Te Awatea He Waka Kehua

There is a story still told deals with the raids warriors from the north have made into Tasman Bay over the years. Tho story relates to a fine canoes in which parties of Ngati Apa had migrated to the South Island from their ancestral home in the Rangitikei district. It had been a prized possession of Ngati apa for at least 450 years. The waka had fine carvings and bore the name Te Awatea 'the dawn'. Hearing that a raid from the iwi from the north was imminent the owners of the canoe buried as part of the spoils of war and assembled a crew departed the late owners assembled on the beach and a tangi usually called by the kai hautu, fungleman, echoed over the water. Great was the sadness of the Ngati Apa at seeing their canoe disappear towards Rangitoto. Early on still autumn and winter mornings, as the sun's rays first strike the surface of the cold water, mists rise and drift, without any apparent wind, along the surface of the bay. It is at such times that watchers have reported seeing the ghostly shape of the Te Awatea with it's shrouds of warriors speeding along the coast through Astrolabe and around Golden Bay.

Timber is Macrocarpa weighing approximately 2-3 tons.

Carved by Mark Rainer.