Walk to the stars near Napier
It takes about two hours to walk along the waterside path from the Napier iSITE Visitor Centre to the extraordinary Atea a Rangi Star Compass site in Waitangi Regional Park*.
Be aware of cyclists as you walk – this is a shared path. But what a picturesque walk it is, to a goal that is truly unique.
Waitangi Regional Park is an oddly shaped park. It covers an area of 300ha along 5kms or so of a narrow strip of coastline, its boundaries swinging in to cover the Waitangi wetlands and the end section of the Clive River. It is constantly changing with tides and storms.
The Atea a Rangi Star Compass is on a mound in the northern part of the park, in the area where the Ngaruroro, Tataekuri and Clive Rivers, plus Muddy Creeks, all converge into the Waitangi Estuary and flow into the sea.
Atea a Rangi Star Compass is a spectacular site overlooking the sea. Its official entrance is through a whaharoa – an impressive carved gateway.
Thirty-two pou (posts), representing points of the compass, encircle the central star compass which is surrounded by plantings. The rising and setting points of the celestial bodies are memorised by using the carved pou and the horizon.
Maori ancestors used compasses like this to chart the position of the sun, moon and stars and thus navigate throughout the Pacific.
The pou were carved by local carvers in 2016 and 2017.
The site was the idea of Te Mataua-Maui Voyaging Trust. The Atea a Rangi Educational Trust was then established to administer and maintain the site with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council who continue to maintain the site today and in the future. Don’t miss reading the excellent illustrated panels which explain the history of the area and how Maori navigated their waka using sun, moon and stars.
It was in 2019 that a further 15 ha of wetlands were added to the existing area. Now a 30-minute trail starts at the star compass and passes through the wetlands, rich with birdlife such as heron and bittern. The trail then returns via the path adjacent to the bridge.
This area was the first place in Hawke’s Bay where Maori and Europeans lived together.
The Treaty of Waitangi was brought to this area for signing, hence the name of the regional park -- not to be confused with the main signing point of the treaty at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, where 43 Northland chiefs signed the treaty. It was then taken around the country over the next eight months.
*You may feel that the two-hour repeat walk back to Napier will be too much for you, so, before you start off from the iSITE, ask the helpful people there to arrange for you to be picked up at the carpark near the site of Atea a Rangi Star Compass.