Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve is a marine reserve

Marine reserve

For the United States Marine Corps Reserve see: Marine Forces ReserveA marine reserve is an area of the sea which has legal protection against fishing or development. This is to be distinguished from a marine park, but there is some overlap in usage...

  on the Coromandel Peninsula

Coromandel Peninsula

The Coromandel Peninsula lies in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Waikato Region and Thames-Coromandel District and extends 85 kilometres north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier to protect the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west...

 in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

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Cathedral Cove is named after the cave located there linking Mare’s Leg Cove to Cathedral Cove. Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay are also located within the reserve. A walking track exists from the northern end of Hahei

Hahei

Hahei is a small settlement near Cathedral Cove on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula in the Waikato Region of New Zealand.Hahei is located in Mercury Bay, between the settlements of Cooks Beach and Hot Water Beach.It is approximately 6 km south east of Whitianga and 6 km north...

 Beach, and it is also possible to walk from the local authority car park at the top of the headland between Hahei and Gemstone Bay. The area is very popular with tourists, and receives around 150,000 visitors a year.

The Māori

Maori language

Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

 name Te Whanganui-A-Hei (the Great Bay of Hei) refers to Hei

Ngati Hei

Ngāti Hei is a Māori iwi of New Zealand.Ngati Hei is generally recognised as the dominant tribe of the Mercury Bay area. Iwi spokes person Joe Davis is a well known local identity and Rangitira of Ngati Hei. He and his family reside Wharekaho on iwi ancestral land on the shores of Mercury BayThere...

, a tohunga

Tohunga

In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, religious or otherwise. Tohunga may include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teachers and advisors. The equivalent term in Hawaiian culture is kahuna...

 from the Te Arawa

Te Arawa

Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu based in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty areas of New Zealand, with a population of around 40,000.The history of the Te Arawa people is inextricably linked to the Arawa canoe...

 waka

Waka (canoe)

Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...

. According to tradition, Hei chose the area around Mercury Bay

Mercury Bay

Mercury Bay is a large V-shaped bay on the eastern coast of the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. This bay was named by the English navigator Captain James Cook during his exploratory expeditions. By the Māori it was named Te-Whanganui-o-Hei, the great bay of Hei.On November...

 as home for his tribe, proclaiming ownership by calling Motueka Island "Te Kuraetanga-o-taku-Ihu" (the outward curve of my nose.) It is said he made this claim near the site of the present-day of Hahei.

On film

• The cave and beach was used as the tunnel through which the Pevensie
  Pevensie
  Pevensie is the surname of some of the primary characters in some of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia books:*Edmund Pevensie*Lucy Pevensie*Peter Pevensie*Susan Pevensie...
  
   children first re-enter Narnia in the movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
  The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
  The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a 2008 epic fantasy film based on Prince Caspian, the second published, fourth chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It is the second in The Chronicles of Narnia film series from Walden Media, following The...
  
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