Te Ōhāki is the whare tupuna, the ancestral house, at the centre of Kauriki Marae in Ngāpuke, about 14 km east of Taumarunui on Taumarunui-Ngapuke Road. The marae belongs to the hapū Ngāti Hinemihi, of Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi. Its ancestral links reach back to the Te Arawa waka, to the maunga Tongariro, to the awa Pungapunga and Whanganui, and to the roto Taupō. That gives the place a connection to a wide stretch of the central North Island, and the whare tupuna carries that history inside it.
A marae is where a hapū welcomes guests and holds its gatherings, and at Kauriki that work is centred on Te Ōhāki. The name of the house and the rivers, mountain and lake named in its ancestry make clear whose land this is and where its people come from. Our pick for anyone wanting to understand a working marae in the Ruapehu district is Kauriki, because its history is set out so plainly in the place itself.