A Street in Wellington, New Zealand

The earliest name for Wellington, from Maori legend, is Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui. In Maori it means &#8216the head of Maui’s fish&#8217. Caught and pulled to the surface by Polynesian navigator Maui, the fish became the North Island.The Polynesian explorer Kupe is credited with the initial discovery of Wellington Harbour. Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the great harbour of Tara) is another Maori name for Wellington. Tara was the son of Whatonga, another Polynesian migrant, who had settled in Hawke&#8217s Bay. Whatonga sent Tara on a tour of inspection of the lower North Island in the 12th century. After a year Tara returned and reported that the best place he had seen was &#8216at the very nostrils of the island&#8217. As a result Whatonga and his followers shifted south – the first iwi (tribe) in Wellington was thus Ngai.