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Story: Wairarapa region

‘Kupe’s Sail Rock, Palliser Bay’

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‘Kupe’s Sail Rock, Palliser Bay’

The New Zealand Company’s chief surveyor, William Mein Smith, made this painting of the dramatic triangular rock face east of Ngāwī, on the coast of Palliser Bay, around 1850. Itis named Ngā-Rā-o-Kupe (Kupe's Sails) after the early Polynesian explorer.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: E-011-f-004

by William Mein Smith

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Ben Schrader, Wairarapa region – Māori settlement, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/12075/kupes-sail-rock-palliser-bay (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Ben Schrader, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 March 2017.