'Arthur’s Pass is a special birding area because of the preponderance of southern rātā [a forest tree with bright red flowers]. The nectar from the rātā was particularly attractive to kākā not just kea [two species of native parrots], so for hunting kākā it was a major zone. At Christmas the western side of the pass, as you’re dropping down into Otira, is often full of brilliant red rātā blossoms. It was a big mahika kai [food gathering area] up to the head of the valley towards Otira, although the route across was not a regular nor a favoured route. It was regarded as a possible route, and the rakatira [chief] Tarapuhi gave that information to Dobson [Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, a pioneer surveyor who came to New Zealand in 1850 and took the first Europeans over Arthur’s Pass] but even then they had to develop the whole corkscrew thing [the switchback road winding down steep scree slopes] to get carriages across it – on foot it was pretty difficult. That difficulty has been overcome by the new viaduct.' —Sir Tipene O’Regan

(He Rau Maharataka Whenua: A Memory of Land, 17 September 2016 – 18 February 2017)