Keep reading for just $1
$1 trial for two weeks, thereafter $8.50 every two months, cancel any time
Signed in as . Sign out
Taranaki means ‘shining peak’, recalling the legend of a stoush between the volcanoes of the central North Island for the love of Pihanga.
Tongariro won, and Taranaki fled far to the west where he conceals himself in cloud or broadcasts his shining splendour back to his long-lost love.
The mounga is viewed as an ancestor, and is to be given the legal status of a person as part of a 2017 agreement between the Crown and eight Taranaki iwi. There is one important difference with other geographic features given the same status: the entity has gender—as in the legend, the mountain is a ‘he’.
Subscribe to our free newsletter for news and prizes
3
$1 trial for two weeks, thereafter $8.50 every two months, cancel any time
Signed in as . Sign out