Whitianga Pa is just a short ferry ride across the channel from the main shopping centre. At one time the pa was ringed with stone terraces and strongly fortified. The historic wharf which is still in use was built in 1837 from the stones.
The pa was once occupied by Ngati Hei but in the mid eighteenth century it was ransacked by a war party of Ngai te Rangi. It was long burnt and abandoned when Captain Cook visited Whitianga Rock in November 1769.
Cook was greatly impressed by the pa, he said, “the Situation is such that the best Engineer in Europe could not have choose’d a better for a small number of men to defend themselves against a greater, it is strong by nature and made more so by Art”
You can still see a defensive ditch, the post holes in the rock and the middens.
Walk: Coromandel 12
Notes
Ngati Hei date back to the arrival of the arrival of the Arawa waka in 1350 but this site may be older than that. From the placenames people of Maui and Kupe were there before them …
The Māori names of Hauraki places tell the story of discovery and settlement, beginning with the exploits of the mythical Māui.
Coromandel Peninsula: Te Tara-o-te-Ika a Māui (the jagged barb of Māui’s fish), or Te Paeroa-a-Toi (Toi’s long mountain range)
There is a petroglyph at a ritual site in nearby Flaxmill Bay. I didn’t see it but I know it was there from the archaeologist’s report AINZ32.4.182-192Furey.pdf, T11/109. Flaxmill Bay is situated between Cooks Beach and Ferry Landing.
It consists of a face in relief on the edge of a small pool within a stream bed. Together with another small pool, these were cut off from the main water flow by a diversion channel.
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Image below: Is this Maori? This ivory reel necklace from Whitianga is at Auckland Museum. Similar necklaces, consisting of cotton reel shaped pieces held together by cord, were found at Wairau Bar near Blenheim in the South Island.
Links
Incised stone at the high tide level of a nearby beach at Whitianga. The question remains… Ancient??? or contemporary?
Captain James Cook stopped here in 1769 as part of his circumnavigation of New Zealand. As well as it being historic, there’s a hole-in-the-wall which I didn’t get good photos of because of the rain.
Unfortunately we didn’t enjoy the walk as much as we could have, due to the weather. The country was being lashed by Cyclone Hale to the north and we got very wet.
Unlike the hostile and aggressive Gisborne (Turanga) Maori, this tribe welcomed Captain Cook. It was the first positive meeting between Maori and Pakeha. Te Aitangi-a-Hauiti acknowledges the time of Cook’s voyage as the pre-cursor of a dual heritage and shared future.
For centuries the iwi (tribe) of Te Aitangi-a-Hauiti has occupied Tolaga Bay. What’s interesting about this tribe is they’ve been in the land for so long they don’t have a waka (canoe). They trace their ancestry back to the famous ancestor Paikea, the whale rider from Hawaiki. They are part of Ngati Porou who date back to the legendary explorer Maui.
The story of Ngāti Porou lies in mythology, legend, oral tradition and historical record. Fundamental to the tribe’s history is the godlike figure of Māui-tikitiki-a-taranga. Māui is the ancestor who binds Ngāti Porou descendants to the beginnings of human existence. It was he who fished up the North Island from the ocean depths. This fantastic feat is commemorated in the songs and haka of Ngāti Porou.
They have a haka which celebrates the rising of the sacred mountain Hikurangi from the ocean depth, which goes, ‘Whakarongo ake ki te hīrea waha o Māui’ (Hearken to the faint call of the voice of Māui).
Maui on the left: “My power of authority derives from time immemorial.”
MĀUI: He’s the tribal master who descends from the fairy people. Anaru Kupenga (Ngāti Māui) holds the tribal knowledge of his people and his theories could change how we think forever.
Captain Cook’s landing place is next to a busy port. I found it disappointing.
The first thing I saw and read about coming onto the reserve were gourds. Gourds? What did that even mean? I found the site to be culturally incoherent.
The gourds are supposed to commemorate Maori canoes. According to tradition it’s been a converging site for many waka (canoes) arriving from east Polynesia. Two of the ancestors were Maia and Matuatonga, both were tohungas (priests) who occupied different banks of the river.
I’ve never heard of them. The Polynesian explorers should be remembered, but they didn’t put NZ on the map like Captain Cook did. The park has some interesting features but apart from the old monument there’s not much of Captain Cook or the Endeavour here. It’s sad because I remember how we all happily celebrated the Cook bi-centennial in 1969, but when it came time to commemorate the 250th anniversary in 2019 the mood was sour.
In 1769 conflict arose when the crew of the Endeavour went ashore. Cook was eager to make friendly contact with local Māori but in a series of unfortunate encounters several Māori were killed or wounded, and the incident hasn’t been forgotten.
It appears Cook wasn’t happy about it either;
The following day Cook took his leave and the Endeavour headed south. Initially, Cook had planned to call the bay he landed in Endeavour Bay, but instead, he renamed Tūranganui-a-Kīwa to Poverty Bay “because it afforded us no one thing we wanted”.
Instead of celebrating the arrival of Captain Cook, in 2019 the Ikaroa sculpture was added, a commemoration of the navigator Māia. Behind this are nine pou/poles, erected in remembrance of the Māori killed during Cook’s encounter. Nearby are the three oversized hue/gourds.
Banks Garden
The garden exhibits some of the plants native to the area which were recorded by Joseph Banks, the botanist on the Endeavour. Some of the plants in the garden were Tutu, Kawakawa,Rangiora, and Mahoe (Whiteywood).
Kaiti Hill
I found the Cook Landing Reserve underwhelming. I always try and understand a site we visit, especially when it is historic, but I didn’t feel like we were informed here. Would I visit the site again? Meh.
Crossing the road we climbed Kaiti Hill. The first monument we came to was Maia carrying a gourd.
The next monument was further up the hill, a forgotten World War 1 monument which we had to get to through long grass.
We joined a tree-lined road which winds its way up the hill which I remembered from visits when I was young. There wasn’t much at the top of the hill and the weather wasn’t good. It’s not the place I remembered.
Walking up the hill I was joined by a local with some Maori blood. He told me that when Cook arrived in 1769 the tribes lived in so much hostility to each other it wasn’t safe for anyone to cross the river.
Gisborne in 1982
There used to be a monument to Captain Cook with the place he named “Young Nick’s Head” in the distance. It turned out the statue wasn’t of Captain Cook but an Italian admiral. Anyway he’s gone now and the top of Kaiti Hill looks bare without him.
Walk: Gisborne 6
Links
The Cook 250th anniversary in 2019 wasn’t celebrated in NZ and here’s why.
This is the baleful tone in NZ today from the academics and news media:
What really happened here? Older accounts are better given the revisionist’s agenda. This is written by the late Bishop W. Williams, for the Transactions of the N.Z. Institute – for you to read and make up your own mind.
And here’s a look at early Gisborne. Three generations of my mother’s family came from here but I have no feeling of belonging. It’s not a town where I’d want to live.
Gisborne in 1870
John Walsh, my Great-great Grandfather settled in Matawhero, Gisborne in 1881 after leaving the Armed Constabulary, where he’d served since 1870.
He said,
“White sand, little grass and much tree were the most prominent feares of Gisborne’s landscape some ty-six years ago, according to Mr John Walsh, of Mangapapa, who first viewed the town at that stage of its existence.”
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