This old pa site at Aotea Harbour was right at the doorstep of the place where we stayed for two nights. The harbour in front of the pa was named after the Aotea canoe which is said to have arrived around 1300.
The Tainui canoe arrived about 50 years later and the people from that canoe settled at nearby Kawhia, just down the coast. The Tainui and Aotea tribes lived in harmony until the 1600s when battles started because the Kawhia people were expanding.
The two tribes united when their rohe (area) came under attack around 1800 from inland Tainui. The defeated people fled south to take refuge in pa still controlled by Te Rauparaha, trekking to Taranaki and then on to Horowhenua.
For a long time after their defeat this pa site was left empty, until the defeat of Waikato by Ngapuhi at Matakitahi in 1826 when survivors from that conflict settled here.
The book said it was an easy climb to the top – no it wasn’t. The long grass came half way up my body and it was impossible walking through it. Plus there was some dead gorse in the midst of the vegetation. I did not want to disappear into an old kumera pit so I called it a day and came back down.
The pa site is not a “wahi tapu,” a sacred locality like part of the foreshore – but when I gained the ridge I felt I shouldn’t be up there.
Looking down Mahou Sound from Cullen PointLooking across Pelorus Sound to Havelock
There are three main sounds in the Marlborough Sounds, Queen Charlotte Sound, Pelorus Sound and Kenepuru Sound. This walk leads to viewpoints across Pelorus Sound to Havelock and down another sound, Mahou Sound.
The walk is on the winding road between the towns of Havelock and Picton.
Walk: Havelock 14
The Waitaha in Pelorus Sound
There is a place named Waitaha over the stream from Bythell’s Bay, between Ngakuta Bay where we stayed, and Momorangi Bay.
Waitaha established communities across Nelson–Marlborough and are believed to have been the first to quarry the argillite (sedimentary rock) in the eastern ranges of Nelson. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
I had read there was a large pa at Pelorus Sound.
The following is from the book “The Art Workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand, page 126:
“Several interesting papers have been written describing ancient earthworks in the northern part of the South Island of New Zealand, and a large number of pits, terraces, and traces of ancient cultivations covering large areas have been discovered. These earthworks do not, however, seem to have been for defensive purposes like those forming the citadels of the Northern tribes.
Wakefield mentions seeing the remains of a large pa covering 10 or 15 acres near where the “Pelorus” anchored in a bay on the east side of the Sound, now known as Pelorus Sound.”
Wakefield, ” Adventures in N.Z.,” p. 123.
J.Rutland, ” Traces of Ancient Human Occupation in the Pelorus District,” Journ. Pol. Soc, Vol. iii., and also ” On the Ancient Pit Dwellings of the Pelorus District,” Journ. Pol. Soc, Vol. vi., p. 77. Wakefield, “Adventures in N.Z., 1845,” p. 56
The walk began at Rarangi Beach, where the Monkey Bay track is. It climbed steeply through regenerating coastal forest where the trees had recovered from a fire. We came out on the Port Underwood road for a short distance, then descended through an area of pine forest to Whites Bay.
Whites Bay is named after a negro American whaler, Black Jack White.
In 1866 the first Cook Strait telegraph link between the North and South Islands began operating with the southern end coming ashore at Whites Bay. The telegraph operator’s cottage is preserved as a historic building. Source: Marlborough Online, Pukatea / Whites Bay
It’s a solid grind back up to Port Underwood road from the beach. We saw a black fantail while climbing back up the pine needle covered zig-zag track.
There are four short walks around the North Egmont Visitor Centre.
The Nature Walk led on to the Ngatoro Loop Walk, a walk through sub-montane forest called “the Goblin Forest.” The ferns and mosses flourish because of the high rainfall.
Just behind the Visitor Centre is a historic camphouse, which was originally a military barracks during the land wars in the 1860s. It was moved to the site in the 1880s.
After lunch we did the Veronica Loop Track.
Before going uphill we passed the Ambury memorial, a memorial to climber Arthur Ambury who gave his life in 1918 in a heroic attempt to save his climbing partner.
The Veronica Loop track is a well-formed track. It goes up the mountain for half an hour and then there’s a junction for Holly Hut. The return walk via the loop track is harder.
Holly Hut Lookout
At the junction of the Holly Hut track, there’s a lookout ten minutes further up the mountain. We chose not to do it because of the lack of visibility.
There were no birds to be heard on either track, the forests were silent.
Te Mata peak rises up from the rugged Te Mata Range to the right of Cape Kidnappers. There are sweeping view of Hawkes Bay in every direction. The cape, the range and the 399 metre high peak dominated the skyline of my childhood but I never visited Te Mata peak as a child.
September 2017
I finally got to visit the park on holiday in the spring of 2017, but we didn’t do a walk that time.
History of Te Mata Peak
John Chambers was a sheepfarmer who by 1863 owned 14,793 acres of land at Te Mata. As a memorial to their pioneer father, in 1927 Bernard and two of his brothers, John and Mason, gave the public of Hawke’s Bay a 242-acre reserve on the upper Havelock North hills, including Te Mata Peak.
Mason Chambers
Here’s some history of a Hawkes Bay family and a car. Mason Chambers owned a 1920 Arrol Johnson. Forty-five years later the car was a dilaphidated wreck carting apples in a Hastings orchard. My father took it from the orchard and restored it.
Here’s my family sitting on the Arrol in the 1960s, on a hill above Taradale, with Te Mata peak in the distance.
1960s, Dassler family and Arrol Johnson, Te Mata peak in background
1960s, Restoration
1960s, Denzil Dassler with restored Arrol Johnson
2018, Dassler sisters and daughter with our wedding car
Wedding of Denzil Dassler’s grand daugher, 7th April 2018
Walk: Hawkes Bay 32
Links
The park: “Gifted in perpetuity to the community in 1927 and managed by a small group of volunteer trustees, with appreciated help from local councils and the community, the 107.5 hectare Park is a recreational, historical and cultural treasure.”
The track: In 2017 a track costing $300,000 was cut up the eastern face of Te Mata peak by Craggy Range Winery, which iwi objected to, despite it being on privately owned land. The track was removed at the ratepayer’s expense.
The controversial track up Te Mata peak has been removed and is less visible now that it was when this image was taken. ANDRE CHUMKO / Stuff
Disagreement among Hawke’s Bay hapū has meant tangata whenua will not be part of the trust set up to administer a regional park on Te Mata peak as planned.
The trust was formed as a means of resolving a furore sparked by a track cut up the eastern face of Te Mata peak by Craggy Range Winery in late 2017.
The track split the Hawke’s Bay community. Some wanted it to stay; others questioned how the winery could be granted consent without public notification or consultation. It led to a major review by Hastings District Council into whether it should have been granted resource consent without informing local iwi.
Ultimately the council removed the limestone track at ratepayers’ cost. The zig-zag cut remains visible, but is less obvious as time goes on.
A key development in assuaging public concern was the offer by three local businessmen (Mike Wilding, Andy Lowe and Jonathan McHardy) to purchase the land containing the track to gift it to the public.
Ngāti Kahungunu iwi were then invited to be part of a trust (the Te Rongo Charitable Trust) formed as a means of resolving the furore sparked by the creation of the track.
This is an old gold mining area. Several tracks zigzag up the hills following an old water race up to Collins Drive, a 500m tunnel much further up the hill. I read on one site that the tunnel was created as an access through steep country. The Dept of Conservation said the tunnel was driven through the hill in a fruitless attempt to find a quartz reef with payable ore.
The walk was hard, a series of big climbs on a very hot day. The tunnel was tthe highlight. The overgrown viewpoints are disappointing.
This was a solid grind where we had to climb 450 metres to the summit of the bluff. Getting over an old lava flow was interesting.
The view south along Ripiro Beach to Kai Iwi Lakes is worth the climb but I was hoping to see some standing stones that I know used to be on the summit. Waipoua and it’s stone ruins are just up the coast, less than 25 kms away.
Walk: Northland 27
Links
Stone structures
Alex Nathan is an elder from the local Te Roroa iwi (tribe) who have control or guardianship of the area including the Waipoua forest.
He speaks about Maunganui Bluff and goes on to mention the historical structural formations on the summit.
Nathan says; ” … our maunga (mountain), Maunganui Bluff is a place that we know as “Taputapuātea.” There’s very little of the original stonework still intact because during the second world war the American forces bulldozed the summit in order to establish a radar station. Today, all that remains of that facility are concrete foundations.
On the outer edges of the area that was bulldozed there are … in one place the remains of a stone facing and at the other edge, on the other side of that area is a stone alignment that is intact – and that’s all that remains of the original stone structures on that place.”
A listener asks, “So those stones that you are talking about, so they’re quite old, they were put there as (indiscernable) or they were created …”
“No, no, they are constructions, similar to some of the structures that we know about in Waipoua for example.”
-Note, I did a walk in Waipoua Forest in 2020 but I was not able to see the structures he was talking about. My research on the stone ruins is here.
It appears there are stone structures in the area from Maunganui Bluff to Waipoua Forest.
This is from a book by a local man at Kaihu, “From the Sea we came.”
A SOLITARY CAIRN IN A FARM FIELD,IN THE WAITAPU VALLEY: NEAR THE MAUNGANUI BLUFF WAITAPU VALLEY ANCIENT STANDING STONE CIRCLES AND LAND MAPPING TRIG POSITIONS IN THE WAITAPU VALLEY OF NORTHLAND, AOTEA…That whole region, running from north of the Waipoua Forest Southward to Maunganui Bluff and beyond, is a very rich field of megalithic structures, which litter this Coastline in profusion. This is believed to be a purpose placed, very ancient surveying structure used for precisely marking a position. Many cairns like this, distributed over several square miles between the Maunganui Bluff and Waipoua, are not the result of modern farmers gathering together stones from the land and placing them in heaps.
Source: From the Sea we came, page 106, RIPIRO WEST COAST BETWEEN KAIPARA AND HOKIANGA
1894; RipiroCoast, North of Maunganui Bluff, about half way to Kawerua: Gum diggers find old relics at a depth of 7 to 9 feet deep. These included adzes and spears. For these to have been buried so deep they must have been owned by some ancient people. Who did they belong to?
Source: National Library: Gang of Dalmatian gum diggers draining the Aranga swamp, Maunganui Bluff, Northland. Creator of collection unknown: Photographs relating to Dalmatian gum diggers, life on the gumfields, and social events. Ref: PAColl-2144-2-03. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23109398
We walked up an old volcanic plug above the village of Whangaroa. A chain is needed near the top and we had to forego that part because of a shoulder injury. As you can see the view over Whangaroa harbour was still good.
Walk: Northland 6
Links:
Giants at Whangaroa
Here’s an interesting article from 13th October 1934 where the bones of giant men were found in a large cave at Whangaroa.
Hongi Hika invaded Whangaroa in 1827. If you want to learn more about Hongi Hika and the start of the Musket Wars, I recommend these videos by Kiwi Codger.
A walk up some 250 steps to the Cape Palliser Lighthouse on the southernmost point of the North Island. The views are awesome but it was too cloudy to see the South Island on the day we visited.
The 5km stretch of road from Ngawi to Cape Palliser is interesting, there are two concrete fords to drive over. Also a seal colony which we didn’t see.
Stone walled gardens
There were stone walled gardens at Cape Palliser.
… Adkin (1955) drew attention to an apparently high density of settlement in eastern Palliser Bay and found artifacts of typical archaic forms, many of which ended up in private hands or in the Museum of New Zealand collection (Leach 1981). Four burials, one with a shark’s tooth necklace, were excavated at the mouth of the Pararaki River in the 1950s and 1960s (Davis 1959;Cairns 1971; Leach 1981; Walton 1994). Wellman (1962b) describes a wave-cut section about 3 km west of Cape Palliser lighthouse with moa bone (Euryapteryx geranoides) and oven stones near the top. … Source ResearchGate
The land may have been abandoned because of invasion, seismic activity or a tsunami in the 16th century or early 17th century.
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