While staying with us at Whakapapa, take a day or two to explore fascinating sights of the wider Te Kahui Tupua Region. The The Maori people of Ruapehu, Whanganui and Rangitikei named this area ‘Te Kahui Tupua’, meaning the sacred peaks.

This is a very spiritual land, with the grand mountains woven together by three sacred rivers of Maori legend: the Whanganui, Whangaehu and the Rangitikei.

The landscape of Te Kahui Tupua ranges from the volcanoes, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, to the forest gorges etched by the Whanganui, Rangitikei and Whangaehu rivers. Te Kahui Tupua tells many stories; the giant, Mt Ruapehu, the rivers and forests, and ancient Maori carvings and rituals that convey the legends of a land and its people.

The local Maori people have kept an intense spiritual connection with the land. At Koriniti Marae on the banks of the Whanganui River, Maori tell the legends of their ancestors through carving, weaving and storytelling. A trip in a Waka (Maori canoe) illustrates the close relationship local Maori have with the river.

Deep in the Whanganui National Park you will find the Bridge to Nowhere, one of the main placed of interest for visitors to the region. This is the unofficial flagship of the Whanganui National Park, an iconic symbol for New Zealand adventure tourism and a major visitor destination on the Whanganui Journey. The bridge was left to the ravages of nature when the Mangaparua farming settlement was abandoned in the early 1900s.

The beauty and legend through Te Kahui Tupua are inspiration for the region’s painters, sculptors, writers and craftspeople. The Whanganui Regional Museum is home to Taonga Maori, the ancestral treasures of the river people in the forms of art and story.
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