Walk #171, 10th September 2025

Jubilee Park, known locally as Claudelands Bush, is a tiny bush remnant of what was a 200-hectare forest, dominated by Kahikatea, Rimu and Matai. Development has seen the forest shrink over the years to its current size, with some of the remaining trees part of the original forest.

The park is also home to the endangered long tailed bat, the pekapeka, one of New Zealand’s only mammals.

Walk: Hamilton 17

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Long tailed bats: Andrew Styche, from the Department of Conservation (DOC), thinks bats have mostly survived in Hamilton thanks to tiny islands of remnant bush within the city limits.

“There’s not much original vegetation left around here so it is amazing they’ve survived,” Andrew says.

Urban bats: Long-tailed bats thriving in Hamilton

History

From the signboard, the land was originally a renowned native bird forest hunting area. The first inhabitants of the area were the Mokohape, a sub-tribe of an extensive tribal group known as Nga Iwi (the people). They were replaced by Tainui people from Mokau and Kawhia.

In the 1800s battles were fought against Te Rauparaha from the west, Ngapuhe from the north and then the British in the Waikato land wars of the 1860s.

With European settlement, Francis Claude subdivided the land in 1870 and the suburb became known as Claudelands.

The Mokohape

Mokohape refers to a figure depicted on carved pou (posts) outside a casino in Hamilton, New Zealand, which represents a tribe of the Nga Iwi people who once lived on the Waikato River before being conquered by Ngaati Wairere, who occupied the land from since the mid to late 16th century.

The pou features a carved face and a lizard, symbolizing the Mokohape people’s struggle for survival and eventual displacement, an event captured by the proverb,“People may disappear but the land remains.” Source: Google AI

The ancient name of the Waikato River

The ancient name of the Waikato river was ‘Te Awanui O Taikehu,’ meaning the big river of Taikehu.

I wonder if it’s the same Taikehu who was the chief of a Taranaki tribe living at Patea Heads when the Aotea canoe arrived? The Patea River was also named ‘Te Awa nui a Taikehu.’ According to Tainui tradition Taikeu was a a tohunga of the Tainui waka. There are a few placenames associated with this name; the full name of Motutapu Island – the island east of Auckland is ‘Motutapu-o-Taikehu,‘ the sacred island of Taikehu. There’s also a lake Taikehu in the Bay of Plenty between Whakatane and Kawerau.