Te Huruhuru meets Edward Shortland in 1844

The southern Kāi Tahu leader Te Huruhuru was born around 1800. Although little is known of his whakapapa or life before 1844, his extensive knowledge of the interior suggests that he had previously resided in the Wānaka and Hāwea districts. By the mid-nineteenth century Te Huruhuru was a prominent Kāi Tahu leader in South Canterbury. He was considered the rakatira of the kāika of Te Puna-a-Maru that was situated on the southern bank of the lower Waitaki River, near its junction with Te Awamako.

When Edward Shortland arrived at Te Puna-a-Maru in 1844, while undertaking a census of the Māori population of southern New Zealand, Te Huruhuru agreed to ferry him across the flooded Waitaki. As he awaited the construction of mōkihi to carry the party across the river, Shortland obtained valuable information from Te Huruhuru about the geography of the interior of Te Waipounamu, including the first maps of lakes Wānaka, Hāwea and Whakatipu Waimāori (Wakatipu). Te Huruhuru also described inland settlements, trails and place names, and supplied the first recorded account of Te Pūoho’s raid. Shortland was grateful for the generous assistance and described Te Huruhuru as "a man of singularly pleasing manners and address".

The story of Edward Shortland’s travels down the Waitaki with Ngāi Tahu guides in 1844 was depicted in South Canterbury Saga, a film made by Folio Films in 1952 to commemorate the Timaru Centennial. The following film features Ngāi Tahu whānau members as the cast and was filmed on the Waitaki River.

Te Wharekōrari guides Walter Mantell 1848

Following the signing of Kemp’s Deed in 1848, Walter Mantell, Commissioner for Extinguishing Native Claims, travelled from Kaiapoi to Dunedin to allocate native reserves within the recently purchased area.

When Mantell arrived at Te Puna-a-Maru in the spring of 1848, Te Huruhuru and most of his people were away at Waikouaiti. Not wishing to conduct the survey in the Waitaki chief’s absence, Mantell sent a message ahead, requesting that Te Huruhuru "return at once". Te Huruhuru was too ill with influenza to accompany the surveyors and sent Horomona Pōhio as his representative. 

After Mantell’s survey of the native reserve at Te Puna-a-Maru, Te Wharekōrari, who resided at Hakataramea, guided Mantell up the valley to Te Waikōura (incorrectly spelled today as Waikaura Creek) where Te Huruhuru requested a reserve for firewood. No reserve was ever established. Te Wharekōrari had an intimate knowledge of the Waitaki Valley, and drew Mantell six maps of the Waitaki River and the lakes of Te Manahuna, detailing many of the traditional Māori names located throughout the catchment.

Tieke Pukurākau

Described as the last great mōkihi navigator of the Waitaki, Tieke Pukurākau (also known as Jack Pukurākau or Jack Pukuraki) spent most of his life living in the Waitaki region. Working at one time as a ferryman at the river mouth, Tieke was an expert at constructing mōkihi. Up until the early twentieth century, Tieke continued to make annual mahinga kai expeditions to Te Manahuna gathering birds and tuna (eels) to be preserved and stored for the upcoming winter months. 

Old Jack [Pukurākau] was a wizard at steering and could wriggle a course through roots, snags, trees, rocks or shingle beds that in the case of a less skilful steerer would have cut the flax underneath the raft and so ripped up its bottom so that it would break up. He used to take trips up to the heads of the lakes (Ohau, Pukaki and Tekapo) to get birds and more especially eels, to be preserved for storage as winter food. He had a pataka or whata down here to put his catch in and he valued his annual trips. The process was to gut the eels when caught and sun dry them or sun cure them and then pack them in handy form to be brought down river to the sea coast. Great numbers were caught and it required strong mōkihi to transport them. Sandy Te Maiharoa, speaking in the 1930s

Over years of occupation and use of the Waitaki, Tieke obtained an intimate knowledge of the place names throughout the catchment. In 1915 Tieke presented Pākehā historian James Herries Beattie with two long lists documenting the Māori place names along the Waitaki. The lists were written on "sheets of paper covered with his big, childlike handwriting". One list outlined the Māori place names situated along the northern bank of the Waitaki, and the second list the place names along the southern bank.