History
The name means "Glistening Waters", and is said to have been applied by an early Māori explorer, Huanui, who saw the rivers and lake from the mountains to the west.
Rangitane and Ngāti Kahungunu were the Māori tribes (iwi) in the area when European explorers arrived in the 1770s.
European settlement began in the early 1840s, initially on large grazing runs leased from Māori, and with closer settlement from the 1850s.
On 23 January 1855 the region was hit by the strongest earthquake recorded in New Zealand, which reached Magnitude 8.2 on the Richter Scale. There were five deaths.
Read more about this topic: Wairarapa
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