Kupe and his followers stayed for a time on the Wairarapa coast at Kawakawa, named after a mourning wreath his daughter made from the kawakawa shrub. He named the rocks from which he could see Te Tapuae-o-Uenuku (the highest mountain in the South Island’s Kaikōura Range) Mātakitaki (gazing out). Kupe eventually moved to Wellington Harbour. Barrett Reef, at the harbour entrance, is known as Te Tangihanga-o-Kupe (the mourning of Kupe) in reference to the sorrowful sound made by the waters around it.
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