Early Maori History

The Grey River has an ancient history. It was the landing place for Maori canoes visiting these shores for greenstone, or Pounamu – the jade that was Westland’s most prized possession. The Cobden lagoons were Te Aka Aka o Poutini, the anchorage of Poutini, one of the greatest early explorers and greenstone carvers known to Polynesia.

The Grey River gap has great significance in Maori myth. From a distance the hills that border the area are seen as, two giant Tuatara drinking from the waters. This is a place of power and sacredness, for Tuatara, a survivor from the age of reptiles, still shows the vestiges of a third eye. It is guardian of all knowledge and the keeper of the trail of the spirit back to the stars.

Ngai Tahu tradition further enriches the story, for it tells us the Mawhera gap was created by Tue Te Rakiwhanoa, a powerful ancestor, who broke the side out of the Great Canoe to free ponded water and save the South Island from swamping.

Pounamu (nephrite jade)

Greenstone was the first great treasure of these wild and beautiful western shores. It was carried from here to serve all the peoples of Aotearoa. Pa Roa (now Greymouth) means the “place of long settlement”.

It was the focus of a sophisticated stone working industry that provided the nation with raw material and superb, sharp edged, woodworking tools harder than metal. Pounamu is said to be born of the stars, gifted with healing spirit by deep fire within the earth and hardened by the power of shifting mountains within the great Alpine Fault.