The Aorangi mountain range is located in the south east corner of the Wairarapa. They are sometimes called the Haurangi’s although this name probably came about as a result of early European surveyors misspelling Aorangi.

The name Aorangi is an ancient one that was transferred from Polynesia to many moun¬tains within New Zealand, Early ancestors of Wairarapa Maori gave the name Aorangi to commemorate a sacred mountain in their homeland of Hawaiki.

The name means “cloud or light of heaven” and refers to the light that remains on the up¬per heights of a mountain when the world below is shrouded in shadow.

The highest peak on the Aorangi’s is called Tuhirangi but has been changed to Mount Ross. Tuhirangi means “Where it is written in the skies and cannot be erased by the hand of man.” Te Tihi o Tuhirangi is the name of the meeting house at Kohunui marae, Pirinoa.

Some of the earliest people to have lived in New Zealand built village complexes on the eastern and western feet and river valleys of the Aorangi mountains. It is estimated that the earliest people may have arrived around 1000AD, archaeological methods dates one house at AD 1180.

The map below is where Aorangi is located.