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 at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Island to the lands around Mount Tongariro and Lake Taupō.
Eastern Lake Taupō, Tūrangi to Taupō
Ketetahi Springs
Western Taupō Steam and Hot Springs
Western Taupō looking north
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 ancestor of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and his travels around Lake Taupō and up onto the Volcanic Plateau are the basis of Ngāti Tūwharetoa's claim to those regions.
Depiction of Ngātoro-i-rangi at Mine Bay, created in the late 1970s by Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell and John Randall.