whare
A Maori house or other building.
The dwellings of the chiefs are surrounded with enclosures of pole-fences; and the Whares and Wharepunis, some of them exhibiting very fine specimens of the Maori order of architecture, are ornamented with grotesque wood-carvings.
A rough shack or hut built (by Europeans) using traditional Maori techniques; a workman's shack.
historical
Many New Zealanders will know that a whare is a house. But in this context, the whare were being built for a summer hunting and gathering expedition. It was the 1880s, so timber houses also featured, but here the whānau were travelling to tribal lands and building makeshift whare to camp in.
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Māori whare (“house, hut”).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry whare (CC BY-SA 4.0).