Our Guiding Lights
"Guides may come and guides may go but Whakarewarewa goes on almost unchanged."
Guide Rangi 1896-1970
Since tourism began guides have been the face of Te Puia, each adding their own footprint to the paths of history in the Whakarewarewa Valley.
The story of every guide would fill volumes. So, as in all things Maori, we turn to those who walked before.
Makareti Papakura and Rangitiaria Dennan set the bar for the consummate host. To know a little of their stories is only a hint to the enormity of what present guides aspire to.
Guiding was not a job. It was a responsibility - to share the richness and dispel the misconceptions about their beloved people.
Guide Maggie,
Makareti Papakura 1872-1930
Makareti Thom was born a special child on 20 October 1872. The eldest child of noble heritage she was promptly claimed by her old people to be schooled in the ancient ways.
For 10 years she was tutored in genealogy, the stars, the secrets of lake and forest. She had a gift for understanding the language of birds and was seen conversing with feathered friends.
Guide Maggie was sent to an English school and again mastered her education. Tourists would later remark how her perfect, poetic delivery of English bettered their own.
It was tourists who shortened her name to Maggie and inadvertently changed her surname. Once asked her ‘real Maori surname’ Maggie, always attuned to nature, noticed the gentle geyser Papakura bubbling to life beside her. “My name is Papakura,” she replied and it was adopted by her family thereon.
Her cunning charm coupled with unrivalled knowledge defined public relations before it was even conceived. Her book, The Old-Time Maori, a thesis for Oxford University, is now a rare, treasured account for scholars.
Following her death in 1930, friend and Oxford academic counsellor, T.K Penniman, wrote:
“The secret of her own greatness of soul lay in knowing who she was.”
Guide Rangi,
Rangitiaria Dennan 1896-1970
If Guide Maggie was the fountain, Guide Rangi was the torrent, a formidable force, direct and equally compelling. Born in a thatched hut, she rose to become as well known as Prime Ministers of the day. Guide Rangi saw her role as an ambassador but also an opportunity to educate the world about her people whether the world was ready or not.
Her throaty chuckle (she loved a good joke) belied a steely nature. She could not abide tardiness or rudeness. She spoke and acted from the heart and in 1943 was splashed across international newspapers as the woman who dared to press noses, the Maori greeting, with Eleanor Roosevelt.
Thus King and Commoner were treated alike and she was once criticised for being too familiar with the young Princess Elizabeth when she reached out to steady her. Better that guests leave the geothermal valley, she retorted, “alive and uncooked.”
In 1953, she began travelling overseas. Guide Rangi wanted to be a tourist but her fame made anonymity near impossible.
After more than 40 years guiding, she retired in 1965 but even then letters still poured in from around the globe addressed simply: To Rangi of Rotorua.
Source
Makareti, The Old Time Maori, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1938
Guide Rangi of Rotorua, R. Dennan and R. Annabell, Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, Christchurch 1968
Rangi and Rotorua, A.H. and A.W. Reed, Wellington 1952
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