The beach at Opera Point is really beautiful and I’m glad to see the bird life is being respected.
The walk to the beach is interesting. Following an old tramway, we walked through the site of a old sawmill, Craig’s Sawmill built in 1862. All that’s left is long grass and an old concrete drain.
There was a headland pa but not much remains. According to Doc it was originally the domain of Ngati Huarere, the pa and surrounding area appear to have been abandoned following seaborne raids in 1818 by Ngapuhi, from Northland.
This headland pa site is at the southern end of Opito Bay, defended by steep bluffs and cliffs. It has good views in every direction. The pa site is accessed by a long flight of stairs. Opito Beach is lovely too, it’s a short stroll along the beach to the stairs.
Walk: Coromandel 11
Links
Ngāti Hei is recognised as the dominant tribe of the Mercury Bay area and can trace its roots to the arrival of the Arawa canoe at Maketu around 1350AD.
Sarah’s Gully remains an important archaeological site with many excavations carried out starting from 1956-60. Discoveries include evidence of prolonged early settlement with abundant moa bones, human skeletons and evidence of at least six periods of habitation, only the top four of which Sue mentions have been reliably linked to early Maori.
OPITO BAY, COROMANDEL PENINSULA, MOA-HUNTER COMMUNITY CONTEMPORANEOUS WITH WAIRAU BAR: Adzes, in differing styles, were produced in high numbers for many years and found their way to New Zealand’s most ancient sites.
The beach looks out over the Mercury Islands where Captain Cook observed the transit of Mercury on his voyage around New Zealand. The unspoilt beach is protected from development, backed by sand dunes which is now a nature reserve. Our endangered North Island Dotterill birds have a haven here, unlike so many other beaches around the coast.
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.
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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?
Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula is possibly the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to, with it’s limestone rocks, overhanging pohutukawa trees, golden sand and clear water. The two sides of the cove are linked through a sea cave. The cove was busy but not too crowded, considering it’s mid-summer and a popular spot. We walked to the cove from the village of Hahei.
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The cove is famous for being the location for the opening scene in the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Hahei
Hahei is a stunning area. As well as Cathedral Cove there’s Hot Water Beach, which we didn’t have time to visit. Bring your spade for that beach. You have to go at low tide.
The area was explored by Kupe around 950 AD. As in the Maori legend of Maui, like a giant fish the land rose up out of the sea before them, the peak they first saw became known was Moehau Mountain, on the Mountain Ridge of Toi, which centuries later would be called the Coromandel Range.
Hahei was named, Te 0 A Hei, by Hei, the chief of the Ngāti Hei Iwi. Oral history tells us that Hei came to Aotearoa/New Zealand in the Te Arawa Canoe, which was lead by Tama Te Kapua, who was his grandfather. This was around 1350 AD.
The Ngāti Hei lived along this section of the East Coast of the Coromandel Peninsula for twenty-six generations. Their largest settlements being in the Whitianga and Wharekaho, now also known as Simpson’s Beach. The headland at the southern end of Hahei beach served as the site for a pa, known as Hereheretaura Pa. The one to the right on the same headland is only referenced as The Hahei Pa, but may be one in the same. At the north end of the beach was another smaller pa, named Te Mautohe Pa, this was situated above “the cathedral” between Cathedral Cove and Mare’s Leg Beach. These locations offered the advantage of being able to see and ward off approaching enemy canoes.
Canoes from Hahei are claimed to have intercepted Captain Cook’s H.M.S. Endeavour, when it sailed into this region in November 1769 and were warned off by musket fire, an event recorded in Cook’s diary.
Inter tribal warfare
By the end of the nineteenth century Ngāti Hei’s territory had been reduced to the coastline from Kuaotonu in the North, to Tairua in the South. They suffered from prolonged warfare with Tainui Tribes, and the Ngāti Tamatera from Hauraki.
The Musket Wars
In 1818 the group at Hahei were attacked by Ngāpuhi, led by Hongi Hika and his nephew Te Morenga. They were unable to defend themselves against the invader’s musket fire and a massacre ensued. A few Ngāti Hei escaped by entering the sea and swimming close against the cliff. Today the Ngāti Hei continue to live in Whitianga and Wharekaho.
Hahei was deserted following this event and the land was declared vacant, according to the Wastelands Act.
Walk 24, Kauaeranga Valley, Hoffmans Pool, 27 Dec 2019
Hoffmans Pool is a nice swimming spot, it’s further up the valley from the model dam.
Back in the day this valley was plundered and laid waste. There used to be a tramway and trestle bridge here, a century ago when the area was being cleared of the Kauri forests. The peak is known as “The Maori Chief.”
Walk 23, Kauaeranga Model Dam / Kahikatea Walk, 27 Dec 2019
The Kauaeranga valley is near Thames. It’s a pretty valley but stripped of its original Kauri forests. A century ago the trees were chopped down and the timber was used for things like ship’s masts, furniture, houses and the rebuilding of San Francisco.
The logs were floated down the valley using Kauri dams.
The walk to the model dam begins at the DOC Visitor Centre car park. The dam is a working small scale model, a third of the size of the original Tarawaere Kauri dam further up the valley.
On the way to the model dam, there’s a treasure hunt with a conservation theme. It’s really for kids but we did it and presented the results to the DOC staff for our sticker!
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There’s another model of a Kauri dam in the small town of Katikati, which I show in the Haiku Walk.
The last walk for the year: A beautiful bush walk past some old goldmine shafts which lead to this beautiful 50 metre-high waterfall. The walk is near Whangamata, a small town in the Coromandel. Joining us: Colleen, Jenny and her dog Peanut.
NZShortWalks 