Maratoto
Maratoto is a valley and rural community in the Hauraki District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, north of Paeroa. The valley extends up to the Coromandel Forest Park, which has a network of walking tracks. History Early history Maratoto is a Māori word meaning "the rock of blood". It refers to a Māori legend about a group of warriors who were cornered on a rocky pinnacle in the valley, and flung themselves over the bank to avoid being captured. By the 19th century, Ngāti Tamaterā had established a pā on the banks of the Maratoto Stream. It was called Hikutaia, which translates as "the end of the tide". European settlers arrived in the area in the mid-19th century, most of the from Ireland. A small settlement sprung up around the Pioneer Hotel, which provided accommodation and alcohol for gold-miners passing through by stage coach. Gum-diggers cleared much of the local Kauri forest, and a local butcher set up a shop inside the hollow interior of an enormous kauri stump. A telegraph line was completed 1872, ending the need for messages to be couriered to other settlements. A Englishman pig-hunter discovered gold in the area while wrestling a