Pilgrimage Aotearoa / Haerenga Tapu Aotearoa
I first experienced this concept in a 150th anniversary prayer walk around central Whanganui to significant Methodist sites and pā in 1998, led by local historian Athol Kirk. He convinced us that between 1836-1839 Ngārauru Methodist Māori evangelists, were the first to bring the gospel to Whanganui, ahead of Wiremu Te Tauri, the CMS Māori evangelist, in December 1839 who’s usually credited with this feat.
Having realised that despite a significant tradition of Māori and Church-led protest hikoi and “informed and prayerful walks with God” (including cathedral labyrinths and stations of the cross), New Zealanders have “little knowledge of the riches on our own doorstep”. So with experiences of Christian pilgrimages here and overseas (including the Camino), and since 2013 making “intentional visits” to “significant historical religious sites [all around] Aotearoa-New Zealand”, the authors (John Hornblow, retired Anglican priest and younger brother of Max and Edgar Hornblow, and his wife Jenny, organist and choir director at All Saints, Palmerston North) published this book late in 2024.
Archbishop David Moxon’s introduction, two extracts on Christian and New Zealand pilgrimage, a sites by region map, and a contents list organised by region and district from Northland to Rakiura and Rēkohu, lead the reader into “engaging with a site” using questions from a framework developed by Archbishop Moxon to assist “a deeper engagement with each site”. Then follow 99 site entries from Oihi Bay and the Rangihoua Heritage Park, Bay of Islands, to the last entry, Maunganui Stone Cottage, Rēkohu/Chatham Islands.
Most entries follow a typical pattern that helps with planning and access: the story, directions, further information and reflection. Many fascinating and insightful entries include most Christian denominations, Ratana and Ringatu historical sites and churches, many significant pā and Māori memorials, two Orthodox monasteries, retreat centres, New Zealand Wars and WWI monuments and sites, Kate Sheppard’s childhood home and a plaque commemorating Thomas Bracken.
Within the Northland region are short biographies of Ruatara and Henry Williams, and significant entries on Kaeo and Mangungu and their Wesleyan mission stories. In Auckland, under an inner city walking pilgrimage, Pitt Street church has an entry; likewise in Wellington, Te Aro Pā and Park, and Wesley Taranaki Street have paragraphs. Durham Street is mentioned under the Christchurch earthquake walking pilgrimage.
Under Otago there is the Watkin memorial stone at Waikouaiti labelled as at Karitāne, but no mention of the Otago Methodist mission or the exquisite little Māori concrete church at Ōtakou. Likewise, Waikato, Kāwhia coast, North and South Taranaki Methodist mission sites are omitted. There is nothing about the Pukearuhe Whiteley memorial site or Whiteley Memorial Church, Ngāmotu mission and the Grey’s Institute, in New Plymouth; nothing of the mission plaques scattered about Hāwera, or the Kaitoke farm mission near Waitōtora. Fortunately, the Waikato coast has Robin Astridge’s 2013 commentary and photographs in, A Brief Outline of Wesleyan Mission Stations in the Waikato, and Alan Leadley’s, A Pilgrimage to Kawhia, to cover this omission.
These disappointments aside, this guide book is a beautifully and elegantly-crafted first attempt to awaken New Zealanders of all races and creeds to the numerous possibilities for our own New Zealand-based pilgrimages. It is a work of art, printed on glossy art paper, which should find a hallowed place in backpacks and motorists’ glove boxes, for exploring our country’s rich religious and secular monuments among numerous city highways and country by-ways.