Walk #174, 18th October 2025
This white statue is a major landmark on the old SH1 road to Wellington. It’s been there all my life. We finally stopped to take a look after being at Queen Elizabeth 2 Park nearby. It was built in 1958. I think it’s New Zealand’s only religious shrine.
Walk: Kapiti 35
Links
Walk #173, 18th October 2025
Queen Elizabeth park is on the Kapiiti Coast between Raumati Beach and Paekakariki. We parked at the Wellington Tramways Museum at MacKays crossing and took a historic tram to the start of the walk at Whareroa Beach. It was a different and fun way of starting the walk. The tram runs on the weekend.
The central car park at Whareroa Beach is the start point for two loop tracks, one north to Raumati Beach and the other south to Paekakariki. Both have seaward tracks that follow the dunes. We kept to the inland track which is more sheltered from the westerly wind.
Walk: Kapiti 36
Links
History
The name Paraparaumu is from an early foray of the Musket Wars.
RNZ Nau Mai Town – Paraparaumu
The greater Wellington Regional Council gives the history of Queen Elizabeth Park here:
Queen Elizabeth Park Resource Statement
I have some family links with the area from the 1800’s.
History of the Howell family (my paternal Grandmother’s relatives)
From the 1850s, several Pakeha families came into the Whareroa/Paekakariki area to
farm the land which included areas currently within the Queen Elizabeth Park. From 1860, John Telford established a sheep farm know as ‘Wharemako’ and this extended around and south of current-day Raumati and presumably included the northern part of the park
In August 1879, William Bentinck Howell leased much of this land off Telford for £100 per annum for 10 years. The 1,335-acre run carried 800 sheep. In 1884 Howell agreed to buy another 600 acres or so, on deferred payment, with the result that he then held an approximately 2,000 acre farm that extended all the way down to Whareroa Stream. Howell continued leasing and acquired a right of purchase of the whole farm by the late 1880s. He began draining the swamps in between the sandhills and establishing pasture.
Howell Road, Paraparaumu Beach
Named after the Howell family, early settlers. William Bentinck Howell (named after the ship he was born on the way to NZ) settled in Wharemaku, a homestead next to the Wharemauku stream in 1879. This house was demolished in about 1949. The site is now 41 Alexander Road.
Source: Kapiti Historical Society – Street names and early dwellings Project
Walk #172, 21st September 2025
This seaside reserve, half an hour from Auckland includes a kilometre-long sandy beach and a coastal marine reserve. Green hillsides provide a buffer from the neighbouring suburbs and pohutukawas flank the beach along the length of the bay.
The parkland continues north of the beach for about two kilometres before turning inland along the Okura river.
Vaughan homestead, the original farm homestead has been restored and is open for visitors.
Walk: Auckland 4
Related walk: Okura Bush and Dacre Cottage
Links
Walk #171, 10th September 2025
Jubilee Park, known locally as Claudelands Bush, is a tiny bush remnant of what was a 200-hectare forest, dominated by Kahikatea, Rimu and Matai. Development has seen the forest shrink over the years to its current size, with some of the remaining trees part of the original forest.
The park is also home to the endangered long tailed bat, the pekapeka, one of New Zealand’s only mammals.
Walk: Hamilton 17
Links
Long tailed bats: Andrew Styche, from the Department of Conservation (DOC), thinks bats have mostly survived in Hamilton thanks to tiny islands of remnant bush within the city limits.
“There’s not much original vegetation left around here so it is amazing they’ve survived,” Andrew says.
Urban bats: Long-tailed bats thriving in Hamilton
History
From the signboard, the land was originally a renowned native bird forest hunting area. The first inhabitants of the area were the Mokohape, a sub-tribe of an extensive tribal group known as Nga Iwi (the people). They were replaced by Tainui people from Mokau and Kawhia.
In the 1800s battles were fought against Te Rauparaha from the west, Ngapuhe from the north and then the British in the Waikato land wars of the 1860s.
With European settlement, Francis Claude subdivided the land in 1870 and the suburb became known as Claudelands.
The Mokohape
Mokohape refers to a figure depicted on carved pou (posts) outside a casino in Hamilton, New Zealand, which represents a tribe of the Nga Iwi people who once lived on the Waikato River before being conquered by Ngaati Wairere, who occupied the land from since the mid to late 16th century.
The pou features a carved face and a lizard, symbolizing the Mokohape people’s struggle for survival and eventual displacement, an event captured by the proverb,“People may disappear but the land remains.” Source: Google AI
The ancient name of the Waikato River
The ancient name of the Waikato river was ‘Te Awanui O Taikehu,’ meaning the big river of Taikehu.
I wonder if it’s the same Taikehu who was the chief of a Taranaki tribe living at Patea Heads when the Aotea canoe arrived? The Patea River was also named ‘Te Awa nui a Taikehu.’ According to Tainui tradition Taikeu was a a tohunga of the Tainui waka. There are a few placenames associated with this name; the full name of Motutapu Island – the island east of Auckland is ‘Motutapu-o-Taikehu,‘ the sacred island of Taikehu. There’s also a lake Taikehu in the Bay of Plenty between Whakatane and Kawerau.
Walk 6th Sept 2011
While it’s winter time I’m posting some walks we did years ago. The walks on this page were at Russell / Kororareka in the Bay of Islands. We’ve been to Russell twice, the first time was in early spring of 2011 when we took the ferry across from Paihia. The second visit was in the late winter of 2015, and this time I walked from Okiato near the car ferry at Opua. Despite the lawlessness of the area, for a short time in 1845 Okiato was the site of NZ’s first capital.
Russell began life as Kororareka, and it was a wild town full of whalers, grog shops, brothels and a Maori Pa belonging to Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke.
Tensions grew between the Maori and the British over the imposition of duties and tarrifs. Inspired by talk of revolution by the Americans, in 1844 Hone hacked down a flag pole he’d formerly given the British. When it was replaced in 1845 he cut it down again and actually flew the US flag from his waka (canoe).
To provide further context to the issue, according to the 19th century Pakeha Maori F.E. Maning (see links below) the Maoris associated the British flag with the lack of trade and high-prices. When the duties and tarrifs came off after the first flagpole was chopped down, it resulted in goods becoming affordable again. In the Maori mind, stopping the British flag from flying solved the problem.
The fourth time the flagpole was erected in 1845, the lower portion was clad in iron, but that did not stop Hone from cutting it down yet again – and to follow it up he sacked the town, burning down many buildings including the Duke of Marlborough Hotel.
The Duke of Marlborough Hotel was quickly rebuilt after being burned down and the establishment has been running ever since. We had lunch in the historic dining room overlooking the waterfront during our week’s stay at Okiato in 2015.
Christ Church is the oldest surviving church in NZ. It actually has bullet holes from the Battle of Kororareka. Hone Heke told his warriors to leave the church standing but its old timbers still bear the scars from the battle. It has a historic graveyard that we walked through. Among the graves in the churchyard are those of Tamati Waka Nene (a Ngapuhi chief largely responsible for the Maori’s acceptance of the Treaty of Waitangi and who fought for the settlers against Hone Heke), members of the Clendon family (James R Clendon was the first honorary United States Consul), and the men from the HMS Hazard who fell in the battle.
We went to a church service on the Sunday we were there in the winter of 2015. That was special. There was no minister, the parishioners kept the church running by themselves. After qualifiying for a degree in theology from an institution in Melbourne they all took turns at preaching. The hymns were played by MP3 through a sound system. We were impressed at their commitment and quiet ‘can do’ attitude. I met a great-granddaughter of Hone Heke at that church, she was a very elegant and well spoken woman.
On our first trip to Russell in 2011 we visited Flagstaff Hill. We strolled along the historic waterfront and then climbed the path through regenerating bush to the hill overlooking the town. A new flagstaff was erected in 1857 as an act of reconciliation by those involved in cutting down the old flagpole and it still stands today.
Back then on our first visit we were more interested in the panoramic views of Russell, Paihia, Waitangi and the islands of the Bay. Our interest in NZ history came from later walks.
Walk 4th August 2015
This was the walk from Okiato to Russell / Kororareka I did in 2015. The exercise was ruined after eating and drinking decadent chocolate at the Newport Chocolate shop in Russell. The chocolate was worth every calorie!
Orongo Bay on the walk impressed me the most, with its mangrove boardwalk and Mt Tikitikioure, a small mount rising 180m above the bay. The hill once belonged to a local chief named Ure and it meant ‘Ure’s top-knot. The Maori people there used a blue pigment found deep in the mountain for painting their faces. It turned out be be manganese which was mined until 1887.
Walk: Northland 12
Walks relating to Hone Heke:
Hone Heke Memorial Park, Kaikohe Hill
Links
Doc – Flagstaff Hill Track, Russell
Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times by Frederick Edward Maning. This book written by Maning, a Pakeha Maori, gives an insight into the time surrounding the war against Hone Heke in 1845. After the battle the maori were plundering the town “because they believed the fight was over, and the people were only quietly plundering the town which had been left for them, and which they had given fair payment for.”
That custom was called ‘muru,’ to plunder, confiscate, take ritual compensation – an effective form of social control, restorative justice and redistribution of wealth among relatives. The process involved taking all the offending party’s goods. The party that had the muru performed on them did not respond by seeking utu.
“At last, all the town people and soldiers went on board the ships, and then the ship of war fired at the Maori people who were plundering in the town. The noise of the firing of the ship guns was very great, and some of Kawiti’s people were near being hit by the lumps of iron. This was not right, for the fight was over … so in revenge they burnt Kororareka, and there was nothing left but ashes ; and this was the beginning of the war.”
Walk 5th Dec 2010
While it’s winter time I’m posting some walks we did years ago, this is one of them. It was a lovely summers day with a warm wind blowing when we crossed the coast to Muriwai from our place at Snells Beach. It was an easy walk and we were able to see the gannets up close.
There used to be two pa at Otakamiro Point where the gannets now are. There’s a seal colony at Oaia just off shore. The gannets began establishing nesting sites on Oaia, then in 1975 on they moved to Motutara Island, and from there they settled on Otakamiro Point, one of only two mainland nesting sites in NZ.
The white fronted terns occupied Motutara Island. Then came the gannets. The gannet invasion of Motutara Island caused the white fronted terns which formerly nested there to shift down to the small crevasses on the sheer cliffs.
To really top the walk off there was a sea cave on the beach. All in all it was a cracker day.
Walk: Auckland 11
History
The earliest known chief associated with the Motutara area was a renowned rangitira or chieftain known as Takamiro. He, like his famous contemporary Tiriwa, lived at a number of places between Motutara and Whatipu, although he generally occupied the headland that dominates Muriwai Regional Park. This landmark, and the pa which was constructed on it, are still referred to as ‘O-Takamiro’ or ‘the dwelling place of Takamiro.’
Both Tiriwa and Takamiro were Turehu leaders credited in tradition with great spiritual power, and with the ability to modify the landscape.
According to local tradition the area was subsequently settled by the ‘Tini o Maruiwi’ or the people of the Kahuitara canoe who migrated north from the Taranaki coastline. Some of this iwi settled on the coastline between the Manukau and Kaipara harbours where they intermarried with the Turehu people.
Ngati Te Kahupara, a sub tribe of both Te Kawerau a Maki and Ngati Whatua descent, lived at Korekore pa until the 1700s. The pa was abandoned before the coming of the European.
J.T. Diamond writes,
“The largest of the pa on the west coast is at Muriwai and is known as Korekore or Oneonenui and locally as Whare-kura. This pa has been fully described by Firth while Best also makes reference to it in his monograph on the Pa Maori.
This conspicuous headland pa jutting out into the sand dunes about 2½ miles to the north of Motutara was until 1938 one of the best preserved of pa sites. Its covering of pohutukawa and puriri trees has however been since removed and the whole area grassed. To prevent cattle and sheep being trapped, many of an extensive series of subterranean storage chambers have been blocked up, while the huge defensive earthwork 60 feet across and 27 feet deep has been partially infilled to provide tractor access to the western section of the pa.
The carvings on the side of the large storage pit situated on the ridge running south-west from the main pa are still in a good state of preservation, as are house sites and storage pits in this area in general. But much of interest on the main pa site has been obliterated. There was a kumera pit 28 x 21 x 7 foot deep.”
Source: Maori in the Waitakere Ranges, by J.T. Diamond, p 304-314/p1
View from quarry over dunes to Korekore Pa
from collection J.T. Diamond
Links
Walk #170, 25th May 2025
The track to Orokawa Bay starts at the northern end of Waihi Beach. Orokawa Bay is a perfect, unspoilt beach overhung by ancient Pohutukawa trees. A side track leads up to the 28m high William Wright Falls (30 minutes return) which we didn’t have time for.
The coastal stretch from Orokawa Bay to Homunga Bay is worth doing but we didn’t have time for that either, it would have been four hours return. The walk there and back to Waihi Beach was about 90 minutes.
We could see the Bowentown Heads walk we did in December 2024 in the distance.
There are two old pa sites in the area. Neither pa is named nor is there any signage. The area was devastated by Ngapuhi raids in the Maori Musket Wars. By the time the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, few Maori remained.
Related walk:
Links
Walk #169, 23rd May 2025
Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari is an ancient volcano in the central Waikato. It’s the largest predator-fenced eco-sanctuary in the world.
The mountain has been recognised as a reserve since 1912. In 2001, the community came together to form the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) with the goal to restore and protect Maungatautari’s ecosystem. In 2002, the fence build got under way and by 2004 all mammals were eradicated from the initial two enclosures. The mountain is now completely enclosed by a pest-proof fence.
Our walk was through the Northern enclosure. We didn’t hear any birds, they are spread out over 3400 hectares and the forest is very old and tall. The only native bird we did see was a Kingfisher (Kotare) sitting on a fence post on our way in.
You have to park your car at the Maungatautiri Marae and walk for about 45 minutes to get to the actual walk, and the last part is steep. There’s a rope to help you up if needed. The walk inside the enclosure is about 35 minutes. So budget about two hours of time for the walk including the ‘there and back.’
History
The area has a long history of settlement. The first inhabitants, the indigenous Ngāti Kahupungapunga people, were annihilated by the Maori Raukawa tribe before the 16th century. The Tainui tribes Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Hauā and Ngāti Korokī still own lands on the slopes.
Walk: Waikato 10
Links
Sanctuary Mountain, Maungatautiri
…..
“We are the largest predator-fenced eco-sanctuary in the world. A little fun fact: We are as big as Uluru in Australia and 10 times the size of Central Park [in New York],” SMM general manager Helen Hughes said.
Over the years, Maungatautari has become a sanctuary for endangered birds, native wildlife and plants.
Last year, SMM wrote history when it became home to a kākāpō population. It was the first time, kākāpō had been living on the mainland in 40 years.” Source: Waikato Herald, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari on the brink of closure due to financial struggle
…..
…..
Ngati Kahupungapunga | Some 400 years ago, they occupied all of the valley of the Waikato from Huntly to Taupo and Rotorua. They had many settlements along the Waikato River, including Karapiro.
Related walks:
Walk #168, 19th May 2025
This is a small estuary, prolific with birds despite the close proximity of housing. The walk goes over a swing bridge and along the banks of the Waikanae River to the Waimanu Lagoons. There we were treated to a special sight, a white heron (kotuku) who lives at the lagoon. The bird is so rare that the Maori have a saying, “He Kotuku rerenga tahi,” “a Kotuku’s flight is seen but once.”
The beach is only a short walk from the lagoon, where we watched the sun set over Kapiti Island, 5 kms offshore.
Walk: Kapiti 33
History
Te Uruhi, a former pa site at Waikanae, was one of three ancient pa sites mentioned in the book ‘THE ART WORKMANSHIP OF THE MAORI RACE IN NEW ZEALAND,’ published in 1896. Elsdon Best wrote, “I have seen the remains of an old pa at Waikanae, called Te Uruhi, the fence of which has been a mile in circumference.”
Unfortunately the site would have been obliterated by developer’s bulldozers.
The Waitaha, first inhabitants
“Archaeological and ethnographical research suggests that Waikanae may have been first inhabited by the Waitaha moa-hunters as early as a thousand years ago.” The Waitaha people were replaced by successive waves of settlement of the Ngāti Apa, Rangitāne and Muaūpoko iwi (tribal groups).
Source: Wikipedia:
Te Rauparaha
In the 1820s the infamous Maori leader of Ngāti Toa, Te Rauparaha, moved into the area and based himself at Kapiti Island.
In this 1840s image of Te Rauparaha, he wears a feather in his hair and a pōhoi (feather-ball earring). Te Rauparaha is famous for the role he played during the musket wars.
Source: Te Ara
In 1824, Waikanae Beach was the embarkation point for a force of 2,000 to 3,000 fighters from coastal iwi, who assembled with the intention of taking Kapiti Island from the Ngāti Toa led by Te Rauparaha. Crossing the strait in a fleet of waka canoes under shelter of darkness, the attackers were met and destroyed as they disembarked at the northern end of Kapiti Island.
…..
Te Āti Awa of Wellington
In the 1820s the Taranaki tribes iwi Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Maru Wharanui began moving to the Kapiti area after being driven south by Waikato tribes in the Maori Musket Wars. The tribes moved back to Taranaki in 1848 but some Atiawa iwi remained in the Kapiti area. Source: Te Āti Awa of Wellington
…..
The Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve
The Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve is a nationally–significant reserve located at the mouth of the Waikanae River. The reserve was established in 1987 to protect the large number of bird species that use the area.
…..
Thomas the goose
Here’s something funny and sweet – a local story about a goose called Thomas who lived at the Waimanu Lagoons from 1970 to 2018.
“Thomas had a relationship with a male black-feathered swan, Henry, for approximately 18 to 24 years until a female swan, Henrietta, joined them. Thomas initially attacked the pair, which included breaking two of the five eggs that Henrietta had laid. But once the remaining eggs had hatched, he became friendly and helped raise them. Henry could not fly because he had an injured wing, so Thomas helped teach the cygnets to fly.
Thomas was left alone when Henry died in 2009 and Henrietta flew away with another swan. Thomas later met a female goose and had his own offspring, for the first time, in 2011. The offspring were then taken by another goose. After going blind and getting attacked by swans, he was moved in 2013 to the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust in Ohariu, and stayed there until his death in 2018. A plaque was placed at the lagoon to remember him.” Source: Wikipedia
Links
We stopped at the Southward Car Museum on the road to the Waikanae Estuary walk. It’s well worth a visit.
White heron making most of Waikanae Beach before departure
Te Ātiawa ki Kāpiti History : The earliest accounts of Te Ātiawa ki Kāpiti go back to the Kāhui Mounga Collective that had spread itself from Taranaki and the Central Plateau region through to Te Ūpoko o te Ika. During this time, further waves of migrations occurred.
Two of these migrations began with the arrival of the following waka to Taranaki; Te Kahutara, Taikōria and Okoki.
The names of these iwi were Te Tini-a-Taitāwaro, Te Tini-a-Pananehu, Tamaki, and Te Tini-o-Pohokura, names after four brothers who led their people to Aotearoa.
Walk #8, 26th April 2025
The Wairau Lagoon is a vast salt marsh of interlacing waterways covering an area of 2000 ha. It stretches from the mouth of the river to White Bluffs in the south.
The wreck of the SS Waverley was to be sunk at the mouth of the Wairau River to form a breakwater, but floodwaters swept it into the lagoons instead.
Wairau Bar, a gravel bar on Marlborough’s Cloudy Bay coastline where the Wairau River flows into the sea, is a place so historically significant that it is referred to as the birthplace of our nation.
Walk: Blenheim 11
The Wairau Bar is the site of ancient Moa hunter grave relics. It is said to be one of the oldest occupied sites of NZ.
In 1942 about 2000 artefacts and 44 human skeletons were removed and examined in detail. These early colonisers were tall compared to most Polynesians. The skeletons were all found in shallow graves, with the heads pointing towards the east and the feet to the west, as was the practice in eastern Polynesia.
Of the extinct birds found in the middens, there were at least six species of Moa, the flightless NZ swan, the NZ crow and the gigantic Haast eagle. Evidence suggests that over 8000 Moa were slaughtered and over 2000 eggs consumed.
Necklaces were found as well as adzes and Moa eggs. The necklaces consisting of cotton reel shaped pieces held together by cord in a style common to the Marquesas Islands. A similar necklace was found at Whitianga Pa in the Coromandel Peninsula of the North Island.
We are expected to believe that these Moa hunter remains date from the 13th century – see my page How NZ is ‘mythtaken’ over the year 1350 – and belong to the Rangitane tribe who came from the Heretaunga (Hastings) area. Rangitane travelled south and occupied Dannevirke, Wairarapa, Wellington, and Wairau in the South Island. They displaced the Ngati Mamoe who had in turn displaced the earlier Waitaha people.
The remains at Wairau Bar predate the arrival of Rangitane
Initially, in 1939 the Rangitane tribe who later settled the area were unaware of the site. “It’s nothing to do with us,”’ and ‘“he’s not one of us,” they truthfully asserted when they saw the remains.
Excavations of the site undertaken from the 1940s through the 1960s identified three distinct burial groups, from which 42 individual burials were identified. These human remains and many of the artifacts recovered from the site were held at the Canterbury Museum as part of its permanent collection until 2009, until they were repatriated to Wairau Bar and Rangitane. Nothing more can now be learned.
In 2003 Rangitane made formal claims to repatriate the remains through the Waitangi Tribunal, asserting “they had been stolen.”
The Ohaki Māori Advisory Board acknowledged the significance of Māori spiritual beliefs and their significance within their cultural history. It conceded that the remains predated the arrival of Rangitane, but recommended a scientific study be undertaken in consultation with Rangitane, a decision which the iwi criticised.
Rangitane eventually got the burial relics from the Canterbury Museum after a compromise was made between “obtaining scientific knowledge and ‘respecting the cultural integrity’ of the remains.” Source: Re-excavating Wairau: A study of New Zealand repatriation and the excavation of Wairau Bar, By Shaun Hickland
In other words the science and the cultural integrity of the artifacts is compromised. And this from a site referred to as “the birthplace of our nation.”
At least DNA testing was done on the skeletons.
The results from the sequencing of four human samples from the site were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in October 2012. The results revealed there was a greater level of genetic diversity than expected in the early settlers of New Zealand, compared to the uniform Polynesian DNA.
Mitochondrial DNA is only inherited through the mother’s side and can be used to trace maternal lineages and provide insights into ancient origins and migration routes. Lead author Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith said, “We found that three of the four individuals had no recent maternal ancestor in common, indicating that these pioneers were not simply from one tight-knit kin group, but instead included families that were not directly maternally related.
Source: Science Learning Hub | DNA diversity in early New Zealanders
So different population groups once lived together peacefully and were buried in the same burial group with similar grave goods. The results, which run counter to the narrative, were published quietly and without fanfare. The Moa hunter people were probably the Waitaha, who lived peacefully in NZ before Ngati Mamoe and Rangitane.
In 1903 CW Adams surveyed Wairau Bar and noted the existence of 12-miles (19 kilometres) of hand-dug canals. These linked the waterways of the alluvial plain together, bringing abundant fish resources into the region, as well as enhancing gardening. Extensive canal building and intensive wetlands gardening went hand-in-hand in other parts of ancient New Zealand as well.
European History
The south side of the Wairau River mouth was settled by Europeans in the 1840s, who set up a port to service Blenheim.
The southern end of Wairau Bar can be viewed from across the river, accessed by Wairau Bar Road.
My forefathers arrived from Scotland in 1840, and were among the first settlers in the area. All my grandmother could tell me was “some bad Maoris tried to kill is but some good Maoris saved us.” It’s probably an explanation given to her as a child. The family left the area after my Gran’s Great-Grandfather James Gilbert went missing, presumed drowned.
For more info see ‘James Gilbert’ in the links below.
Roadside Stories: Trouble at Tuamarina | Today a sleepy settlement between Picton and Blenheim, Tuamarina was the site of bloody conflict in June 1843. The New Zealand Company believed they had bought the Wairau plains – but Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha considered that the area had not been purchased. He evicted surveyors from the Wairau, and when a party of settlers arrived to arrest him, conflict broke out.
This historic building from 1865 or earlier can be seen while driving to the walk.
Links
Wairau River – ancient and modern engineering
Re-excavating Wairau:
A study of New Zealand repatriation and the excavation of Wairau Bar, By Shaun Hickland
DNA: Complete mitochondrial genome sequences of the remains from the archaeological site of Wairau Bar was done and compared against Polynesian DNA. Polynesian DNA is uniform. The settlement of most of East Polynesia occurred rapidly, in the period from A.D. ∼1190–1290 which explains the uniformity of the Polynesian DNA.
The DNA from the Wairau Bar people was unexpectedly diverse. At least three of the four individuals sequenced from the Wairau Bar site were not recently maternally related. Burials 1 and 2.1 were recovered in the same burial group (Group 1) with similar grave goods, presumed to be of high status, yet these two individuals belonged to two different haplotypes. Source, NIH : Complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequences from the first New Zealanders
Marlborough historian Barry Holdaway releases book on Wairau Bar village | The Wairau Bar is a well-known archaeological site, but Holdaway focused on the early Pakeha involvement with the area, beginning with the Wairau Massacre in 1843 and following the settlement through to the 1860s.
Story: Marlborough places | Lower Wairau
James Gilbert, the Scottish tailor at Te Awaiti | “In some places the sun was penetrating the clouds. “Kei puta te Wairau.” (The sun always finds a hole to shine through at Wairau.) In spite of the threat of inter-tribal war, and the depopulation that had taken place in the previous twelve years; in spite of the fear of further fighting; in spite of the cosmopolitan population that arrived every whaling season and the prostitution of Maori women; in spite of the drunken habits of Europeans, the sun was shining through several holes in the clouds.
A handful of Maoris from the northern mission stations had created a thirst for knowledge of the Gospel; some well-disposed Europeans welcomed anything that would help in the cultural advancement of their Maori partners and half-caste children; here and there a European became a self-appointed religious teacher, as did the Scottish tailor at Te Awaiti.
These people were not a large group among the residents, both Maori and Pakeha, but they were enough to give a missionary some hope of success. This was the Cloudy Bay for which Samuel and Sarah Ironside were preparing to set out in December 1840, and in which they were to spend the next three years of their lives.” Samuel Ironside in New Zealand 1939-1858, page 110
NZShortWalks 