New Zealand - Nelson - Tahunanui School - Standard 3 & 4 - 1978 Do you have more information about the school or the people in this photo? Please use the comment section below to share. To search for other photos from this school, please type the schools name in to our search engine. Tahunanui Beach - The main beach in the city of Nelson - It lies on the shore of Tasman Bay on the northern edge of a peninsula which stretches west from the suburb of Tahunanui. - The beach is notable for its long shallow slope, and for this reason is extremely popular with local swimmers, as the water is generally calm and warmed by the sun. Nelson - Settlement of Nelson began about 700 years ago by Māori. - There is evidence the earliest settlements in New Zealand are around the Nelson-Marlborough regions. - The earliest recorded iwi in the Nelson district are the Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri, Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne tribes. - Raids from northern tribes in the 1820s, led by Te Rauparaha and his Ngāti Toa, soon decimated the local population and quickly displaced them.