Stony Batter is at the end of Man O’War Bay road. It’s an impressive remnant of New Zealand’s coastal defense system. While very little remains above ground, the rooms and tunnels below ground are really well preserved.
The walk along the gravel road past farmland and grape vines gives sweeping views of the Hauraki Gulf out to the Coromandel peninsula.
The area takes its name from distinctive rock formations that are the remnants of two ancient volcanos.
There is a charge to enter the batter, in order to maintain the site. The historic site was built in 1942 and finished after the war. It’s managed by the archaeologist leasing it.
Stony Batter rock formationOld WW2 kerosene heaterStony Batter walk
This is a small estuary, prolific with birds despite the close proximity of housing. The walk goes over a swing bridge and along the banks of the Waikanae River to the Waimanu Lagoons. There we were treated to a special sight, a white heron (kotuku) who lives at the lagoon. The bird is so rare that the Maori have a saying, “He Kotuku rerenga tahi,” “a Kotuku’s flight is seen but once.”
The beach is only a short walk from the lagoon, where we watched the sun set over Kapiti Island, 5 kms offshore.
Walk: Kapiti 33
History
Te Uruhi, a former pa site at Waikanae, was one of three ancient pa sites mentioned in the book ‘THE ART WORKMANSHIP OF THE MAORI RACE IN NEW ZEALAND,’ published in 1896. Elsdon Best wrote, “I have seen the remains of an old pa at Waikanae, called Te Uruhi, the fence of which has been a mile in circumference.”
Unfortunately the site would have been obliterated by developer’s bulldozers.
The Waitaha, first inhabitants
“Archaeological and ethnographical research suggests that Waikanae may have been first inhabited by the Waitaha moa-hunters as early as a thousand years ago.” The Waitaha people were replaced by successive waves of settlement of the Ngāti Apa, Rangitāne and Muaūpokoiwi (tribal groups).
In the 1820s the infamous Maori leader of Ngāti Toa, Te Rauparaha, moved into the area and based himself at Kapiti Island.
In this 1840s image of Te Rauparaha, he wears a feather in his hair and a pōhoi (feather-ball earring). Te Rauparaha is famous for the role he played during the musket wars.
In 1824, Waikanae Beach was the embarkation point for a force of 2,000 to 3,000 fighters from coastal iwi, who assembled with the intention of taking Kapiti Island from the Ngāti Toa led by Te Rauparaha. Crossing the strait in a fleet of waka canoes under shelter of darkness, the attackers were met and destroyed as they disembarked at the northern end of Kapiti Island.
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Te Āti Awa of Wellington
In the 1820s the Taranaki tribes iwi Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Maru Wharanui began moving to the Kapiti area after being driven south by Waikato tribes in the Maori Musket Wars. The tribes moved back to Taranaki in 1848 but some Atiawa iwi remained in the Kapiti area. Source: Te Āti Awa of Wellington
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The Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve
The Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve is a nationally–significant reserve located at the mouth of the Waikanae River. The reserve was established in 1987 to protect the large number of bird species that use the area.
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Thomas the goose
Here’s something funny and sweet – a local story about a goose called Thomas who lived at the Waimanu Lagoons from 1970 to 2018.
“Thomas had a relationship with a male black-feathered swan, Henry, for approximately 18 to 24 years until a female swan, Henrietta, joined them. Thomas initially attacked the pair, which included breaking two of the five eggs that Henrietta had laid. But once the remaining eggs had hatched, he became friendly and helped raise them. Henry could not fly because he had an injured wing, so Thomas helped teach the cygnets to fly.
Thomas was left alone when Henry died in 2009 and Henrietta flew away with another swan. Thomas later met a female goose and had his own offspring, for the first time, in 2011. The offspring were then taken by another goose. After going blind and getting attacked by swans, he was moved in 2013 to the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust in Ohariu, and stayed there until his death in 2018. A plaque was placed at the lagoon to remember him.” Source: Wikipedia
The locals even had a funeral for him
Links
We stopped at the Southward Car Museum on the road to the Waikanae Estuary walk. It’s well worth a visit.
Te Ātiawa ki Kāpiti History : The earliest accounts of Te Ātiawa ki Kāpiti go back to the Kāhui Mounga Collective that had spread itself from Taranaki and the Central Plateau region through to Te Ūpoko o te Ika. During this time, further waves of migrations occurred.
Two of these migrations began with the arrival of the following waka to Taranaki; Te Kahutara, Taikōria and Okoki.
The names of these iwi were Te Tini-a-Taitāwaro, Te Tini-a-Pananehu, Tamaki, and Te Tini-o-Pohokura, names after four brothers who led their people to Aotearoa.
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 was a solid grind where we had to climb 450 metres to the summit of the bluff. Getting over an old lava flow was interesting.
The view south along Ripiro Beach to Kai Iwi Lakes is worth the climb but I was hoping to see some standing stones that I know used to be on the summit. Waipoua and it’s stone ruins are just up the coast, less than 25 kms away.
Walk: Northland 27
Links
Stone structures
Alex Nathan is an elder from the local Te Roroa iwi (tribe) who have control or guardianship of the area including the Waipoua forest.
He speaks about Maunganui Bluff and goes on to mention the historical structural formations on the summit.
Nathan says; ” … our maunga (mountain), Maunganui Bluff is a place that we know as “Taputapuātea.” There’s very little of the original stonework still intact because during the second world war the American forces bulldozed the summit in order to establish a radar station. Today, all that remains of that facility are concrete foundations.
On the outer edges of the area that was bulldozed there are … in one place the remains of a stone facing and at the other edge, on the other side of that area is a stone alignment that is intact – and that’s all that remains of the original stone structures on that place.”
A listener asks, “So those stones that you are talking about, so they’re quite old, they were put there as (indiscernable) or they were created …”
“No, no, they are constructions, similar to some of the structures that we know about in Waipoua for example.”
-Note, I did a walk in Waipoua Forest in 2020 but I was not able to see the structures he was talking about. My research on the stone ruins is here.
It appears there are stone structures in the area from Maunganui Bluff to Waipoua Forest.
This is from a book by a local man at Kaihu, “From the Sea we came.”
A SOLITARY CAIRN IN A FARM FIELD,IN THE WAITAPU VALLEY: NEAR THE MAUNGANUI BLUFF WAITAPU VALLEY ANCIENT STANDING STONE CIRCLES AND LAND MAPPING TRIG POSITIONS IN THE WAITAPU VALLEY OF NORTHLAND, AOTEA…That whole region, running from north of the Waipoua Forest Southward to Maunganui Bluff and beyond, is a very rich field of megalithic structures, which litter this Coastline in profusion. This is believed to be a purpose placed, very ancient surveying structure used for precisely marking a position. Many cairns like this, distributed over several square miles between the Maunganui Bluff and Waipoua, are not the result of modern farmers gathering together stones from the land and placing them in heaps.
Source: From the Sea we came, page 106, RIPIRO WEST COAST BETWEEN KAIPARA AND HOKIANGA
1894; RipiroCoast, North of Maunganui Bluff, about half way to Kawerua: Gum diggers find old relics at a depth of 7 to 9 feet deep. These included adzes and spears. For these to have been buried so deep they must have been owned by some ancient people. Who did they belong to?
Source: National Library: Gang of Dalmatian gum diggers draining the Aranga swamp, Maunganui Bluff, Northland. Creator of collection unknown: Photographs relating to Dalmatian gum diggers, life on the gumfields, and social events. Ref: PAColl-2144-2-03. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23109398
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?
A walk up some 250 steps to the Cape Palliser Lighthouse on the southernmost point of the North Island. The views are awesome but it was too cloudy to see the South Island on the day we visited.
The 5km stretch of road from Ngawi to Cape Palliser is interesting, there are two concrete fords to drive over. Also a seal colony which we didn’t see.
Stone walled gardens
There were stone walled gardens at Cape Palliser.
… Adkin (1955) drew attention to an apparently high density of settlement in eastern Palliser Bay and found artifacts of typical archaic forms, many of which ended up in private hands or in the Museum of New Zealand collection (Leach 1981). Four burials, one with a shark’s tooth necklace, were excavated at the mouth of the Pararaki River in the 1950s and 1960s (Davis 1959;Cairns 1971; Leach 1981; Walton 1994). Wellman (1962b) describes a wave-cut section about 3 km west of Cape Palliser lighthouse with moa bone (Euryapteryx geranoides) and oven stones near the top. … Source ResearchGate
The land may have been abandoned because of invasion, seismic activity or a tsunami in the 16th century or early 17th century.
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.
Most of the Mahia peninsula is bare of trees but this reserve protects 374 hectares of native bush. It’s a loop walk along a ridge and then down to the valley bottom where you cross the same stream several times. There’s been rain so the track was muddy in places.
The walk is supposed to take 2 hours but it was more than that, perhaps because of the mud.
Walk: Hawkes Bay 11
History
According to Māori legend, Mahia Peninsula is Te matau a Maui – the fish-hook of Maui.
The Takitimu waka landed here in the 14th century.
Ngāti Rongomaiwahine is the Maori iwi (tribe) traditionally centred in the Māhia Peninsula. It is closely connected to the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi. Kahungungu visited Mahia after hearing stories about Rongomaiwahine, a beautiful woman. He married her and many local people are descended from them.
Rongomaiwahine was descended from Ruawharo, the tohunga (navigator) of the Tākitimuwaka (Māori migration canoe), and Popoto, the commander of the Kurahaupō waka.
From 2007 to 2010 Mahia became known for the presence of Moko, a dolphin.
In Coronation Reserve (Piko te Rangi) on the eastern side of the peninsula is a natural rock basin that was used by Bishop William Williams to baptise local Maori. A small cleft in the rocks was said to have been used to store Bibles.
It reminds me of a megalithic Bullaun bowl. We didn’t see a heap of rocks like this anywhere else on the peninsula.
Links
A bullaun (Irish: bullán; from a word cognate with “bowl” and French bol) is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often water filled. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may sit in the bullaun. Source: Wikipedia
The birth of Kahungunu Tamatea Ure Haea had three wives, who were sisters: Te Onoono-i-waho, Iwipūpū and Te Moana-i-kauia, the daughters of Ira and Tokerauwahine. With Iwipūpū he had a son, whom they named Kahungunu. Kahungunu the man: Kahungunu (also known as Kahu-hunuhunu) was born at the Tinotino pā in Ōrongotea (later named Kaitāia). His father subsequently moved to the Tauranga area, where Kahungunu grew to adulthood.
Wikipedia states Tākitimu was a waka (canoe) with whakapapa throughout the Pacific particularly with Samoa, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand in ancient times. The Tākitumu was an important waka in the Cook Islands with one of the districts on the main island of Rarotonga consequently named after it.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab built on the Eastern end of Mahi Peninsular not far from impoverished Wairoa and Fraser town ( Te Kopu) where the great non weapon bearing Waitaha waka Takatimu landed.
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.
If you can get in, just south of the entrance you’ll find a public avocado orchard where you can pick avocados when in season (November to March). Refer to signage for picking limits.
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
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Rating: 1 out of 5.
The walk should be five stars given its history, botany and geology. It’s a shame the walk is so difficult to access.
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.”
The gate, we drove through after speaking to some people on site
This is what the signs say at the blocked off entrance:
#1 Ihumatao 1834 Reverand William Fairburn claimed 80,000 acres of land from Otahuhu to Paparkura … the entire area of what’s now Sth Auckland.
#2 Ihumatao 1853 Despite Rev William Fairburn claiming ownership of all Sth Auckland including Ihumateao, Te Ahiwaru continued to farm the area. They were very successfully cash cropping to supply the Auckland Market. The Methodist Missionaries assisted with new farming techniques. Some of the garden walls (built by Maori gardeners) surrounding Moerangi (Otuataua) shown on this map are still present on the surviving rural land and specifically the land designated for the Fletcher Construction Housing development.
#3 Ihumatao 1854 March 18th The Colonial Government returns about 900 acres to Ngati Mahuta (the tribe of the Maori king) at Ihumateao.
#4 Ihumatao 1867 The entire area was consficated in 1863. By 1867 the surveyed blocks have been granted or sold to new settlers. See Blocks No.175 and 176 in the name of ‘Gavin Wallace.’ This 80 acre block is now Special Housing Area 62 and is known as ‘The Wallace Block.’ The stolen land was ‘granted’ to the grandfather of the present owner (Dec 2016) and has stayed in Wallace ownership since 1867. On December 13th 2016 this block of stolen land was purchased by Fletcher Residential Ltd for $19,000,000.
#5 Ihumatao 2014 to the present Current situation after the Environment Court decision in 2012 to move the Metropolitan Urban limit to include all remaining rural land not included in the reserve.
Links
The grass walking track takes you around the Puketāpapa cone (also known as Pukeiti), a small volcano which erupted around 20,000 years ago. Check out scoria rock and lava bombs from the eruption. Ōtuataua Puketāpapa Cone Path
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.
Settling Ihumātao, by David Williams | Jul 12, 2020 “What is pragmatic and what might be principled does change from one era to another.”
The Waikato war, historic reason for the eviction of Ihumatao in 1863
Ihumātao was the place where the first Māori King, Chief Te Wherowhero (circa 1770-1860), was elected as King Pōtatau in June 1857. The Maori king was of the Tainui hapu (sub-tribe) Ngati Mahuta, His son Tawhiao was the second Maori king. He lived there until the Waikato war broke out in 1863.
In 1863 Governor George Grey issued an ultimatum to the ‘Native Race’ living in the Manukau District and Waikato Frontier to either submit to the imposed authority of Queen Victoria and hand over weaponry or vacate their lands.
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.”
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