The History of Waimarama Beach The Waimarama road is tar sealed all the way to the pacific coast line. A breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean, Waimarama  and Motuokura or Bare Island is seen as one travels over the brow of the last hill into Waimarama. This island was named after Kura, a woman who would dive down to obtain water from a bubble of fresh water exuding from an aquifer to the south- west of the island, during times of seige. This spring still exists today as a bubble of freshwater on the seabed( called Nga Puhake-o-te-ora or "the burp of life") From the shore Motuokura is bare, but from the seaward side, there is enough cover to provide resting sites for blue penquins and sooty shearwaters. When D'Urville sailed past in 1827 he reported houses and boats on the seaward side. Today no one lives on the island, but it can be visited, only access by boat. Turning right into Waimarama , there are other relics of the great Takitimu canoe.  Its anchor stones, also Kuku rocks, where the canoe was slipped and where early settlers loaded wool bales from carts into whale boats for rowing out to waiting ships. The landward stone 'Taupunga' is located up the beach nearer the domain. Taupunga is also that of the main whare at the Waimarama Marae.                                                             Archaeological study has produced evidence that Waimarama was almost certainly settled from early times, possibly by Moa hunters..