He pā tawhito hiranga kua huraina ki Otamataha i Tauranga. He mea hura ma roto i ngā rākau hangarau e tāea te mātai i ngā āhuatanga katoa ki raro i te whenua.
E hīkaka ana te haukāinga i te kitenga o tētehi wāhi huakanga i te Pā o Otamataha.
“It's great! They just prove that what we been saying for a couple of hundred years is bang on,” i kī atu a Peri Kohu, kaumātua o Ngātamarāwaho ki Huria.
“That this is the landing place of Takitimu in Tauranga. The supporting infrastructure is around that and the marae, the papa kāinga, the garden's, they're all here.
I mātaihia te whenua e te kaunihera o Tauranga hei wāhi whakatū whare pupuru taonga hōu ma tēnei mihini hihiani, te mea anake i Aotearoa.
“The yellow lines are showing the disturbances in the soil,” i mea mai a Allan Lightborne, kaiwhakahaere mihini hihiani i te Kaunihera o Tauranga.
“So what this machine can tell us is the orientation of the disturbances, the depth of the disturbances occurred. Because of the depth of what we're seeing here. It's pretty clear that it was something that is relatively old in age.”
“Pā sites are the most significant archaeological sites that we deal with,” i korero atu a Ben Pick, kaiwhakahere i Pouhere Taonga.
“And we sort of have a policy of no development on those sights, so it would have to be a very careful authority application.”
Ko tētehi o ngā tohutohu, mena ka kite atu i ngētehi kōiwi ki konei i tū ai te Pā o Otamataha me oti katoa ngā mahi. Kia puta rānō ngā kōrero o te haukāinga me Pouhere Taonga.
“I don't think they'll find anything here,” i kī atu a Kohu.
“It's not our people's practise to bury them where they're living. So there are other places around here that have been designated for that purpose.”
E manako ana a Kohu ka tū tonu te whare pupuru taonga hei whakaatu hoki i te wāhi huakanga o te Pā tūwatawata o Otamataha.