This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
38.67427° S, 178.02682° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Te Maro stands ten metres high at the Ruatanuika lookout on Titirangi, above the harbour where the Endeavour first anchored.
The circular steel sculpture honours the tipuna Te Maro, and it is a major landmark on the hill that overlooks Tūranganui-a-Kiwa. Gisborne District Council includes it in the Navigate Tairāwhiti programme, and current Tairāwhiti visitor material describes it as a jaw-dropping ten-metre work and one of the region's defining photo stops.
The siting is the substance of it. Titirangi, also known as Kaiti Hill, looks down over the exact stretch of coast where the first meetings between Māori and the crew of the Endeavour took place in October 1769 – an encounter in which Te Maro was killed. A monumental sculpture of a named tipuna, placed on the hill above that ground, is a deliberate act of remembrance rather than decoration, and it changes what a visitor is looking at from a lookout view into a site with a history attached.
This entry deliberately goes no further than that. What Te Maro means to his descendants, how he should be spoken of, and how the events of 1769 are understood in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa are matters for the iwi and hapū concerned, and are not a catalogue's to summarise.
What can be stated plainly is the object: circular, steel, ten metres, at Ruatanuika, honouring a named ancestor, promoted by the district council and by regional tourism as a landmark of Tairāwhiti.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Current Tairāwhiti visitor information describes Te Maro as a jaw-dropping ten-metre sculpture and a major photo landmark; Gisborne District Council continues to include it in the Navigate Tairāwhiti programme.
ACCESS
Te Maro stands at Ruatanuika Lookout on Titirangi/Kaiti Hill. Tairāwhiti Gisborne and Gisborne District Council independently confirm the lookout setting, and a current mapped Te Maro listing resolves directly to -38.674266, 178.026821. Production now uses that as the exact map-checked sculpture point. Tairāwhiti’s visitor listing confirms free street parking is available, but PBT still withholds direct vehicle navigation until a specific lawful parking/arrival coordinate for Ruatanuika Lookout is independently pinned; do not substitute the separate Kaiti Hill summit/lookout map point.
Current mapped Te Maro listing (updated January 2025); its Get directions link resolves directly to -38.674266, 178.026821. Used together with official Tairāwhiti/Gisborne evidence for the Ruatanuika Lookout identity.
