We arrived at Tolaga Bay and walked along the old wharf. I’ve been here before on a Vintage Car Rally with my parents in 1972 and on holiday in 1982.
The wharf was built in 1929 and is over 600 metres long. Until the roads went through everything had to go out by ship and that’s why the wharf was built at considerable expense.
Eventually road transport replaced shipping on the East Coast. The last ship to use the wharf was the coaster Kopara in 1966.
Now the wharf is used by fishermen and pedestrians.
All the old buildings have gone although the macrocapas and rail lines are still there.
This is the only patch of bush left on the Gisborne plains. It’s unique in that Kahikatea, which likes swampy soil, and Puriri, which likes well drained soil, grow together. The Puriri has the room to grow up tall and straight rather than branching out like it normally does.
The reserve is small but very well kept.
History
Charles Gray was born in Huntingdon, England in 1840 and spent time at sea in his formative years. In 1870 he emigrated to Queensland, where he found employment as a farm worker. After moving to New Zealand, he purchased Waiohika Farm and became a notable member of the community.
In 1914 the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Napier proposed the purchase of Kowhai Domain to form present day Gray’s Bush, however the Minister of Lands vetoed the idea. Following Gray’s death in 1918, his Trustees approached the Minister, K.S. Williams, in 1924 with over £3,000 to purchase the domain. It was gazetted in 1926 and a domain board appointed to manage the day-to-day running.
They cut tracks and employed a caretaker to keep the picnic areas stocked with firewood and the facilities maintained. This arrangement continued until 1979, when guardianship was handed back to the Crown.
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.”
NZShortWalks 