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This question has come up often. Although the working title of Penlink is currently being added to the name, this will not be part of the official name.
The name O Mahurangi was gifted by iwi on the day the Project Alliance Agreement between Waka Kotahi, Fulton Hogan, HEB Construction, Aurecon and Tonkin & Taylor was signed.
The name is in recognition of Maori ancestor Mahurangi, a tohunga (priestess) who lived in Hawaiiki and whose powers are said to have enabled the construction of the great voyaging waka Tainui.
When Tainui waka arrived at what is now Wenderholm Regional Park in around 1200, they gave the name Mahurangi to a small island adjacent to the Maungatauhoro headland. The island’s name gave rise to the harbour in which it sits, and eventually to the wider district and the Crown’s land purchase.
