- MD
Sidestep: Te Toto Gorge
Near Raglan there is a cave holding 8' plus skeletons. That cave is linked to the petroglyphs on the rocks there. When those petroglyphs were first seen by Europeans the local Maori said they referred to an old 'king' that used to live there. They knew nothing else, nor the whakapapa or name of that 'king' or tribe. That was because the petroglyphs belonged to a people here before Maori arrived. Those petroglyphs are like nothing else in Polynesia...and another hint...Polynesia has no spiral petroglyphs...anywhere! Think about that one, Polynesians come to NZ and start carving spirals in stone...! No, they learnt the style from those already here. Think about it!
However, we want to draw attention to some place names up and down the Waikato coastline. Many are about tragedy, burning, death and sorrow. At Raglan however we have Te Toto Gorge. It means blood or bleed. Yet there are no stories or myths relating to this location in Maori folklore. All that exists are the eroded earthworks that suggest it was occupied between about 1700 and 1800. But this area was the scene of something else many hundreds of years earlier.
The original inhabitants that lived in the area were chased and forced off the cliffs and plummeted to their deaths. There the bones have lain for hundreds of years near the base of the cliffs; still buried under contant rockfall and undergrowth.
One publication states: "At the foot of Karioi is Te Toto Gorge – the blood gorge – where Te Rauparaha fought a decisive battle to avenge the killing of a number of Ngāti Toa." Yet there is no story of a battle occurring at Te Toto gorge with Te Rauparaha; that battle was down near the harbour. The name of the gorge is not linked to the battle from 1823 for the name Te Toto existed many hundreds of years before that...
Te Toto then may be linked to the deaths of the ancients of whom one old local (from about 1860) referred to when she indicated that the Raglan petroglyph rocks were made by the old 'kings' that were here before they arrived.
Believe what you will. There is a lot to be opened up yet.
