Original artist concept sketch of the tohorā.
Artists: Linda Munn and Maraea Timutimu
A large scale mahi toi (artwork) honours the local legend of a family of whales – mother, father and calf – who became the three “Ngā Maunga Tohorā” (The Whale Mountains) in Pāpāmoa.
Long ago, a mother whale and her baby swam into Tauranga Harbour. The two whales swam up the harbour and into Rangataua Bay. They found that the water was getting shallow and they tried to return to the deeper water but they became trapped.
They knew in which direction the ocean lay, they could hear the waves pounding on the beach at Omanu and Pāpāmoa, and they struggled over the mudflats of Rangataua trying to find a way back to the open sea.
Tired and thirsty they stopped on the eastern shore to drink from a stream at Karīkarī. The stream was magical and turned both the whales into stone. The mother whale was fixed there as a gently rolling hill (Mangatawa) gazing northward out to Pāpāmoa and the sea. The baby who had been nestled beside the mother was transformed to a lower peak (Hikurangi).
The father whale came looking for his family. He followed the same journey they had taken and he too drank at the spring at Karīkarī. He was transformed into the high rounded hill south of Mangatawa (Kopukairoa).
On the southern embankment wall, under SH2/SH29A Te Maunga (Karīkarī) interchange, lives the large mahi toi. Designed by local artists Linda Munn (Ngā Pōtiki) and Maraea Timutimu (Ngāi Tukairangi), the six-by-six metre laser cut steel piece uses the shape of whale flukes to depict the story of the three whales that swum up the Tauranga Harbour and became trapped by the receding tide. They are now resting in place as the three ‘Ngā Maunga Tohorā’ (The Whale Mountains) sacred to Ngā Pōtiki in Pāpāmoa: Kopukairoa (father), Mangatawa (mother) and Hikurangi (calf).
The location and position of the tohorā mahi toi provides people approaching from the north with a line of sight to the three maunga behind. The intentional design decision to place the mahi toi under the bridge itself gives the impression as if people travelling underneath the bridge are entering the depths of the moana (ocean) where tohorā live.
Not only are tohorā important to the history of this rohe (region), they are also a kaitiaki and taonga species sacred to mana whenua and just one of the many species present across the Bay Link project, connecting to place and the memory of what once was in this area.
Artist impression of the tohorā heading south towards SH2/SH29A Te Maunga (Karīkarī) interchange with Pāpāmoa maunga in the background.
Artist impression of the tohorā on the embankment wall under SH2/SH29A Te Maunga (Karīkarī) interchange.
