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?
This Bay of Plenty walk has two ancient pa sites on either side of Anzac Bay. The upper car park is built on a pa site named ‘Te Kura a Maia’ where you can still see the terraces, ditches and an embankment on the landward side. The features of ‘Te Hoa,’ the pa site on the opposite hill are hidden by native bush.
The Bowentown Heads are known to Maori as Otawhiwhi, ‘the entwining’ and relates to a grisly incident where the intestines of a defeated chief were wrapped around a rock on the beach.
The view from pa site at the upper car park is good, you can see the Kaimai ranges, Tauranga estuary, Matakana Island and Mayor Island. An even better view can be had from walking up the other side of the ancient Te Kura a Maia pa site to the trig station where you can look down on Bowentown and Waihi Beach.
Walk: Bay of Plenty 2
Ongare Point artifacts
These two artifacts at Auckland Museum were found across the Tauranga estuary at Ongare Point. They show a definite Polynesian influence. This is the only area where I’ve seen Polynesian type artifacts.
History
Below, from the Western Bay of Plenty District Libraries, “This beautiful aerial photograph of the Bowentown Heads is our Turnback Tuesday feature this week. You can clearly see the terraces of Te Kura a Maia Pa. Te Kura a Maia translates as Training Ground for Young Warriors. The Pa was the scene of many battles as it had such a desirable location, so the name is very apt. The original Tangata Whenua of the region were Ngamarama, and it is they who are thought to have built this Pa.”
The earliest people known to have lived in the Tauranga area are the Purukupenga, whose name alone survives, and the Ngamarama, who inhabited all the land from the Waimapu Stream to the Kaimai ranges.
So numerous were these people that when the Tainui canoe passed through the Tauranga harbour, she made only a brief stay, leaving as evidence of the visit only “nga pehi o Tainui”, the ballast of Tainui, now known as Ratahi Rock.
These are two beautiful parks in New Plymouth connected to one another. Brooklands park has a rich history. There are historic trees, a 2000 year old Puriri and a very old Ginko tree.
There’s a colonial hospital building from the 1840s, a chimney from a homestead burned down in the Taranaki Land Wars of the 1860s, a zoo, and the Brooklands bowl where people go for outdoor concerts.
Pukekura park has the tearooms, fountains, waterfall and three picturesque lakes framed by trees, gardens and red bridges.
The Gables was a hospital built by George Grey in 1840s. He hoped Maori would use the facility.Brooklands chimney from Brooklands homestead, burned down in the Land wars of 1860s
Walk: Taranaki 7
Hospitals
After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori leaders petitioned government for hospitals. Funding for Māori hospitals was allocated in 1846 and the first hospitals were commissioned. The first public hospital in New Zealand opened in Wellington in 1847. Māori use of hospitals was evident from the outset.
The Gables (above) is the sole survivor of four public hospitals built in the period.
Historyof the land
New Plymouth and Taranaki have a history of conflict. While we hear all about Te Whiti and Parihaka, and the nonviolent protest against land confiscation and colonial domination in the 1860s and 1880s, we never about the massacre at Tataraimaka. Tataraimaka was taken possession of in the early 1860s by right of conquest from the Europeans, who were all driven off.
I think Parihaka is great, it ended non violently and without injury except for a foot which was accidentally stood on. I talked about it with a Ngati Awa man a couple of years ago. He wasn’t aware of the European refugees from Taranaki who’d been driven off their farms and wound up in Nelson. We need history from both sides.
The following was taken from a letter by the Rev. Samuel Ironside and reprinted in the Taranaki Herald 27 June 1863;
In 1838 the whole district in question, embracing 100 miles of coastland, was depopulated. There were not more than twenty to thirty souls left there. The Waikato tribes and those further north, had overrun the place ; hundreds of the people had been killed and eaten, hundreds more had been carried into slavery by their victors, hundreds more had been driven into exile towards Cook’s Strait and Queen Charlotte’s Sound. The above twenty or thirty were all that were left in occupation.
The chiefs all signed the deed of sale. Among the parties to the sale was Wiremu Kingi who turned violent and rebellious. He was then called E Witi. They were all too glad to sell the land, and get payment for it, as they dare not return to occupy it for fear of Waikato.
Waikato
When the Waikatos heard of the sale of land which they claimed by right of conquest, they threatened vengeance against the remnant of Taranakis, and a war party of several hundreds started off to exterminate them. The missionaries including Ironside succeeded in preventing bloodshed; but the Waikato chiefs then and there asserted and maintained their rights of ownership of the conquered territory. His Excellency Captain Hobson, then Governor, in satisfaction of their claim, gave Potatau (afterwards Potatau I) £400.
So abundant payment had been made for the disputed lands — first, by the New Zealand Company to the original owners, and afterwards by the New Zealand Company to the Waikato chiefs.
In the years 1843-44, Mr Spain, then Queen’s Commissioner, after careful and patient investigation, determined that the district of Taranaki had been fairly purchased and accordingly awarded to the province the whole block extending north and south of the town, including both Waitara and Tataraimaka.
New Plymouth
The settlers came, and New Plymouth was built.
But the natives, exiled by war, returned home by degrees, now that Europeans were there as a protection; and the Waikato chiefs allowed many of their Taranaki slaves to return. These persons began to clamour and dispute, a thing they dared not before. Ample reserves, suitably situated, had been made for the native residents but the Taranaki natives were dissatisfied, and threatened to drive all the settlers from their holdings.
In the early 1840s Captain FitzRoy, then Governor, partly in pursuance of the mischievous policy of puffing off the evil day, and partly to embarrass the New Zealand Company, that was not in high favour at home, arbitrarily set aside the award of the Queen’s Commissioner, gave back the land to the natives, and told every settler in the Waitara and neighbourhood that they remained there at their own peril — he could not and would not protect them from the natives.
The settlers were driven off their farms.
Captain FitzRoy was sacked and George Grey inherited the mess. He was instructed to take steps at once, by further payments, to acquire these lands for the province. Some of these lands were so acquired, by a further purchase; among them was Tataraimaka, where a massacre of officers and men of the 57th would later take place.
The pressure on the Maori to sell land
But the violent natives had found out their power, and ably have they used it. A large proportion of the natives were peaceable and friendly, and were anxious to sell some of their lands, in order to have European neighbours, and a profitable market close to their doors, for their pigs, potatoes, and corn. These have been overawed, and, to use an expressive, but appropriate term, bullied by the rebels, and thus prevented from exercising their rights of ownership.
As the Pākehā population of New Zealand increased during the 1850s, Māori faced growing pressure to sell their land.
In 1852 a league was formed by these overbearing natives, binding each other not to sell lands to the Government, and threatening death to any chief who should dare to do so. The peaceable natives refused to enter into this league, and have from time to time urged the Government to purchase, saying that the land was the fruitful source of quarrel among themselves, and for peace sake they wished to alienate. The league, however, have ever been strong enough to prevent Government from entertaining their proposals.
War
War broke out between the league and those who wanted to sell. Sometimes the farms of the settlers were made the battleground of the parties. The unoffending settlers were in continual anxiety and fear, and frequently suffered loss.
In 1859 Governor Gore Browne got involved. He had a large meeting of natives in the town of New Plymouth; declared that as British Governor he would protect all of them, in their rights; that he had no wish to purchase any of their lands about which they were quarrelling; that he would not buy any lands, the title of which was disputed; but that if any of them were anxious to sell and could prove their title, they certainly should sell; he would protect them.
Wiremu Kingi (E Witi) of the league blocked the sales. He said ‘that no Maori owned land, the land was owned by all the people to be used communally and individually and not to be possessed. Under Maori custom no land could be sold without the consent of all the people. As leader he must make a decision in accordance with the people’s demands.
The Governor had paid £100 as part purchase money, and surveyors were sent to lay the block out. The land leaguers resisted the survey, and appealed to the native king, Potatau, who espoused their cause.
By 1863 the former productive farms had became overrun with Scotch thistle and other noxious weeds because the natives were not being able to cultivate one-tenth of the land.
Tataraimaka
The Tataraimaka pā was left empty after the pā was sacked by a party of northern Māori during the Musket Wars, shortly before 1820. The Tataraimaka Block of land was purchased from Māori in 1847, and was the location where 200 men of the 65th Regiment were stationed during the First Taranaki War, from April to June 1860.
Martial law was declared and the settlement of Tataraimaka, twelve miles south of the town, was taken possession of by the natives, by right of conquest from the Europeans, who had all been driven off. Many settlers were murdered, some killed in war, a large number died through disease and exposure, and the district was held since 1860 by the rebel tribes.
Tataraimaka was returned to government control in early 1865.
Source: Appendix 1, The War in New Zealand, page 282 to 286.
Confiscating land to pay for the war in the 1860s was a really bad idea, but in 1878 an offer was made to return the confiscated land to Waikato Maori. The offer was refused.
This bush clad mountain is a familiar site when I’m travelling, but I’ve never stopped to explore this intriguing area until now. The book I had with me recommended a climb to the Ruapane lookout, but I decided to skip it in favour of two introductory walks, the Mangakara Nature walk and the Corcoran Road lookout leading to the Ruapane lookout.
I was fortunate to hear a Kokako at the Corcoran Road lookout. The birds have been reintroduced to the area by the Pirongia Te Aroaro o Kahu Restoration Society Inc in partnership with DOC. The pest control area is shown in the bottom right of the picture.
Also this mountain range has the tallest native tree in NZ.
I find this area intriguing as Mt Pirongia and Wairenga Reserve near Raglan are associated with the patupaiarehe, a white tribe the Maori saw as fairies because of their pale skin. They were said to have lived on Hihikiwi peak, a pyramid shaped peak on Mount Pirongia. The patupaiarehe also lived on Mount Ngongotaha in Rotorua, but moved west after they were accidentally or deliberately burned out by the Maori.
We stopped for lunch in a park at Pirongia and there in front of us were three pou dedicated to the patupaiarehe. There was also a large polished stone sculpture representing Pirongia Maunga (mountain) and the patupaiarehe children of the mist.
Patupaiarehe Pou, Pirongia “These are representative of patupaiarehe fairies that live on Pirongia Maunga. TeNgahereReserve.”Rock representing Pirongia Maunga (mountain) and the patupaiarehe children of the mist.
Links
Here’s an interesting video taken at Purekireki marae near Pirongia, where an elder of the Ngaati Taramatau hapu speaks of the patupaiarehe.
He says (18.38) “there was speculation they were our ancestors.” I wouldn’t be surprised given their appearance, there are a few freckled faces and redheads surrounding him.
The true meaning of the name Pirongia-te-aroaro-o-Kahu is “the odour from Kahu’s nether regions.” It is explained between 10:39 and 11:46 of the video. Puawhea was the name given for Mt Pirongia by the Patupaiarehe.
The name of their god was Io Matuakore but his name was never mentioned. Uenuku was used instead. Uenuku is associated with the rainbow. Interestingly, for those who say the Moriori never were in NZ, the Moriori also have a god called Ouenuku.
Whanawhana
In 1894 Hoani Nahe, an elder of the Ngāti Maru people, recalled three sub-tribes of patupaiarehe: Ngāti Kura, Ngāti Korakorako, and Ngāti Tūrehu. Tahurangi, Whanawhana, and Nukupori were important chiefs. Source: TeAra.govt.nz
“It was Whanawhana’s ambition to want a relationship with Maori that he connected with Tawhaitu, the wife of Ruarangi. There was no negativity about these people …” (28.52)
MOUNT PIRONGIA (959 METRES) IS AN ANCIENT VOLCANO CENTRAL TO THE 17,000 HECTARE PIRONGIA FOREST PARK THAT, WITH ITS DRAMATIC SKYLINE, IS ONE OF THE MOST DISTINCTIVE FEATURES IN THE WAIKATO DISTRICT. Explore the Mountain
This track leads to a beautiful little waterfall in urban Mount Albert. Unfortunately the path is still damaged from the double-whammy of Cyclones Hale in January 2023 and Gabriel in February 2023. We walked with friends who knew the place. Even so there was a tricky creek crossing near a washed-out bridge.
Our walk started at Phyllis Reserve and ended at Unitec.
Disappointingly some of the signs are vandalized making it difficult to learn about this hidden treasure. What I can make out from the sign about the trees is this; they’re a mix of native and exotic. The older, exotic trees are treated as part of the heritage of the creek and are only removed when they die or become a danger to the public.
The oak trees date from the period of farming on the land above the bank and being deciduous allow sunshine through the winter months.
The land on the eastern side of the creek belonged to the Auckland Lunatic Asylum. In 1973, 10.4 hectares of the Asylum farm was designated as the site for a technical institute. In 1993 the old Asylum building was sold to Carrington Polytechnic which became Unitec. The Mason Clinic, a mental health facility, is further down the creek.
The reserve is a habitat for our native copper skinks which are endemic to the North Island.
Before the start of the Waterview Connection, 204 native copper skinks were relocated from seven sites along the path of the roadworks. Monitoring conducted since the relocation has shown a healthy population of copper skinks surviving here.
Mahi Whenua Sanctuary Gardens
Just above the reserve is a thriving community garden. The site is home to more than 400 species of plants. It has been gardened for well over 100 years by Maori, Carrington Mental Hospital and Unitec staff and students.
In 2018 the community garden was saved and integrated as a valuable community green space into the Wairaka Precinct development.
Walk: Auckland 27
Wairaka Spring
Unitec has a spring which is a waahi tapu, a historic site associated with Wairaka of the Mataatua canoe dated all the way back to 950 AD. Which is interesting given that most signs showing the arrival of Polynesians to NZ earlier than 1350 AD have disappeared.
The walk incorporates two coasts and a meeting of the oceans. It’s in the westernmost part of the North Island and northernmost part of New Zealand.
Cape Reinga is a very spiritual place for Maori who believe it’s the place where spirits depart for Reinga, the underworld. The legendary early Polynesian explorer Kupe named the cape “Te Rerenga Wairua” as the point from which his descendants would travel in spirit form back to Hawaiiki-A-Nui.
Here the two oceans meet and they can be different colours. When we last visited in 2011 the Tasman was a lighter green and the Pacific a sapphire blue. It depends how quiet the sea is.
The coast on either side of the Aupouri peninsula is spectacular and wild. An ancient and very tapu pohutukawa tree clings to the rugged point beyond the lighthouse.
Offshore are the Three Kings Islands which can be seen on the horizon depending on how clear it is. The islands were named by Abel Tasman who also named Cape Maria van Diemen.
Cape Maria van Diemen
Walk: Northland 1
Te Paki Sand Hills
This video is from a holiday in 2011. My old Sanyo digital camera did tragic video back then, hence our return to the area for a better video of the walk at Cape Reinga.
No visit to Cape Reinga is complete without a visit to the sand dunes. These massive dunes stretch from the Te Paki stream to Te Werahi Beach, in some places they reach as high as 150 metres.
Bring a board for tobogganing and jandals to wear back to your vehicle. It’s lots of fun but you will get sand everywhere.
Ngāti Kuri are descended from the original inhabitants, the founding peoples of the northernmost peninsula of Aotearoa, in Te Hiku o Te Ika. These peoples, known also as Te Iwi o Te Ngaki, were already occupying Te Hiku o Te Ika before the arrival of the many migratory waka from Polynesia. Their ancestor was Ruatamore.
Ngāti Kuri also trace their whakapapa to the Kurahaupo waka which first made landfall in Ngāti Kuri’s rohe at Rangitahua, the Kermadec Islands.
Tasman’s ships anchored off the islands on 5 January 1643, the eve of Epiphany or Three Kings Day, which commemorates the visit of the three wise men to the infant Jesus, 12 days after Christmas. Source: Te Ara
Isaac Gilsemans, who sailed with Abel Tasman, drew this picture of the Three Kings Islands. The human figures in the background apparently gave rise to a belief amongst Europeans that Māori were giants.
Tasman also noted that “Upon the highest mountain of the island they saw 35 persons, who were very tall, and had staves or clubs . . . When they walked they took very large strides.”
While we’ll never know who these tall people were, here’s a photo I took from my research at Auckland Museum in 2021. This ancient carving was found in 1946, hidden in a cave on Great Island.
The Three Kings vineTecomanthe speciosa may once have been common on the Three Kings. By the time of its discovery, goats that had been introduced to the islands had reduced the entire population to a single specimen on Great Island, making it one of the world’s most endangered plants. The remaining specimen grew on a cliff that was too steep for the goats to reach. The original specimen still grows in the wild, and has developed more vines through the natural process of layering in the years since its discovery. The vine has been propagated and is now growing in NZ gardens.
And there was a lone Kaikōmako Manawa Tāwhi tree found on Manawa Tāwhi / Three Kings Islands north of Cape Reinga in 1945, but it took more than 40 years for scientists to successfully increase the rare tree’s numbers.
“We picked up the legacy of our grandparents to actually breed them and we have a programme where we have got 140 of those now and we are about a month away from delivering those back to the island,” Waitai said.
The project has also helped restore Bartlett’s rata, a rare shrub located at Cape Reinga.
Taumarumaru Reserve is located on the Taumarumaru Scenic Reserve at the western end of Coopers Beach, between Mangonui and Cable Bay at the south eastern end of Doubtless Bay.
Taumarumaru consists of Taumarumaru Pa itself and two smaller pa sites named Te Homumu and Otanenui.
History Description Taumarumaru is said to have been originally built by Ngati Awa people before they left Northland and moved south to Taranaki, Tamaki and Tauranga around 1600 after having come under pressure from Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua; their main chiefs in the north were Kauri and Awanui-O-Te-Rangi . When Europeans arrived the pa was under mature kanuka, kahika, and pohutakawa, giving it the name Taumarumaru or ‘shady’ Pa.
This has everything – history, a river walk and waterfalls. Also a cafe in the historic beekeepers house which is right next door to the oldest house in NZ, the Kemp House. The Kemp house was built in 1822 and the Stone Store was built in 1835. There’s a heritage orchard and cottage garden flowerbeds which the cafe uses. The garden has been in operation for over 200 years.
The Mission (Kemp House) was deliberately established next to Kororipo pa (see below), the home of Hongi Hika. Without his patronage and protection, the mission had little chance of survival. No doubt the people in the pa kept a good eye on the coming and goings of the Pakeha living there and reported back to Hongi.
The heritage park is enchanting, even down to the friendly goose who greeted me waggling his tail feathers. The river walk has a historic power station, rock formations and two waterfalls.
Wharepuke Falls, Kerikeri river walkRainbow Falls, Kerikeri river walkThe Honey House Cafe next to Kemp House, KerikeriRock formation, Kerikeri River WalkThe power station began operation in 1930.
Kerikeri Basin, the old Beekeepers House with Kemp House next door
This site was the pa of Hongi Hika, the paramount chief of the north. From here they could keep an eye on everyone, including the Pakeha at the mission across the inlet.
Walking around Kororipo Pa in the quiet of the Kerikeri Basin, I imagined what it was like in the past. In the early 19th century the Ngapuhi tribe controlled the Bay of Islands, the first point of contact for most Europeans visiting New Zealand.
Looking at the historic Mission (Kemp House) and Stone Store across the inlet, New Zealand’s oldest buildings, I wondered about the two cultures that had existed side by side. How did they do it?
Lake Ngaroro is a peat lake in the Waipa district of Waikato. It’s ten minutes from Pirongia or Te Awamutu.
The lake is surrounded by farmland. When European farmers drained the swamps for pasture they pulled rata, kahikatea and totara logs out of the ground. The logs were all found lying in the same direction and it was quite likely the trees were knocked over by the Taupo eruption of 233 AD.
The path around the lake is easy and well maintained with some interesting info boards.
I liked the fish ladder and the planting that’s been done around the lake to improve water quality. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to walk around the lake.
This battle was the largest ever fought in NZ with an estimated 16,000 warriors involved. It took place between 1790 and 1807, before muskets. The war between Maori tribes was caused by a dispute over the fish harvest.
Maori buried their taonga (treasures) in swamps to protect them from being pillaged. Uenuku is one such treasure, found in the lake area and now cared for at the Te Awamutu Museum.
The Maori maintain Uenuku was a rainbow god and it was carried into battle before being buried in the swamp surrounding Lake Ngaroro. They claim it’s the only one of it’s kind. However, two such pou (poles) were said to be on Mount Pirongia, the home of the Patupairehe. They would have long rotted out, this one was preserved by the swamp.
Is the artifact Maori or did it belong to earlier people?
Interestingly, for those who say the Moriori never were in NZ, the Moriori also have a god called Ouenuku. This confirms for me that the Moriori were in NZ first, which is what I was told as a child. Source: Tangata Whenua
This historic pa site is located at Opunake. The walk begins at Opunake Cemetery.
Te Namu pa is the site of a battle between Taranaki and Waikato. After the defeat and scattering of the Taranaki tribe at Maru in 1826, a large number of them migrated to Kapiti. But still there were a few left—not more than one hundred and fifty fighting men—and these, on the news of the approach of Waikato, gathered into their fortified pa of Te Namu, and stored it with a plentiful supply of provisions and water. There they held off a force of 800 Waikato.
The principal chief of Taranaki, who was appointed to conduct the operations in defence of the pa, was Wi Kingi Mata-katea. There was only one musket in the pa, and that belonged to him. His aim never failed; a man fell each time he discharged his gun—even if half a mile off —so long as he could see his man, he shot him.
Mata means eye so Mata-katea’s name probably translates as having a keen or accurate eye.
Although the site has a rich history we felt there was more to learn.
Walk: Taranaki 12
Petroglyphs
The history of the pa as known to the writer (Griffin) including finding a partly buried stone on which there was a petroglyph. Who knows where that’s gone. There were petroglyphs along the Taranaki coast. The rock was probably marked by the Waitaha or Te Kahui Maunga people.
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