Tainui statue at lake in Whanganui's premier park moved

Kaumātua John Maihi blesses the moved statue. Photo / Supplied

After wanting to move the Tainui statue at Rotokawau/Virginia Lake for years, a trust made it happen last year and blessed the statue in its new location on March 3.

Most of the work on the Tainui statue was done by Whanganui sculptor Joan Morrell, who died in January last year.

Before she died she told her brother, Nobby Bullock, that the statue should be moved so that Tainui's tears were closer to the lake edge, as befitting her story.

Maurice Trail (left), Terry Coxon, Ben Morrell, Nobby Bullock and Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall attend the blessing of the moved Tainui statue. Photos / Supplied

The move was made late last year. The cost and effort needed were substantial, Virginia Lake Trust chairman Terry Coxon said. The statue and the rock it sat on weighed nearly 3 tonnes, and resource consent was needed.

The artwork's new position is more visible and accessible. The statue is unchanged, but its plaques were hard to read and a new sign giving the story behind it has been put up.

The legend of Tainui has it that she was the beautiful daughter of a chief at Putikituna Pā, situated on the banks of the Tangarakau River as it joins the Whanganui. Also at the pā was a young man called Turere, who loved birds and spent long hours in the bush listening to them and learning their language.

One day Tainui heard him talking to the birds. She loved them too and asked him to teach her their language. The two spent long hours together and fell in love.

News of Tainui's beauty and accomplishments reached Ranginui, a proud and boastful chief from a pā on the Whanganui River. He made himself a canoe and went to Putikituna to ask for Tainui as his wife.

Hearing about her love for Turere, Ranginui threatened to kill him. Tainui warned Turere to flee and he travelled south towards the Waitōtara River and the coast. But Ranginui followed and caught him where he lay exhausted on a hill.

Ranginui killed his rival, which angered the gods. A storm struck, Ranginui was cut down and rain poured for days, covering the two bodies with a lake.

Tainui had followed her lover. When she came to the shores of the lake the birds told her of Turere's death. She knelt beside the water and her tears added to the waters.

The statue of Tainui came about after Maxwell Smart, historian and former Whanganui Regional Museum director, told members of the former Whanganui Historical Society the legend. He said he hoped a statue portraying the legend would be made and placed at the lake.

The statue was commissioned by the society as a memorial to Smart and unveiled on June 3, 1978.