecosanctuary fence line. It enters a culvert at the top of Holloway Road, towards the top or western end of Aro Valley in the gully that used to be known as Mitchelltown.

From there, it flows downhill through pipes below Holloway Road and Aro Street, under Aro Park, beneath Te Aro streets to Taranaki Street Wharf and out into the harbour.

The name Waimāpihi signifies the wai or waters of Māpihi, a rangitira wāhine of Ngāi Tara and Ngāti Māmoe, who used to bathe in a pool in the upper reaches of the stream.

There’s a depiction of Māpihi in the Garrett Street mural Waimāpihi, painted by artist Izzy-Joy Te Aho White in 2023. The mural celebrates the awa, its journey to the sea, the landscape it flows through and the iwi Māori who lived there.

Home to kōkopu, kōaro and kōura, the awa was a mahinga kai, a traditional food source for Māori who lived in the area. It also provided water for drinking and irrigating kūmara and harakeke cultivations.

People from both Te Aro Pā and Moe-i-te-rā Kāinga gardened in the Aro Valley area.

Te Aro Pā was one of the largest pā in the Wellington harbour area. It was located near to the original shoreline in the vicinity of Te Aro Park and what is now the harbour end of Taranaki Street. It was established by Ngāti Mutunga in 1824 after their heke, or migration, from Taranaki. The name Te Aro, ‘the face’ or ‘the front’, denotes the pā facing back to Taranaki Maunga.

Waimāpihi Awa flowed near the pā. The sculptural landscape artwork, Te Waimāpihi, by artist Shona Rapira Davies at Te Aro Park also reflects rangitira wāhine Māpihi, the Waimāpihi Awa and the original shoreline.

Ngāti Mutunga inhabited the large harbour-front area of Te Aro from the early 1820s, and their seasonal cultivations covered about 5 acres when Pākehā settlers later arrived in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

These cultivated areas extended across Pukeahu, Aro Valley, Ngā Kumikumi (Nairn Street in Brooklyn), Moe-i-te-rā (above Maarama Crescent in Brooklyn), Omārōrō (Vogeltown), Paekawakawa ki Uta and Paekawakawa ki Tai (Island Bay).

When Ngāti Mutunga left for Wharekauri Chatham Islands in 1835, they handed possession of Te Aro Pā to their Taranaki relations, the Ngāti Tūpaia hapū of Ngāti Ruanui iwi and the Ngāti Haumia hapū from Taranaki iwi, along with their Te Ātiawa kin.

This Te Ātiawa kāinga (small village) was on the hillside above the Aro Valley in the vicinity of where Maarama Crescent is now. People lived here and gardened in the adjoining ngakinga, or cultivation area also named Moe-i-te-rā.

A meaning of the name is “sleeping in the sun”, reflecting its sunny, north-facing hillside location, catching the first rays of the morning sun. Over time, the name came to apply to the entire hillside extending towards Waimāpihi Reserve. Waimāpihi Reserve is also known as Polhill Gully.

The orange bike rack in the Aro Valley shops provides parking for six bikes and includes a steel barrier or shield to help keep people using it safe from traffic.

It was designed by Len Hetet of Baked Design Ltd and manufactured locally by Design Solutions.

The design relates to the mana whenua narrative of Te Ara Tupua, which explains the formation of Te Whanganui-a-Tara harbour by the two tupua (phenomena / seismic activity) Ngāke and Whātaitai.

Coloured bright orange to signify seismic activity and increase safety, the bike rack design represents the appearance of the tupua Whātaitai from beneath the land and helps convey that these tupua are present within the whenua of Te Whanganui-a-Tara today.