This year Te Ūnga Mai is holding an event that recognises and celebrates the significance and historical connection between the 2012 Transit of Venus and the Transit of Venus observed by Captain Cook in Tahiti in 1769.
'Ko Tūranga te parekereke o te korero'. Tūranga the nursery or beginning of conversation.
Welcome to Tūranganui ā Kiwa, the landing place of Paoa and Kiwa of Horouta and Takitimu fame.
Welcome to Poverty Bay the landing place of Lieutenant James Cook and the creation of this nation of Aotearoa.
Te Ūnga Mai is about creating a contemporary meeting place - a platform for both tangata whenua and pakeha to explore our heritage, those stories that are unique to one or the other, as well as those that are shared.
Te Ūnga Mai acknowledges our voyaging traditions and commemorates the first formal meeting between the tangata whenua of Tūranganui ā Kiwa and Lieutenant James Cook, and the crew of the Endeavour.