Pūtaringamotu is the name of the pare under which CBHS students enter School on their first day.

Pūtaringamotu's role is to look after everyone who walks underneath. 

 Pūtaringamotu is also the name for the greater Deans’ Bush area. In precolonial times there would have been a large kahikatea and tōtara forest. It was a meeting place for our tīpuna and a stopover for those from Kaiapoi Pā to the north and the various pā of Banks Peninsula. Pūtaringamotu, means ‘place your ear to the ground and you will hear the vibrations’. There are a number of oral traditions that tells us tīpuna would have stopped here for a few nights, collecting various resources and continuing on their journey. If they thought they could hear a little bit of trouble, they would place their ear to the ground and would hear the vibrations of their enemies or people moving through the area. 

The central figure of the pare is Tautahi. Tautahi is one of the major ancestors of Christchurch. Tautahi is an important man in whakapapa. He had a pā site situated on Kilmore Street and his territory covered the Ōtākaro river catchment. There is another carved figure on each side of Tautahi.  The figure looking at the pare on the left is Tūrākautahi. Tūrākautahi is the founder of Kaiapoi pā and from whom Ngāi Tūāhuriri descend from. The figure on the right is Hine-Paaka who is an ancestress who had the ability to communicate with the environment and in particular the weather. Before any major distance travels of our tīpuna, they would go to Hine-Paaka to ask her to recite karakia to calm the winds and also the oceans.  

At the end of the pare are two more figures, one being the koero (blind spotted eel) and the other being the tuere (lamprey). Both are not the most attractive of the creatures but are the major kaitiaki of the waterways around Canterbury. There are eight manaia, spiritual guardians, on Pūtaringamotu and they protect our streams and waterways. There are two heads; one that is above to protect all things above water and one below to protect those things below. The head below represents those old boys and teachers who have passed on and serve to keep them in memory.  

There are four spirals which represent the original schoolhouses and also the impact of whānau of the old boys of this schools. These also represent the four corner post of well being. Te whare whānau, te whare tinana, te whare hinengaro and te whare wairua.  Like at Pūtarikamotu, where tīpuna would place their ears to the ground to hear the travels of nearby enemies, so too does our school haka echoe from generation to generation. The spirals represents the throwing of stones into the pond and the ripples it creates. Tautahi has his ear out so we all listen to each other and talk openly and honestly.  

Pūtaringamotu was carved by Matua Wiremu Gray (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāti Porou/Ngāti Kahungunu) 

Matua Anaru Gray (Ngāti Porou/Ngāti Kahungunu).