This is a small bush reserve alongside the banks of the Tukituki River between Waipukurau and Waipawa. The bush is mainly comprised of kahikatea trees which love swampy ground.
The bush is not far from the area where my forefathers settled in Hawkes Bay. Sadly, ninety-nine percent of the bush was felled and milled. Growing up in Hawkes Bay I never saw or heard a Tui, or any of our native birds, until a visit to a bush reserve in 1970 when I was eleven.
Walk: Hawkes Bay 34
Just down the road from the bush reserve is the site of Kaitotoa Pa. The site used to be a food gathering place but it became a permanent settlement in the 1840s when the Maori traded harakeke (dressed flax) to the Europeans who used it for rope and ship rigging.
There are two tracks, I recommend the nature trail.
The Jubilee track is straight up for an hour with no views. It was a nice walk with friends, great for my friend who wanted exercise, meh for me.
This walk had the most fungi I’ve seen anywhere.
At the start of the walk is a large rata, the only one in the reserve.
The Patupaiarahe
This mountain used to be the home of the ancient patupaiarehe. They weren’t fairies, some looked like Maori, some like Europeans.
The name Ngongotaha is derived from an encounter with them. It means to drink water from the calabash, which was offered to Ihenga (the grandson of Tamatekapua) by a patupaiarehe maiden when he was exploring the country around Rotorua. There’s no water up the top of the mountain and Ihenga was thirsty.
Normally the elusive patupaiarehe had no truck with Maori but Ihenga made friends with them and he eventually lived near the mountain on the banks of the Waitete Stream.
The patupaiarehe left the mountain and moved west after the Maori accidentally or deliberately burned them out.
“The name of that tribe of Patu-paiarehe was Ngati-Rua, and the chiefs of that tribe in the days of my ancestor Ihenga were Tuehu, Te Rangitamai, Tongakohu, and Rotokohu. The people were very numerous; there were a thousand or perhaps many more on Ngongotaha.
They were an iwi atua (a god-like race, a people of supernatural powers). In appearance some of them were very much like the Maori people of today; others resembled the pakeha race. The colour of most of them was kiri puwhero (reddish skins), and their hair had the red or golden tinge which we call uru-kehu.
Some had black eyes, some blue like fair-skinned Europeans. They were about the same height as ourselves. Some of their women were very beautiful, very fair of complexion, with shining fair hair.
They wore chiefly the flax garments called pakerangi, dyed a red colour; they also wore the rough mats pora and pureke. In disposition they were peaceful; they were not a war-loving, angry people.
Their food consisted of the products of the forest, and they also came down to this Lake Rotorua to catch inanga (whitebait.)
There was one curious characteristic of these Patu-paiarehe; they had a great dread of the steam that rose from cooked food. In the evenings, when the Maori people living at Te Raho-o-te-Rangipiere and other places near the fairy abodes opened their cooking-ovens, all the Patu-paiarehe retired to their houses immediately they saw the clouds of vapour rising, and shut themselves up; they were afraid of the mamaoa—the steam.
Fairy Springs: so named because the Patupaiarehe would descend the slopes of Mount Ngongotaha to visit the springs at night and to drink from the waters.
Fairy Springs, Mitai Maori Village
Nearby Rainbow Springs: A rainbow would appear over the spring, therefore Rainbow Springs is another name given to this location.
Unfortunately the wildlife park that was here has been closed after 90 years of business – because of the Covid lockdowns.
This is a small bush remnant between Wanganui and Wellington overlooking Lake Waiwiri, a dune lake. This area is a rare example of an uninterrupted transition from coastal wetland to mature, dry terrace forest. The whole coast was once covered in this dense and luxurious bush and sadly it’s all gone.
There are two islands on the lake, the larger is Papaitonga and the smaller is Papawhārangi. The smaller island was constructed by the Muaūpoko (Ngati Tara) people in the late 18th to early 19th century.
The reserve is home to the endangered birds like the elusive bittern and spotless crake.
People from the Muaūpoko tribe lived on the islands in the lake but they were wiped out in a battle against Te Rauparaha.
After the local Muaūpoko tribe attacked a group including Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha, they became a target for reprisal raids by Ngāti Toa. Despite retreating to artificial islands they had built in Lakes Papaitonga and Horowhenua, large numbers of Muaūpoko were killed, and survivors fled to the nearby Tararua Range.
The Evening Post published this item on Papaitonga on 6 November 1911:
Papaitonga – NATIONAL RESERVE?
Everything is eerie and silent; there are kiwi on the islet, but you only hear them at night, and the doleful morepork keeps them company. At a turn in the path, in the glooms of the tapu grove, an eerie thing confronts one — a human skull, stuck up on a short pole, grinning as if in menace, a silent warning to “keep off the grass !” This, one finds, is an isle of skulls, a Maori Golgotha, and over the ancient battle-ground and burial-ground that skull on its tapu stick mounts guard. A few yards further on, and in a little open space on the summit of the island, a memorial of another and more picturesque kind is found. A great canoe, an olden war-canoe, carved and painted, rears itself above the trees; one end is sunk firmly in the ground and stoutly braced to keep it upright. It is a stately memento mori, tapu to the manes of the tribal dead.
Sitting here on this thrice-tapu island with a Ngati-Ruakawa companion from the little village of Muhunoa, a mile or so away, one heard some thrilling tale of Papaitonga’s pact. For this quiet island was a lively spot in the cannibal days, the early twenties of last century, when Rauparaha and Rangihaeata and their musket-armed Northern warriors happened along. Papaitonga, like. Horowhenua, and in fact all this country from Paekakarikei to Manawatu and Rangitikei, was owned by the Muaupoko and Rangitane, and some kindred tribes. The Muanpoko had a stronghold on this islet; a stockade, or “tuwatawata,” encircled it There were many canoes on the lake; when danger threatened the people withdrew to the island, taking all their dug-outs with them.
It was in about the beginning of the year 1823 that Rauparaha and his Ngatitoa-and Ngati-Awa invaded and captured this district. Muaupoko brought their fate on themselves, to a certain extent, by a massacre in this vicinity; but the wily Rauparaha had intended to take the place anyway, so the murders only brought matters to a head a little quicker.
It is believed this pataka was built at Taheke on the shores of Lake Rotoiti in the 1870s.
It is said to have been built out of a large war canoe which was drawn overland from Maketu, on the coast of the Bay of Plenty, to Rotorua, Lake, a distance of about thirty miles, by Hongi, when that great Nga-Puhi warrior attacked Mokoia Island, in Rotorua Lake, in the year 1822. Source: THE DOMINION MUSEUM. Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 56, 4 September 1911, Page 6
In 1886 the pataka was purchased by Gilbert Mair, a soldier and government agent who lived among Te Arawa. He bought it for his brother-in-law Sir Walter Buller, a prominent naturalist and politician.
After being exhibited in London and Melbourne during the 1880s Te Takinga was erected on Sir Walter Buller’s estate. When he died the Buller family donated the house to the Dominion Museum.
Horowhenua Land Dispute : The arrival of other tribes in the Wellington region from 1822 onwards led to a number of conflicts over land ownership. Shown above are the opening lines of an article that was published in the Māori newspaper Te Waka Maori o Niu Tirani in December 1873. The article, printed in Māori and English, outlines a dispute over land at Horowhenua between the Muaūpoko and Ngāti Raukawa tribes.
Muaūpoko were drawn into the wars over land and authority in the 1860s, under the leadership of Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (known to Pākehā as Major Kemp). Te Keepa saw the conflict as an opportunity to exact revenge on tribes that had humiliated Muaūpoko in the past. After the wars he used his influence to regain lands at Horowhenua through the Native Land Court. Some of this territory was sold in the 1880s for railway and settlement land, but subsequent intertribal disputes about its ownership led to protracted court hearings, parliamentary debate and finally a royal commission in 1896. In the process, Muaūpoko lost more land. Some was taken to pay for the commission costs, and Walter Buller, who had acted as Te Keepa’s lawyer, took Lake Papaitonga in Horowhenua as his fee.
The Pettifar and Gilchrist loop tracks lead you down a series of terraces to the Pohangina River. Both walks make use of the Old Coach road, the original horse and cart track that wended its way through the Pohangina Valley.
We chose the Gilchrist loop, which passed through a mixed kahikatea and totara forest. Kahikatea Trees grow in the wetter areas. An abandoned tree nursery on this loop was the source of most of the large poplars now visible throughout the beautiful and picturesque valley.
This beautiful reserve is the remnant of a forest that used to cover the area. The trees are kahikatea (white pine), totara, beech, matai, tawa and kowhai. The track forms a figure of 8 loop which we had a bit of trouble figuring out. We took the loop which follows the Tangarewai stream.
There’s a large covered shelter and barbeque area at the entrance to the walk, provided by the Takapau Lions Club.
My ancestors settled in this area and cleared the bush on the Ruataniwha plains for farmland. I’m glad this and nearby A’Deanes Bush were spared the axe and the forests also survived the bush fires in the 1880’s.
Walk: Hawkes Bay 33
My friends on this walk are distant cousins, we three are descended from the same German couple and were there to learn some history.
In 1871, 250,000 acres (101,171 hectares) was purchased from the Maori for the Seventy Mile Bush, and this land was settled by assisted immigrants from Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 1872. The Danes had no experience in felling forests, but all the groups managed to clear the land and establish small farms. The townships of Norsewood, Dannevirke and Woodville were located on the new road and rail route through the bush.
My Great-Great Grandfather Wilhelm Dassler wanted to settle on the rail route at Makotuku, but instead was allocated land at Makaretu, an out of the way settlement where he had to carve his farm out of the bush.
I know they were affected by the bush fires of 1885-86.
This is a bush remnant growing on an old river terrace next to the Rangitikei River. The bush had been preserved by E O Pryce and the land was gifted by him to the Rangitikei Scenery Preservation and Tree Planting Society in 1941, on threat of the forest being milled under War Regulations. The Society was dissolved and formed the Rangitikei section of Forest & Bird in 1961.
The reserve is not well frequented and we had the place all to ourselves.
There are some noteable trees in the reserve, including Kauri, which are growing well out of their range. There’s also an enormous Kowhai tree on the red track and Matai on the yellow track.
This walk is off SH4, south of Te Kuiti. It’s a rough, moderately graded track up and down a steep hill in the bush reserve. You’ll need tramping shoes or boots if it’s not dry. We walked the track in winter and we had to be careful we didn’t slip in places.
If you go in the early morning or evening you are likely to hear the kokako, a rare native bird featured on our $50 notes. This reserve is a sanctuary for them. I didn’t see or hear any, but I did see a tomtit.
Mapara means ‘heartwood’ or wood saturated in resin.
Walk: Waikato and King Country 36
Links
The Mapara Wildlife Management Reserve is in steep hill country covered in a lowland forest of mixed broadleaf and scattered podocarps, 260-600 m above sea level. It is isolated from other forests by surrounding pasture and young plantation forests. Extensive control of introduced mammalian browsers and predators was undertaken between 1989 and 1997. This greatly increased kokako breeding success and allowed new pairs to establish.
The info board at the reserve said that elder of the Ngati Maniapoto tribe Tiwha Bell was a strong advocate for the work DOC did in Mapara. He has a strong affinity with Mapara – his father was one of the original land owners.
This forest stretches from Rotorua City to the Blue and Green Lakes and there are heaps of tracks to choose from. We did the half-hour Redwood Memorial Grove track.
The North American redwood trees were planted in 1901 as part of an experimental forest to see which imported trees grew the best in New Zealand.
The Redwoods Tree Walk is also here, where you can walk on 28 swing bridges suspended above the understory layer. It costs $35 each and the night walk is included in the price. I recommend it.
Opepe is a place on the Napier-Taupo highway where nine Armed Constabulary soldiers from the Bay of Plenty Calvary were killed in 1869 by an advance party of Te Kooti’s troops.
A side track to the right near the car park brings you to the cemetery where they’re buried.
The bush is beautiful here, it escaped the axe and the Taupo eruption of 186 AD.
Walk: Taupo 37
Links
Te Kooti’s last battle was at the Te Porere Redoubt which we visited in Dec 2018.
NZShortWalks 