Pākā Bay, formerly called Halletts Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

on the eastern shore of

Lake Taupō Lake Taupō (also spelled Taupo; or ) is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's northeastern shore. With ...

, New Zealand, about 27km south-east of

Taupō Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town located in the central North Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the edge of Lake Taupō, which is the largest freshwater lake in New Zealand. Taupō was constituted as a borough in 1953. It h ...

township. It was known as Hamaria, in the nineteenth century. and before that Paka. The early

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

explorer Tia built a tūāhu (ceremonial altar) to signify he occupied the land and named the cliffs Taupō-nui-a-Tia (the great cloak of Tia). This name was later given to the lake by the occupying tribes that followed.

History

Ngātoro-i-rangi In Māori tradition, Ngātoro-i-rangi (Ngātoro) is the name of a tohunga (priest) prominent during the settling of New Zealand (Aotearoa) by the Māori people, who came from the traditional homeland Hawaiki on the '' Arawa'' canoe. He is the anc ...

is a principal ancestor of

Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua ( Tarawera River) at Matatā across the central plateau of the North ...

. He was the priest navigator of the

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori people, Māori iwi and hapū (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the ''Arawa (canoe), Arawa'' migration canoe (''waka''). The tribes are based in the Rotorua and Bay of Plent ...

waka, and upon his arrival in Aotearoa he journeyed inland, seeking land for his people. Eventually, he arrived in the Taupō area. He climbed Tauhara mountain and then travelled eastwards around the lake. He arrived at Pākā Bay and found a ''tūāhu'' (altar) already constructed by Tia (an important tupuna for Tūwharetoa) that included green leaves, indicating it was of recent construction.

used old, scorched materials to build his own tūāhu, which he used to conduct certain sacred rites and to establish his claim to the lands. He showed Tia his tūāhu and, seeing the older materials, Tia agreed that Ngātoro-i-rangi had a prior claim to the land. Accepting Ngātoro-i-rangi's claim, Tia left for Titiraupenga on the western shores of Lake Taupō. ''Pākā'' is a Te Reo Māori word meaning "to be burnt" or "scorched", and is a reference to Ngātoro-i-rangi scorching branches of leaves. Missionaries renamed Pākā 'Hamaria' in the mid-1800s (a transliteration of

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

). Later, it was renamed again 'Halletts Bay', before being restored to "Pākā Bay". Following the passage of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Claims Settlement Act 2018, the name of the bay was officially altered to Pākā Bay in March 2019.

Geological Features

Pākā Bay encompasses the following point/s; * Toki Point

References

Bays of Waikato Taupō District Lake Taupō {{Waikato-geo-stub