Otatara Pa, Taradale, Hawkes Bay

Walk #164, 21st Feb 2025

This ancient pa was a familiar sight in my childhood. We travelled past every other week, crossing the Tutaekuri River on our way to the Hawkes Bay Milk Co-op. I remember the pa being a bare hill with deep defensive scarps and a quarry at the bottom. The lower part was almost quarried away. The site became a reserve in 1972, the year after I left. The site looks different now with the trees and pallisading.

The Otatara Pa reserve encompasses two pa, the upper level is Hikurangi Pa, the lower one marked by the pallisades is Otatara Pa proper. The pallisades had been erected in 1990 by the Maoris at Waiohiki to make it look more like a pa from the 1800s, to provide “an interpretation of the defensive structure.” The Ngāti Paarau of Waiohiki Marae are now the site’s guardians.

Waiohiki Marae is just across the bridge over the Tutaekuri River. Otatara pa didn’t belong to that tribe as they were never able to take it, so their ancestors settled in Waiohiki Pa on the other side of the river instead.

A brief history of the area is on the boards as you enter Otatara Pa. The wave pattern on the entrance carving depicts the migration of groups to Otatara over a long period of time.

As a child I didn’t realise how how much land (33 hectares) the pa site covered. Now I’ve learned it was one of the largest and most significant archaeological landscapes in NZ. In keeping with today’s ‘right-think’, the timeline at the entrance only goes back to the 1500s with the descendants of Awanuiarangi, the eponymous ancestor of Te Ātiawa (see below).

Also mentioned on the timeline is “Te Tini” which would be the people of Toi. Toi (an explorer from around 1150 AD) is widely acknowledged as the principal ancestor of many North Island tribes.

There is more information on the board displaying these artifacts: “The people who lived in the pa were descendants of Awanuiarangi. They were known through the generations as Te Tini o Awa, Ngati Kouapari and Ngati Mamoe (or Whatumamoe). Ngati Ira also lived on this pa. Te Tini o Awa (descendants of Awanuiarangi) also lived at Heipipi Pa at Bayview.”

The Ngāti Māmoe were one of the original people groups on the Heretaunga Plains (see the links below) but they were driven south by the Ngati Kahungunu who are now the dominant tribe in Hawkes Bay.

Artifacts from the info board at the entrance

Number 2 and 3 of the above artifacts look pre-Maori. Ngati Mamoe from the info board were settled in the land before the explorer Kupe. (Note, there are two Kupes.) Before them were the Maruiwi.

Otatara Pa at Taradale and Heipipi Pa at Bayview, Napier were once on the shores of the Ahuriri lagoon until the land lifted after the Napier Earthquake in 1931. Our farm was once on the edge of this lagoon. The neighbouring farm was Park Island, so-called because it used to be an island, and beyond was the Napier Harbour Board Farm. The Harbour Board got the land from the sea after the Napier earthquake.

As well as being a historic site the views over Taradale and Hawkes Bay are just beautiful.

Walk: Hawkes Bay 31

Links

DOC, Otatara Pa Historic Reserve – A series of tribal groups (iwi) once occupied these sites:
Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Whatumāmoa, Rangitāne, and (most recently) Ngāti Kahungunu. All have distinct perspectives on events. Elders say that a chief named Koaupari built the original Ōtātara Pā.

NZ History, Otatara Pa Historic Reserve

(Related page: Maruiwi)

Ngati-ti-Koaupari were exterminated at Mohaka, Hawkes Bay. [See “the end of this people“ Journal Polynesian Society, Vol. XV., p. 25.]

Early Māori History of Napier

Tribal traditions, whakapapa and archaeological evidence all indicate many centuries of Māori occupation in Ahuriri (Napier), centrally located within the wider area of Te Matau-a-Māui (Hawke’s Bay). Te Matau-a-Māui translates to the ‘fish hook of Māui’ and is an allegorical reference to the legendary explorer and ancestor Māui who fished up Te Ika-a-Maui (the North Island).

Early Māori tribes in the region descended from Māui and down through Toi-kai-rākau, and included Ngāti Hotu, Ngāti Mahu and Whatumamoa. When Ngāti Kahungunu arrived in the region in the sixteenth century, Whatumamoa, Rangitāne, Ngāti Awa and elements of Ngāti Tara were living in Pētane, Te Whanganui-a-Orotū (the Napier Inner Harbour, also known as Ahuriri Harbour) and Waiohiki. These groups are all ancestors of the current hapū within Te Matau-a-Māui.

Ngāti Kahungunu became the dominant tribal group in the region through both warfare and strategic marriage though large numbers left the area in the 1820s due to armed raids from both the west and north, and most sought refuge at Māhia. They started ‘filtering back’ to Ahuriri-Heretaunga in the 1830s and 1840s with the Treaty of Waitangi providing the prospect of ‘being able to return to their ancestral lands in peace’.

Source: Drill Hall, 56 Coote Road and Breakwater Road, Bluff Hill, NAPIER

Ngati Awa

Te Awanuiarangi is recognised as the founding ancestor of Te Āti Awa. According to Te Āti Awa traditions, he was the product of a union between Rongoueroa and Tamarau, a spirit ancestor. Awanuiarangi is also an ancestor of Ngāti Awa in the Bay of Plenty. However, while Ngāti Awa trace their ancestry to the Mataatua canoe, some Te Āti Awa trace their origins to the Tokomaru canoe whilst others remember the connection to the Kaahui people or the people that walked here before the floods (?)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_%C4%80ti_Awa

Ngati Mamoe

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.

Source: Volume 28 1919 > Volume 28, No. 110 > The account of Kupe and Tainui, by George Graham, p 111-116

Kāti Māmoe (also spelled Ngāti Māmoe) were originally from the Heretaunga Plains of Hawke’s Bay. Early migration stories say the Ngāti Mamoe were forced out of their home in the Heretaunga, and took refuge in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) with the permission of Ngāi Tara‘s ancestor and namesake, Tara. Later after they had moved down to the South Island, they defeated Waitaha along the east coast of the South Island.

Source: Wikipedia

Here’s another pa built by the Ngati Mamoe after they migrated to the South Island: Karaka Point Walk, Picton, Marlborough Sounds

Taradale Pa

The pa is described in page 393 of The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand as “an ancient pa of great size, the earthworks covering many acres, and extending over three of four spurs of the hill.”

Section of a large pa at Taradale, Hawke’s Bay. The sketch section of the ditches and banks show the strength of the defensive works ; such was the extent of the pa that a very large number of men must have been required to repel a large attacking force. This pa is only one of many visible from this place. It is situated on a high spur above the river, and covers several acres.

https://archive.org/details/cu31924029890153/page/n173/mode/2up?q=Taradale

Heipipi Pa at Bayview, Napier is described in page 303 of The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand as, “A celebrated pa of the autochthonous people overlooking the outlet of the Petane Valley, near Napier.” Autochthonous means “native to the place where found; indigenous.” In 1896 it would have meant the pre-Maori people, Ngati Mamoe or Maruiwi.

Source: The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand

An article from 1904 in the Wairarapa Daily Times states Heipipi Pa was the home of the extinct Maruiwi tribe.

Source: Papers Past

Maruiwi

The Ngati Kahungunu then moved south into Hawke Bay, first overcoming the Maruiwi in the Heipipi Pa on a hill at today’s Bayview, and in the Otatara Pa above Taradale. Tawhao settled by the Ahuriri estuary (at Napier) and Taraia settled along the Tukituki (near Hastings). Full story

Source: folksong.org.nz

Ngati Hotu

According to T.M.R. (Boy) Tomoana, a Waipatu elder who was interviewed in 1971, the original inhabitants of the Otatara area were the Ngati Hotu and Ngati Apa tribes. The former tribe is now non-existent and the Ngati Apa is reduced to a very small number.

Source: DOC, ASSESSMENT OF HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE
OTATARA PA HISTORIC RESERVE JUNE 1997

Te Mata Peak, Hawkes Bay

Walk #162, 21st February 2025

Te Mata peak rises up from the rugged Te Mata Range to the right of Cape Kidnappers. There are sweeping view of Hawkes Bay in every direction. The cape, the range and the 399 metre high peak dominated the skyline of my childhood but I never visited Te Mata peak as a child.

September 2017

I finally got to visit the park on holiday in the spring of 2017, but we didn’t do a walk that time.

History of Te Mata Peak

John Chambers was a sheepfarmer who by 1863 owned 14,793 acres of land at Te Mata. As a memorial to their pioneer father, in 1927 Bernard and two of his brothers, John and Mason, gave the public of Hawke’s Bay a 242-acre reserve on the upper Havelock North hills, including Te Mata Peak.

Mason Chambers

Here’s some history of a Hawkes Bay family and a car. Mason Chambers owned a 1920 Arrol Johnson. Forty-five years later the car was a dilaphidated wreck carting apples in a Hastings orchard. My father took it from the orchard and restored it.

Here’s my family sitting on the Arrol in the 1960s, on a hill above Taradale, with Te Mata peak in the distance.

1960s, Dassler family and Arrol Johnson, Te Mata peak in background
1960s, Restoration
1960s, Denzil Dassler with restored Arrol Johnson
2018, Dassler sisters and daughter with our wedding car
Wedding of Denzil Dassler’s grand daugher, 7th April 2018

Walk: Hawkes Bay 32

Links

The park: “Gifted in perpetuity to the community in 1927 and managed by a small group of volunteer trustees, with appreciated help from local councils and the community, the 107.5 hectare Park is a recreational, historical and cultural treasure.”

Te Mata Peak, the Giant Among Us, Visit the Beauty

Te Mata Peak, Hawke’s Bay giant – Roadside Stories

The Craggy Range track controversy

The track: In 2017 a track costing $300,000 was cut up the eastern face of Te Mata peak by Craggy Range Winery, which iwi objected to, despite it being on privately owned land. The track was removed at the ratepayer’s expense.

The controversial track up Te Mata peak has been removed and is less visible now that it was when this image was taken. ANDRE CHUMKO / Stuff

Disagreement among Hawke’s Bay hapū has meant tangata whenua will not be part of the trust set up to administer a regional park on Te Mata peak as planned.

The trust was formed as a means of resolving a furore sparked by a track cut up the eastern face of Te Mata peak by Craggy Range Winery in late 2017.

The track split the Hawke’s Bay community. Some wanted it to stay; others questioned how the winery could be granted consent without public notification or consultation. It led to a major review by Hastings District Council into whether it should have been granted resource consent without informing local iwi.

Ultimately the council removed the limestone track at ratepayers’ cost. The zig-zag cut remains visible, but is less obvious as time goes on.

A key development in assuaging public concern was the offer by three local businessmen (Mike Wilding, Andy Lowe and Jonathan McHardy) to purchase the land containing the track to gift it to the public.

Ngāti Kahungunu iwi were then invited to be part of a trust (the Te Rongo Charitable Trust) formed as a means of resolving the furore sparked by the creation of the track.

Opinion split over Te Mata Peak track, alternative path under discussion

The iwi couldn’t agree among themselves about what they wanted out of the trust, so now they’re not part of it.

Disagreement means hapū and iwi will not be on trust to run Te Mata peak park

It doesn’t bode well. How can two walk together unless they are agreed?

Tairua: Paku Peak, Coromandel

Walk #157, 30th January 2025

Paku Peak offers fine views over Tairua, Pauanui, the Slipper and Shoe Islands and beyond to the Alderman Islands.

There’s a short rocky scramble near the top of the peak but nothing too hard. Shell middens lining the path show the site was heavily occupied in its time.

Walk: Coromandel 16

History of the area

The known history is it was a Ngati Hei stronghold, then it succumbed to Ngati Maru invaders in the 17th century, who occupied it until heavily armed Ngapuhi with muskets swept down the coast in the 1820s.

In European times Tairua began as a timber milling town where vast amounts of kauri and other native timber was shipped out from the small port on the Tairua River.

in 1964 the only known artifact linking these shores to Eastern Polynesia, a fish lure, was found in the sand dune behind Tairua Beach. It’s identical to examples from the Marquesas.

Here’s the picture I took at Auckland Museum.

Here’s information from a report commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal from 1996 for the claim Wai 406:

Wai 686, THE ISLANDS LYING BETWEEN SLIPPER ISLAND IN THE SOUTH-EAST, GREAT BARRIER ISLAND IN THE NORTH AND TIRITIRI-MATANGI·IN THE NORTH-WEST
Paul Monin

1.4 The pearl shell lure

“Archeology is a source of infomation on these first migrants. The pearl shell lure found at Tairua, which is identical to examples ..from the Marquesas, is impressive evidence of migration from Eastern Polynesia.”

1.3 The strategic location of the Gulf Coromandel Islands

The Gulf islands lay alongside surely the busiest waterways of pre-European Aotearoa, those connecting Northland with the Waitemata, the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty (and beyond to the East Cape). All canoe traffic between the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Plenty passed close by Great Barrier,Little Barrierand the Mercury and Aldermen’ Islands.

Meanwhile, all canoe traffic .. utilising the porgtges of the Tamaki River, which granted straightforward passage across the isthmus between the Waitemata and·Manukau Harbours and between northern Aotearoa and theWaikato River system, passed close by the inner Gulf islands: Waiheke, Ponui etc. Of this canoe ‘traffic, inevitably all was not friendly. Hence these islands were not places. where inhabitants could expect to be left undisturbed to enjoy long and unchallenged tenure. At times, they would have felt as vulnerable as.the occupants of a motor vehicle, caught stalled on the shoulder of a modem motorway. It was a location that was in no way conducive to a sense of security.

1.4 The pre – ‘waka’ Peoples

Another source of information on these first migrants are the very early traditional stories associated with the Hauraki Gulf, comprehensively compiled recently by Graeme Murdoch, the current Auckland Regional Council historian,.

Perhaps the first people to inhabit the inner Gulf islands were the Tutumaio, so named by Wiripo Potene of the Kawerau hapu of Ngati Kahu. They were displaced by later arrivals, the Turehu, who occupied Motutapu, Motuihe and the adjourning mainland where they were known as Maewao.

“The Maewao people travelled around the islands of the inner Hauraki Gulf between sunset and sunrise in their canoe ‘Te Rehu O te Tai’, gathering kai moana and such foods as seaweed of which they were particularly fond”, Murdoch elaborates. (perhaps these peoples were the Maruiwi, much referred to in local traditions.)

At about this time the Polynesian explorer Toi Te Huatahi visited the islands of the Hauraki Gulf naming them collectively, ‘Nga poito 0 te Kupenga 0 Toi Te Huatahl,’ or ‘the floats of the fishing net of Toi Te Huatahi’. He named Little Barrier, ‘Hauturu 0 Toi’; and the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour, ‘Te Whanganuio Toi’, or ‘the Great Harbour of Toi’.

Edwards Lookout, Kauaeranga Valley, Coromandel

Walk #155, 29th January 2025

The walk is located in the Coromandel Forest Park and Kauaeranga Valley, up the road from the Doc Kauaeranga Visitor Centre. You get a good view of the ranges and Kauaeranga Valley from the lookout.

The forest was silent, I only heard one bird. Doc is using poison instead of traps to control the pests.

Related walks:

Kauaeranga Model Dam

Kauaeranga Valley, Hoffmans Pool

Links

Edwards Lookout

Kauaeranga Visitor Centre

Tokotea / Lucas Lookout, Coromandel

Walk #151, 29th January 2025

The walk is at the summit of Kennedy Bay Rd, a narrow unsealed road 7 kms from Coromandel town. The site was used for marine surveillance during WW2. A short, steep track with steps leads to the lookout.

A stainless steel pedestal mounted plate gives the compass points and names of the hills and islands in the Firth of Thames and the Hauraki Gulf, known as ‘Te Moana nui ō Toi’, ‘the great sea of Toi’.

We used to see the hills of the Coromandel from our former residence, so some time was spent trying to figure out where Warkworth and Snells Beach lay in relation to the viewpoint.

Walk: Coromandel 1

Links

Tokatea Lookout Walk

Making tracks in Coromandel town

Bowentown Heads, Bay of Plenty

Walk #143, 10th December 2024

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.”

Source: Western Bay of Plenty District Libraries

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.

Source: Tauranga Local History

Athenree

Athenree Homestead Reserve on the road out is worth a visit.

Related walk:

Orokawa Bay, Waihi Beach

Maunganui Bluff

Walk #131, 4th May 2024

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.

Alex Nathan: Taputapuātea on Maunganui Bluff

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.

Waitapu Valley (Maunganui Bluff) NZ | astronomical observatory

Stone Cairns in the Waitapu Valley

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

Click to access 1-from-the-sea-we-came.pdf

Buried items dug up at Maunganui Bluff

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

Waipoua Forest, Northland

St Pauls Rock, Whangaroa, Northland

Walk #126 1st May 2024

We walked up an old volcanic plug above the village of Whangaroa. A chain is needed near the top and we had to forego that part because of a shoulder injury. As you can see the view over Whangaroa harbour was still good.

Walk: Northland 6

Links:

Giants at Whangaroa

Here’s an interesting article from 13th October 1934 where the bones of giant men were found in a large cave at Whangaroa.

Newspaper article

Hongi Hika invaded Whangaroa in 1827. If you want to learn more about Hongi Hika and the start of the Musket Wars, I recommend these videos by Kiwi Codger.

Clevedon Scenic Reserve

Walk #123, 28th April 2024

We climbed a lot of steps for a view that’s okay but not stunning. The lookout platform is small and the trees are obscuring parts of the vista. The quarry at the bottom is lovely.

The elevation was 702 feet.

Most of the forest was Taraire / broadleaf which produces purple berries the native birds love.

The highlight of the walk was meeting firemen practising for the Sky Tower climb. One of them was wearing his yellow firefighters gear. I know we all appreciate those guys.

The track was busy, it’s a popular walk.

Walk: Auckland 43

Cape Palliser Lighthouse

Walk #119, 26th March 2024

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.

Walk: Wairarapa 7

Links

Fur seals, crayfish and bulldozers: Off-the-beaten track in Cape Palliser

Cape Palliser

Cape Palliser 2017 by Drones Manawatu