Te Takinga Marae sits at Mourea on the eastern shore of Lake Rotorua, on State Highway 33. It is the marae of the hapū Ngāti Te Tākinga, who belong to Ngāti Pikiao. The meeting house, also called Te Tākinga, is the whare tupuna, the house that carries the ancestor's name. The marae connects back to the Te Arawa waka, to the mountain Matawhaura and to the river Ōhau. A marae is the centre of a hapū's gatherings, where people meet for welcomes, funerals, celebrations and meetings, and where the whare tupuna is the heart of that life. Te Takinga is the place for the people of this hapū, and it is set in a lake shore landscape that links them to the wider Te Arawa story.