Skip to main content

Story: Te Arawa

Rotorua city and environs

Image
Rotorua city and environs

This photograph shows the Rotorua urban area and Lake Rotorua, with Mokoia Island at its centre. The general name for the area where Rotorua city now stands is Ōhinemutu. The name commemorates the explorer Īhenga’s daughter, who was murdered on the north-west shore of the lake. Īhenga set up a red-coloured memorial rock, referred to as Ōhinemutu, on the southern shore. Eventually the name applied to the wider area, which included the site of a village. The memorial rock stood for centuries before disappearing in the 1880s. It is said to have been broken up for road-building.

Using this item

GNS Science

Reference: 28747

by Lloyd Homer

Permission of GNS Science must be obtained before any use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Paul Tapsell, Te Arawa – Settlement and migration, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1540/rotorua-city-and-environs (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Paul Tapsell, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 March 2017.