This is a much loved bush reserve. Formerly part of Woodlands Estate, Hukutaia Domain was gifted to the people of Opotiki by E.M.Hutchinson. In 1918 it was set aside as a reserve, mainly to protect Taketakerau, an ancient burial tree which was once the final resting place of the ancestral remains of the Te Upokorehe iwi. The puriri tree was highly tapu (sacred, forbidden to touch).
Taketakerau is over 2000 years old. In 1913 after the tree was damaged in a storm, a large cache of bones was discovered hidden deep within the hollow of the old tree. After the tree was damaged the remains were buried elsewhere.
As well as the puriri burial tree and mighty tawa trees, the reserve has rare plants and abundant bird life. This is the noisiest reserve we’ve walked through as far as the birds go, probably because the pests and predators are kept down.
I give the reserve a triple A – for ancient, atmospheric and amazing.
Tauwhare Pa is one of the oldest pa sites in the Bay of Plenty.. It is actually three pas sites which overlook the western arm of Ōhiwa Harbour at Ohope in the Bay of Plenty. It was built by Te Hapuoneone, a tribe that many of today’s iwi descend from. Elsdon Best ‘Notes on Ancient Polynesian Migrants‘ states the Hapu-oneone were some of the ancient inhabitants of the Bay of Plenty district. They were numerous when the later canoes the Arawa and Mataatua arrived from Hawaiiki. They once occupied the district from Ohiwa across to Ruatoki.
In later times Ohiwa Harbour was between Ngati Awa on the west and Whakatohea in the east. Located on a tribal boundary, Tauwhare Pa saw more then it’s share of conflict.
In 1847, the chief of Tauwhare was Te Keepa Toihau of Ngāti Awa. His daughter, MereAira, had a child with neighbouring Whakatōhea chief Kape Tautini. When Whakatōhea laid siege to the pā site, intending to drive Ngāti Awa away before they became too powerful, MereAira raised the child Te Pirini Tautini above her head and called out; “This child I am holding in my arms is a symbol of our two tribes and could make peace or war. Unless the killing is stopped now for all time, I shall throw my child on these rocks.”
Whakatohea were so impressed by her courage that a peace deal was immediately arranged on the beach.
History
“Before the arrival of the Mataatua waka (canoe), numerous other waka encountered Ohiwa …”Whale IslandOhiwa is a shark breeding ground
From the info board:
Te Hapuoneone, led by the peacable Tama-ki-Hikurangi, were the first known residents, however over many years they were assimilated by the descendants of Awanuiarangi who later became Ngati Awa.
In 1847, when the pa was under siege, the rangitira (chief) of Tauwhare was Te Keepa Toihau.
In the 1950s, when the land was in private ownsership, preliminary work was being carried out for a proposed subdivision, destroying sections of the pa.
Walk: Bay of Plenty 18
Links
Te Hapū-oneone
In addition, Tūhoe trace their descent from the confederation of Te Hapū-oneone. These people were descendants of Hape, who came from Hawaiki on the Rangimatoru canoe, landing at Ōhiwa Harbour in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. They occupied territory from Ōhiwa inland to Waimana and over the Taiarahia range to Rūātoki. Te Hapū-oneone consisted of related tribes including Ngāti Raumoa, Ngāi Te Kapo and Ngāi Tūranga. Source: Te Ara, The first peoples
Captain James Cook stopped here in 1769 as part of his circumnavigation of New Zealand. As well as it being historic, there’s a hole-in-the-wall which I didn’t get good photos of because of the rain.
Unfortunately we didn’t enjoy the walk as much as we could have, due to the weather. The country was being lashed by Cyclone Hale to the north and we got very wet.
Unlike the hostile and aggressive Gisborne (Turanga) Maori, this tribe welcomed Captain Cook. It was the first positive meeting between Maori and Pakeha. Te Aitangi-a-Hauiti acknowledges the time of Cook’s voyage as the pre-cursor of a dual heritage and shared future.
For centuries the iwi (tribe) of Te Aitangi-a-Hauiti has occupied Tolaga Bay. What’s interesting about this tribe is they’ve been in the land for so long they don’t have a waka (canoe). They trace their ancestry back to the famous ancestor Paikea, the whale rider from Hawaiki. They are part of Ngati Porou who date back to the legendary explorer Maui.
The story of Ngāti Porou lies in mythology, legend, oral tradition and historical record. Fundamental to the tribe’s history is the godlike figure of Māui-tikitiki-a-taranga. Māui is the ancestor who binds Ngāti Porou descendants to the beginnings of human existence. It was he who fished up the North Island from the ocean depths. This fantastic feat is commemorated in the songs and haka of Ngāti Porou.
They have a haka which celebrates the rising of the sacred mountain Hikurangi from the ocean depth, which goes, ‘Whakarongo ake ki te hīrea waha o Māui’ (Hearken to the faint call of the voice of Māui).
Maui on the left: “My power of authority derives from time immemorial.”
MĀUI: He’s the tribal master who descends from the fairy people. Anaru Kupenga (Ngāti Māui) holds the tribal knowledge of his people and his theories could change how we think forever.
Getting in to the site took some doing because the protestors have closed the public road, but we found some people gardening and they let us come in. There is disputed land, Ihumateao, next door to the park, I’ll leave their info about it at the bottom of the page and you can read all about it.
I got the sense walking over the land that the volcanic gardens are ancient and were in use long before the Tainui canoe arrived.
It was very peaceful, probably because we had the whole place to ourselves.
The park is the site of Auckland’s smallest volcano.
Puketaapapa Cone: This is the smallest of the 60-odd extinct volcanic cones of the Auckland area, being less than 10 metres above its lava base and having a saucer-shaped crater only 12 metres wide.
I hope people can get access to the park but but there’s no political will in Wellington to resolve the protest. The issue is a hot potato the people in government don’t have the wisdom, negotiating skills or ability to resolve.
Walk: Auckland 38
Ihumatao
Since posting that about Ihumatao in 2019, I did more reading about the iwi in charge of this, the Te Kawerau Iwi. The land was confiscated in the 1860’s but there have been Treaty settlements. The protestors can’t have it both ways and need to listen to the Iwi who have successfully negotiated for land for affordable housing in return for that housing development.
Under the deal, Fletcher Building has committed to returning 8ha of land at the site to the Kiingitanga, and Te Warena Taua said houses would also be set aside for mana whenua.
Here’s what the Te Kawerau Iwi had to say:
“We’ll start off with 40 homes coming back to our people at shared-equity ownership. It’s good for us because it will allow for people and their families who come from our village to come back to the village and bring their children and mokopuna up.”
Two centuries ago, Māori were still cultivating 8000 ha of volcanic stonefields around Tāmaki-makau-rau, the Auckland isthmus. Now just 160 ha of the stonefields remain. They largely fell into disuse after the early 19th-century inter-tribal Musket Wars and were swallowed up by urban sprawl.
Conservationists had to fight hard even to save Ōtuataua’s 100 ha at Māngere, which was bought by the Manukau City Council with help from DOC, the Lotteries Commision and the Auckland Regional Council.
On 10 February 2001, one of New Zealand’s oldest sites became its newest reserve, the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve. Here you can see Polynesian house sites, storage pits, cooking shelters, terraces, mound gardens, garden plots and garden walls as well as some 19th-century European dry-stone farm walls.
This is the site of a battleground. There’s views as well as history. First we walked to the view point at the top of the ridge overlooking the Waitara River. It’s a beautiful, peaceful spot which belies its history of conflict in the Maori Musket Wars and Taranaki Land Wars.
The pa was besieged twice during the Musket Wars. The first battle was between Te Ātiawa and Ngati Maniapoto. The second battle was between Te Ātiawa and Waikato.
In 1830 many Te Atiawa women sheltering at the pa threw themselves and their children off the 100 metre cliff rather than be killed and eaten.
Thirty years later the site again became a battleground, this time against the British in the Taranaki Land Wars of the 1860s.
After looking at the view point we looked at Pratt’s Sap, built in 1861. It’s a long zig zag trench by the side of the road.
In ‘Pratt’s Sap’, forces under Major-General T.S. Pratt tunnelled laboriously up the slopes towards a new pā, Te Arei (‘the barrier’), erected in front of freshly strengthened Pukerangiora. Te Ātiawa chief Hapurona commanded both. Pratt built eight redoubts and dug two stretches of sap (covered trench). Maori counter-attacked, most famously against number three redoubt on the night of 23 January, suffering heavy casualties in the crossfire between the redoubts. Working under cover of large sap rollers and supported by artillery fire, the British advanced. By March 1861 number eight redoubt was just 75 m from Te Arei pā, which was taking a heavy pounding. Hapurona wisely sought a truce. In a ‘settlement’ disliked by both sides, the Waikato and southern Taranaki tribes withdrew. An uneasy peace descended on Taranaki.
Unfortunately my camera malfunctioned so there’s no photos or video so I’ll have to use other people’s videos. This one is by Real New Zealand Adventures.
And here’s a video about the history of the pa by Roadside Stories.
The Maori Musket Wars
1821
In 1821 a taua led by Tūkorehu of Ngāti Maniapoto was besieged here for seven months by Te Ātiawa, who surrounded it with earthworks and palisading, adding insult to injury by dubbing the siege ‘Raihe Poaka’ (the penned-up pigs).
1831
Blood flowed here again a decade later. Te Ātiawa, weakened by recent emigration to join Te Rauparaha in the Cook Strait area, holed up at Pukerangiora after a large Waikato taua descended on North Taranaki. When the pā fell after a three-month siege, as many as 1200 may have died.
Ironically, Pukerangiora is probably better known for its role in the First (1860-61) and Second (1863-66) Taranaki Wars.
The first war was the major fight which happened after the settlement of Tataraimaka (twelve miles south of New Plymouth) was attacked and taken possession of 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.
If you want a full history head over to my page on the The North Taranaki War where I sum up an eye witness account of events from 1863 by the Rev Samuel Ironside who succeeded in preventing one incident of bloodshed in Taranaki.
Head chief of the Ngatuwahanga and Ngatihourua tribes of Raglan and Waipa Waikato. He was a famous general and warrior; he took part in the Waikato war with the Taranaki tribes in 1830 and assisted in the siege of the Pukerangiora pa (subsequently the site of General Pratts celebrated sap in 1861) when the starved out holders of the pah attempted to escape they were captured in hundreds and brought to Te Wherowhero (afterwards King Potatau 1st) and Te Awaitaia to be killed; their worthies then proceeded to club the unfortunate prisoners with their greenstone “meres”.
We stopped here to eat breakfast on our way home from Wellington after witnessing the end of the protest at Parliament Grounds. We felt shattered.
Eating our food, we watched a couple of divers enter the sparkling water. A man and his dog played fetch with a driftwood stick and two yachts sailed slowly by. In the calm and tranquil peace of the morning we realised life would go on.
This is a stunning part of the lower North Island west coast. Mana Island could be seen in the distance and beyond that, misty and barely disernable, the mountains of the South Island.
Our breakfast spotLooking out to Mana Island Te Pa o Kapo, Titahi Bay
History
The place name means the Pa of Kapo. The tribe was Ngati Ira. Te Pa o Kapo may have been occupied for as long as 400 years, but when Te Rauparaha invaded the area in 1819-20 the pa had already been abandoned.
Ethnographer Elsdon Best (who was born at Tawa) visited the pa and was impressed by the superb defences. He noted that at the time the stumps of the totara pallisading were still visible.
I suspect the rock at the site may have been a tuahu. Each canoe and tribe had one, a sacred place marked by a stone.
A plaque in front of the stone reads, “This is the site of a fortified pa occupied by Ngati Ira prior to 1820. The defensive bank and artificially narrowed causeway were once clearly visible. Archaeological evidence suggests there was an extensive settlement in this area.”
Walk: Wellinton 13
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Rating: 4 out of 5.
Kupe’s anchor
It is said that Kupe’s anchor used to lie on the Porirua foreshore. This is the narrative or korero from the Te Ara Encyclopedia of NZ about Kupe’s anchor:“The Polynesian explorer, Kupe, visited this area and named Porirua Harbour, Mana Island and his landing place, Komanga Point, situated south of Titahi Bay. The anchor stone from Kupe’s canoe, Mātāwhaorua, rested for many years on what is now Ngati Toa Domain. It is now at Te Papa.”
Be aware, this is a classic example of revisionist history about canoes and dates of discovery. Te Ara are wrong on two counts; they haven’t mentioned there were two explorers named Kupe and they failed to point out the stone is actually local greywacke.
Here’s the stone which is NOT from Kupe’s canoe. It used to lie on the beach at Porirua.
Ngati Ira: Intermarried with Ngati Tara. In 1819 a war party comprising Taranaki, Atiawa, Ngati Toa, Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua attacked the Wellington area, destroying the main Ngati Ira fortifications. Most Ngati Ira fled to the Wairarapa where they still live today.
KUPE’S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND: Kupe and his people discovered people at various places. These people were the Mamoe, the Turehu, the Tahurangi, the Poke-pokewai, the Patupaiarehe, the Turepe and the Hamoamoa. “Such is the story as told me by my elder Tati Wharekawa.”
Te Toto Gorge is on a winding gravel road near Raglan, further up from the famous surfing spot at Manu Bay. It’s the shortest walk with the longest coastal views. The viewing platform is built over the top of the gorge. Looking down you’ll see a fertile, sheltered amphitheatre with the remains of terraced gardens and karaka groves.
The Matakore were regarded as uri of Maui who were cultivating Mt Karioi near Whaingaroa (Raglan) at the time Kupe arrived according to Te Aotearangi Wirihana in 1888.
Te Toto means “the blood.” Te Toto may be linked to the deaths of the ancients of whom one old local (from about 1860) referred to when she indicated that the Raglan petroglyph rocks were made by the old ‘kings’ that were here before they arrived. See the article from Papers Past, dated 1869 below.
Raglan Recap, Tangata Whenua :“Now there is something else related to one of these rocks (since destroyed) for it revealed a large wet cave close by that penetrates into Mount Karuni (now called Karioi). Inside are a number of calcified skeletons, 87 in total. According to the reports of the eighteen hundreds, those that found this cave and these skeletons, were surprised to learn that the local Maori did not know of their existence…but there was a story of a very great leader who lived in the area long ago. He was here alright, and long before Maori arrived in the Tainui Canoe at Kawhia Harbour and began to roam the area before dominating and chasing the locals away.”
Sidestep, Tangata Whenua, Te Toto Gorge : “However, we want to draw attention to some place names up and down the Waikato coastline. Many are about tragedy, burning, death and sorrow. At Raglan however we have Te Toto Gorge. It means blood or bleed. Yet there are no stories or myths relating to this location in Maori folklore. All that exists are the eroded earthworks that suggest it was occupied between about 1700 and 1800. But this area was the scene of something else many hundreds of years earlier.
The original inhabitants that lived in the area were chased and forced off the cliffs and plummeted to their deaths. There the bones have lain for hundreds of years near the base of the cliffs; still buried under constant rockfall and undergrowth.”
Thefirst peopleand Kupe
Kupe and his people discovered people at various places. These people were the Mamoe, the Turehu, the Tahurangi, the Poke-pokewai, the Patupaiarehe, the Turepe and the Hamoamoa. They lived on the fronds and berries of the trees, and the roots of the earth. They were expert in preparing such foods, and in snaring and spearing the birds in forest and fish in stream. They also prepared food from the tender parts of the nikau, the tikoukou, the para and the mamaku (tree ferns).
Another name that people were called by was Te Tini-o-Toi-kai-rakau (the multitude of Toi, eater of trees). Toi being an ancestor of a section of that people. They dug the roots with long ko (spades), an implement unknown to the Maori before we came to those islands, and found those people just as Kupe had described them. Kupe was attacked by, and in return attacked those people of Karioi, near Raglan, and Aotea on the West Coast. These people were the Ngati-Matakore so-called, not the tribe of that name now living here in this island, who descend from us of “Tainui.”
Te Toto Gorge Raglan A historically significant site, the Te Toto Gorge south of Raglan, New Zealand not only boasts stunning and uninterrupted views of the rugged west coast, it also provides an insight into traditional Maori gardens.
We didn’t have time to walk down to the terraced gardens, but here’s some videos from Dave Horry, a man who explored the area.
Te Toto Te Toto (the blood) is a series of three coastal amphitheatres at the foot of Mt Karioi (the lingering).
Into Te Toto Going down into the Gorge, and exploring for an afternoon.
Abel Tasman escapes from the South Taranaki Bight/Cook Strait/Tasman Bay and runs out to sea. Then he turns east, and sees land again on 28th December. The ‘high land’ he sees is marked on his chart. He sees Mount Karioi, on the coast just south of Raglan.
The walk starts at the very Edwardian Government Gardens. From there, we walked to the lakefront, then Ohinemutu and finally Kurau Park. We walked back through town and finished at the Princes Gate.
The highlight of the walk for me is the window at St Faith’s Church, Ohinemutu, of Jesus walking on the water wearing a feathered cloak. The soldier’s graves next to the church are buried above ground because it’s a thermal area.
Ohinemutu is a Ngati Whakaue settlement. They’re an Arawa tribe. The 1887 carved meeting house of Ngati Whakaue is named for the captain of the Te Arawa canoe, Tama-te-Kapua.
Rotorua is the town my husband considers his hometown. His family moved there from the USA when he was twelve so the walk was a trip down memory lane for him.
Lake Hakanoa is in the Waikato town of Huntly. Before 1879 Huntly was called ‘Rahui Pokeka.’
During the 1850s the area was occupied by the Ngati Mahuta and Ngati Whawhakia tribes who lived peacefully until the lake got overfished. To put and end to the quarelling and to conserve the fish, the paramount chief Potatou Te Whero Whero imposed a ban on fishing, called a ‘rahui.’
Rahui
A rahui is a period of prohibition over an area by marking a Pu rahui – a carved stick with notches which was driven into the ground. A flax cloak called a ‘pokeka‘ marked where the stick was. At the time of each new moon the tohunga (priest) would change the Pu rahui one more notch until it was below ground level. That was the sign to the people that they were allowed to fish again.
While the rahui was in effect the lake was tapu, forbidden. Lake Hakanoa was named after the haka that was performed when the rahui was over and they could fish again. The ceremony to lift the tapu was called ‘Noa.’
The lake walkway is split into thirteen zones including a native tree reserve, Japanese Garden, Global Garden, Wildlife Gardens, Palm Beach, Contemporary Maori Garden, Green Cathedral, Ponga Grove, wetlands and more. It’s a nice, easy flat walk and you get a good view of the Huntly power station from the lake.
The walkway had the most one-note Tuis I’ve ever heard. You’ll hear them on the video.
Omokoroa is a peninsula that peninsula which stretches from SH2 into the Tauranga Harbour. It is translated as the ‘place of the long lizard.’
The reserve has some fine old trees planted by the Rev Joseph Gellibrand who came from Tasmania with his wife Selina and settled here. The house that occupied the site burned down years ago. Their adopted daughter Elizabeth married Captain Arthur Crapp and in 1975 the Crapp family gifted the land to the crown for a reserve.
Not much is known about the pa on the headland. The iwi that occupied the area were the Pirirakau hapu of Ngati Ranginui. The great Ngati Haua fighting chief Te Waharoa and his wife moved to Omokoroa in their old age and died here in 1838.
The pa has a landward defensive ditch and some old karaka trees which were used for food.
Te Waharoa : When CMS missionaries made exploratory journeys in the Thames, Tauranga and Rotorua districts between 1831 and 1833, Te Waharoa expressed to them his desire to have an Anglican missionary resident at Matamata. In early 1834 a mission station was established at Puriri, near the mouth of the Waihou River.
This chief was a shrewd man. In April 1835 A. N. Brown arrived to take up residence at Matamata, and was joined by J. A. Wilson in July. The two missionaries negotiated with Te Waharoa for a mission site outside Matamata pā. Wilson recorded in his journal: ‘The old chief seemed unsatisfied with the offered payment, which consisted of blankets, shirts, spades, iron pots, axes, adzes, etc., and he made some shrewd remarks on the durability of the land contrasted with that of the payment. “These,” he said, “will soon be broken, worn out, and gone, but the ground will endure forever to supply our children and theirs.” ‘
Te Waharoa was quick to perceive the potential use of the literacy skills the missionaries taught, as a means of diplomacy to preserve the peace with Ngāti Maru. His son and A. N. Brown wrote letters on his behalf, and on 19 September 1835 a party of Ngāti Maru from the Thames district was welcomed to Matamata at a peacemaking feast.
Recording the death of Te Waharoa in his journal, missionary A.N. Brown remarked: ‘Waharoa was a remarkable character, fierce, bloody, cruel, vindictive, cunning, brave, and yet, from whatever motive, the friend of the Mission.’
Te Waharoa was a great-uncle of Tarore, a little girl who had been educated by the missionaries. Her death led to the Maori adopting Christianity. Tarore’s story begins where her life ended at Wairere Falls.
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