Arapawaiti
Beside the Otaihanga Boating Club, 19 Makora Road, Paraparaumu
Arapawaiti was a small village of a dozen houses belonging to the Ngāti Rukao hapū. In the Kuititanga battle of 1839, warriors from Arapawaiti were the first to cross the river to help to repel the Ngāti Raukawa attack. A short walk across the Domain footbridge leads to the Waimeha plaque identifying this battle site.
Police, post office and customs – the first government agencies in the Kāpiti region were sited near here from 1847 to 1852. Until 1886, all travellers on the beach road to Whanganui crossed the Waikanae River near this spot. Tom Wilson, a former whaler, built the Ferry Inn as a stopover for travellers and maintained the river crossing. A scheduled coach service operated here from 1866 until the railway opened in 1886.
A mail coach crossing the river. Oil painting by Ernest Papps. Courtesy of the artist and Carol Doreen.
