This park is a working farm on the South Kaipara Peninsula. The walk leads to a remote beach filled with birds like Oyster Catchers, Godwits, Terns, Herons and Black Swans. The view over the Kaipara Harbour is stunning.
We didn’t see a lot of Puriri trees, considering how the park is named.
I recommend starting the walk outside the car park by the stockyard. It’s not such an uphill slog on the way back going in that direction.
Four tribes that are known to have inhabited the South Kaipara Head from the time of earliest settlement, including; Te Kawerau-a-Maki, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Whātua and Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara. Radiocarbon ages estimates indicate at least 800 years of settlement and occupation. – After Davidson, J. (1984) The Prehistory of New Zealand.
During the early 1800s, the battle of Te Ika-a Ranganui led to the virtual total abandonment of the Kaipara area by Māori (Spring-Rice, W. 1996. Māori Settlement on the South Kaipara Peninsula). In 1837, Māori began to reclaim their ancestral lands in the region. Source:
Atiu Creek is a working farm park which was owned by Pierre and Jackie Chatelanat. They gifted it as a park to the NZ people and the property is being run by the Auckland City Council.
We knew Jackie and Pierre from our work as IT Consultants. I couldn’t have met better people. They were gentle, humble and always interested in us. ♥
We’ve gone for several walks on the farm. The tracks are well maintained and there are beautiful views over the Kaipara.
Walk: Northland 38
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Rating: 4 out of 5.
Pierre’s work with Composite Flour
Besides developing Atiu Creek, Pierre worked for a time with the UN FAO developing composite flour. He wanted me to scan the pages of a book he produced about it. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to type any explanations of the photos but the pictures show what he developed. I remember him telling me the woman on the cover of the book is wearing a dress he picked for her.
These are the pages of the book I scanned for him in 2011: Composite Flour.
Jackie explains: “In the 1960s Pierre found himself in charge of a mission station in New Guinea for two years. This was a turning point in his life as observing the local villagers drying and preserving sweet potato so successfully he realised the possibility of applying the same principle to all food crops, such as taro and sago, and later sorghum and millet. This started him on a project which by a chance meeting with one of FAO’s food technologists was to take him to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.
He was invited originally to join the Freedom From Hunger Campaign to develop his ideas and always on a voluntary basis spent almost thirty years eventually initiating his own project which he called the Composite Flour Programme. This was to encourage developing countries, especially in Africa, to increase and use the cereal crops they were growing already and so reduce dependence on wheat imports. He compiled two technical books during those years, mainly for cereal chemists, which were then distributed to all UN members.
1n 1986 with the farm at Atiu Creek in such good hands, he felt able to resume his research work on composite flours. He and Jackie travelled to 19 industrialised countries to document their sophisticated use of cereal crops produced by the third world and their acceptability world-wide. FAO has now a library of information and photographic evidence on the use of composite flours and is available to all, especially and hopefully those developing countries who need to increase their food production.”
This is a local walk. I can see Kawau Island from my house.
We caught the Mail run cruise to Kawau Island at Sandspit Wharf and they dropped us off at Schoolhouse Bay. From there we took the walk to the Coppermine and then to Mansion House. We missed the turn off to the mine but I’ve included some photos from an earlier walk.
Kawau Island have a healthy population of North Island weka which we saw on our walk.
The Coppermine
A manganese mine was established on the island in the 1840s; shortly after, copper was discovered by accident. The mine had ceased operation by 1855. These are the photos of the sandstone copper mine ruins from an earlier walk in 2005.
MansionHouse
Mansion House, 2005Mansion House peacock, 2005
In 1862 the Island was purchased by one of New Zealand’s first governors, Sir George Grey, as a private owner. He employed architects to significantly extend the mine manager’s house to create his stately home in Mansion House Bay, now fully restored, in its sheltered sunny cove.
Governor Grey released wallabies and kookaburras on the island. I’ve heard the kookaburra who’ve established themselves on the mainland on an early morning walk while it was still dark.
Auckland City Council are intent on eradicating the wallabies. They’ve been blamed for destroying native bush and associated birdlife. I don’t agree because the wallabies aren’t predators and after a century there’s still an active kiwi and weka population on the island. The wallabies have been culled by shooting since the days of George Grey but the Council and DOC use poison which is cruel. Some of the islanders value the wallabies as part of the island’s history and as an attraction for visitors.
History
Kawau Island’s traditional name is ‘Te Kawau tumaro o Toi’. The island is reputed to have been settled by descendants of Toi and later by descendants of the crews of the Arawa and Tainui canoes.
Like much of the land, the island was uninhabited when the Europeans arrived. It had been abandoned by the Maori in the 1820s after a particularly bloody skirmish during the musket wars.
After protracted debate over ownership Kawau was sold in the 1840s to W.T. Fairburn of the North British Australasian Loan and Investment Company.
Copper was mined from 1844 until June 1852 when the mines were inundated.
Governor George Grey – soldier, statesman, explorer, philanthropist
George Grey governed New Zealand from 1845 to 1853 and enjoyed great mana with the Maori who he admired from the start. He reassured them that their lands were safe, but declared he would not tolerate neutrality among the chiefs. They must choose where they stood: with Britain or with the rebels.
He governed again from 1860 to 1868 but his reputation was tarnished in his second term by his policies in Taranaki, his invasion of Waikato, and the massive confiscation (raupatu) of Māori land which followed. The confiscations, in particular, caused decades of bitterness and deep division.
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. See the note below the links.
As a scholar, George Grey was deeply interested in the culture of the Maori and when he retired to Kawau Island, he studied ethnography.
Over one of the bookcases in the library, Grey had inscribed the words: “Learn from the Past. Use well the Present. Improve the Future.”
He (Grey) took a scholarly interest in Maori language and culture.
Māori chiefs often alluded to mythology and wove proverbs and poem fragments into their speeches, the meaning of which was largely lost on outsiders. To better understand what was being said, Grey began collecting traditional poems and legends, proverbs and myths wherever he went.
After a labour of eight years he had the stories that appeared in his classic 1855 book, Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, first published in Māori the previous year.
He was the author of Ko nga mahinga a nga tupuna Maori, London 1854; Ko nga moteatea, me nga hakirara o nga maori, Wellington, 1853; Ko nga waiata maori, Cape Town and London, 1857″ (Keith Sinclair (1990) writing in Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol 1″)
The offer to return confiscated land to Waikato Maori
Note: In 1878 the Governor and the Native Minister went to meet the proclaimed king, Tawhiao, and made a generous offer, which included the return of all confiscated Waikato land not disposed of by the Government to Europeans.
The Government offer sat on the table waiting a response from the Maori king Tawhiao for a year, when a substantial official party, led by Governor Grey and Native Minister Sheehan, came expecting the completion of the agreement, and another positive step forward in putting an end to conflict.
Tawhiao refused to accept anything less than the return of all confiscated land. He turned down the Government offer, to general surprise and consternation, with a refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen.
Only 26% of confiscated land was returned in Waikato, compared with 64% in Taranaki and 83% in Tauranga.
What led to king Tawhiao’s intransigence? He’d been friends with Governor Grey. On Kawau Island King Tawhiao, at Grey’s suggestion, entered into a solemn pact that bound them both to keep away from the alcohol that threatened Tawhiao with disgrace. Source: The governor’s island
Tawharunui peninsula is not far from where I live and I’ve been to the regional park several times .
It’s the first mainland island that combines farming, public recreation and conservation of native species. The aim is to create an open sanctuary free of plant and animal pests, which showcases how aspects of sustainable land management – recreation, conservation and farming – can be compatible.
The park is on a peninsula with a predator-proof fence to keep out animal pests. It is also close to islands, such as Little Barrier/Hauturu, and is a stepping-stone for birds such as kereru, kaka, bellbird/korimako and seabirds. The bellbirds reintroduced themselves as soon as the predator-proof fence went up. How did they know?
Evening kiwi walk
I’ve been out there twice at night to see kiwi with Ness from Kiwiness Tours. I highly recommend her tours, especially the evening kiwi walk.
Our latest kiwi walk with Ness was on the 7th November, 2020.
Walk: Northland 34
History of Tawharunui peninsula:
My friends the late Lyn and Fred Marshall lived, farmed and raised their family there before retiring to Snells Beach. Ness from Kiwiness Tours also grew up there, she was the rangers kid.
It’s a special place.
Tawharunui Regional Park with Little Barrier Island in the distance
The area was occupied from ancient times. In fact local tradition states that Te Ika roa ā Maui, ‘Maui’s long fish’ (the North Island) was hauled from the sea to the north east of Tāwharanui. After the fishing up of the land, the area was occupied by ancient peoples known as Ngāti Kui, Tūtūmaiao and Tūrehu (Wiripo Potene in G. Graham, 1927).
Local tradition also tells us that the famous ancestor and voyager Toi te huatahi visited the area approximately eight centuries ago and named many of its prominent features including Te Hauturu ō Toi (Little Barrier Island). The large island adjacent to Tāwharanui (Kawau Island) was named Te Kawau tū maro ō Toi, ‘the sentinel cormorant of Toi’, and the Hauraki Gulf was named Te Moana nui ō Toi, ‘the great sea of Toi’.
In local tradition Toi is credited with living for some time at Maraeroa on Hauturu (Little Barrier Island.) The descendants of Toi were known as ‘Tini ō Toi’ or ‘the multitudes of Toi’, and some of them settled in the area with the more ancient people who were already there. They in turn were absorbed by later migrations associated with several of the famous ancestral waka (canoes) from Polynesia.
At the time of first European contact the hapu (sub tribal groups) in occupation of the Tāwharunui area were Ngāti Manuhiri and Ngāti Raupō.
The park contains a historic house, a lovely patch of bush on the headland, an old pa site and a beach lined with old Pohutukawa trees.
There’s a choice of three walks, we chose the perimeter walk. It’s not flat but there are great coastal views of the Hauraki Gulf when you climb the hill to the old pa site.
The pa was called Kakaha Pa. All that can be seen is an overgrown defensive ditch. Like so many Maori settlements and pa in this area, it was raided by the better armed Ngapuhi of Northland and the local tribe was decimated.
The pou at the start of the walks
The head of the pou represents rangitira (chiefs) who have stood on this land. The outer shell represents the many waka (canoes) that have landed on these shores. The two embracing and intertwining figures on the other side represent husband and wife, and arranged marriages to form alliances or settle differences. The natural splits in the log represent two awa (rivers) that run either side of Wenderholm – the Waiwera and Puhoi Rivers.
A toka (rock) has been places in the mouth of Waiwera representing the motu (island) named Mahurangi.
This is another walk not far from where I live.
Walk: Auckland 1
History
For centuries two small iwi, Ngati Rongo and Te Kawerau a Maki, occupied Maungatauhoro and its environs. Te Kawerau a Maki eventually migrated south, into the Waitakere Ranges; Ngati Rongo remained. In 1825 Hongi Hika brought his army of muskets down into Tamaki Makarau, through the rohe of Ngati Rongo. The local rangatira Murupaenga confronted Hika’s men with only a stone patu. Murupaenga died skirmishing in the Mahurangi River, which flows into the sea a few kilometres north of Maungatauhoro. He is buried on the hill, along with many other tupuna. Source: Waiting in the wood
Dome Forest is one of my local walks and the hill is a landmark. You can either go to the viewing platform, which looks south over State Highway 1 and Warkworth, or you can take the longer walk to the Dome (336 metres.)
This is a local walk through a patch of bush next to the Warkworth Museum. Parry Kauri Park has two mature Kauri trees next to the museum car park. The two large kauri trees are named in honour of the former landowners, Harry Parry and Tudor Collins. They were local identities who were largely responsible along with the Kauri Bushmen’s Association for raising the money to purchase the land.
It’s a great place for learning how to identify trees and you might get to see native birds at the bird feeder.
We haven’t seen birds tuck into the fruit on previous visits, but today we saw a pair of Silver-eyes enjoying the apples.
A pair of Silver-eyes at Parry Kauri park, Warkworth
The next few walks will be in the local area. I can’t go outside of the borders of Auckland because of another mandated lock down. These walks are my solace.
This walk is just south of Warkworth on SH1 near the Pohuehue viaduct. There’s a pretty waterfall that the Pohuehue Stream tumbles over.
Pohuehue waterfall
At the waterfall there’s a plaque dedicated to Beverley Price, a local woman who originated the idea of this track. She died on the Air NZ flight that crashed into Mt Erebus in 1979.
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