Located near the end of the Turitea stream is the Urban Eels sanctuary. On this site was a former Pā known as Pā Te Wanikau. Wanikau became the Principal Chief of the Ngāti Upoko-iri people after the passing of his grandfather.   

When the first European surveyors came into the Manawatū in the 1850’s, it would have been a precarious site, as the village was viewed as being abandoned with everything kept in its place.  This would have given the feeling that the whole place was tabooed, as Wanikau’s people had returned to the Omahu district in Fernhill, Heretaunga.