Maungatautiri Ecological Island, Waikato

Walk #169, 23rd May 2025

Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari is an ancient volcano in the central Waikato. It’s the largest predator-fenced eco-sanctuary in the world.

The mountain has been recognised as a reserve since 1912. In 2001, the community came together to form the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) with the goal to restore and protect Maungatautari’s ecosystem. In 2002, the fence build got under way and by 2004 all mammals were eradicated from the initial two enclosures. The mountain is now completely enclosed by a pest-proof fence.

Our walk was through the Northern enclosure. We didn’t hear any birds, they are spread out over 3400 hectares and the forest is very old and tall. The only native bird we did see was a Kingfisher (Kotare) sitting on a fence post on our way in.

You have to park your car at the Maungatautiri Marae and walk for about 45 minutes to get to the actual walk, and the last part is steep. There’s a rope to help you up if needed. The walk inside the enclosure is about 35 minutes. So budget about two hours of time for the walk including the ‘there and back.’

History

The area has a long history of settlement. The first inhabitants, the indigenous Ngāti Kahupungapunga people, were annihilated by the Maori Raukawa tribe before the 16th century. The Tainui tribes Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Hauā and Ngāti Korokī still own lands on the slopes.

Walk: Waikato 10

Links

Te Ara, Story: Waikato places

Sanctuary Mountain, Maungatautiri

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“We are the largest predator-fenced eco-sanctuary in the world. A little fun fact: We are as big as Uluru in Australia and 10 times the size of Central Park [in New York],” SMM general manager Helen Hughes said.

Over the years, Maungatautari has become a sanctuary for endangered birds, native wildlife and plants.

Last year, SMM wrote history when it became home to a kākāpō population. It was the first time, kākāpō had been living on the mainland in 40 years.” Source: Waikato Herald, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari on the brink of closure due to financial struggle

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Kingfisher / Kotare

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Ngati Kahupungapunga | Some 400 years ago, they occupied all of the valley of the Waikato from Huntly to Taupo and Rotorua. They had many settlements along the Waikato River, including Karapiro.

Related walks:

Lake Okataina, Rotorua Lakes District

Mount Pohaturoa, Atiamuri

Hakarimata Reserve, Huntly

Waikanae River Estuary and Beach

Walk #168, 19th May 2025

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 Muaūpoko iwi (tribal groups).

Source: Wikipedia:

Te Rauparaha

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.

Source: Te Ara

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

Links

We stopped at the Southward Car Museum on the road to the Waikanae Estuary walk. It’s well worth a visit.

Waikanae Link Track

Kotuku, White heron

White heron making most of Waikanae Beach before departure

Thomas (goose)

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.

Opoutere Beach, Coromandel

Walk #159, 30th January 2025

This is an important bird sanctuary, having both a wetland and an undeveloped beach, one of the few in the Coromandel. The beach is stunning and Dotterills nest on the dunes. Rare and threatened birds live in the wetland, like the Banded Rail and Fernbird. We saw a Fernbird at the start of our walk through the pines but I didn’t get to film it.

Walk: Coromandel 21

Te Arai Regional Park

Walk 1: Te Arai Regional Park, 18 March 2018

Te Arai Beach, looking south

Click here for the video

A rocky promontory separates two deserted beaches. The walk along the ridge above the car park gives stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and coastline stretching all the way from Northland to Rodney.

Walk: Northland 33

Te Arai means “a veil” or “shelter.”

History: This is from an account of a speech by Eru Maihi, a Ngati-Whatua chief in 1909: “Tahuhu, chief of the Moekakara canoe, landed near there and set up a temporary shelter (arai). He there also set up this rongo stone found there as an altar to safeguard his folk against the witchcraft of the people of Kupe and Toi, who already lived thereabouts.”

The rongo stone from Te Arai

This stone originally came from Te Arai

The stone is now at Cornwall Park, Auckland. It is called “Te Toka-tu-whenua,” The stone which has travelled around.

The pa it came from is Te Arai o Tahuhu Pa: This pa or hillfort protected the Maori coastal settlements north and south of here. This area was settled by Manaia and his Polynesian tribe who arrived in the Moekaraka Waka or ocean going migration canoe which landed near present day Goat Island south of the pa. The pa is named after Tahuhu who was Manaia’s son. Their descendents are the Ngati Manuhiri hapu (sub tribe) of the Ngatiwai tribe. Te Arai o Tahuhu Pa is reached by footpath over Te Arai Regional reserve from the car park areas to the north and south of the reserve. It is located on the high ground above the coast and the defensive ditches and embankments can be seen to the northern side where pine trees have been planted and to the eastern side where a long ditch defends that approach.

The Te Arai area was originally cleared of the forest by the Maori, then planted in pines in the 1930’s.

Te Uri o Hau is a Northland hapu of Ngati Whatua whose area of interest is located in the Northern Kaipara region. Te Uri o Hau exercises kaitiakitanga for the purposes of the Resource Management Act 1991. The iwi had aquired the land for development as part of a Treaty settlement in 2000.

This is the same iwi historically recorded as offering up blocks of land for sale to the Government, with the old men of the tribe pointing out the boundaries to be defined. The Government Surveyor of the Kaipara district wrote about it in the Journal of the Polynesian Society (1896).

The Fairy tern, Tara-iti

Te Arai is a vital nesting ground for our shorebirds. It’s also the home of the Katipo spider and the critically endangered Fairy Tern.

Despite this, a billionaire’s golf course was built at the northern end of Te Arai. The Fairy Terns were severely affected by decisions made by the course’s developer, Te Arai North Ltd – which was also behind an adjacent housing development.

The company’s investors include the club’s American billionaire owner, Ric Kayne, high-profile property developer John Darby, of Queenstown, and hapu Te Uri o Hau.

Te Arai North Ltd entered a regional park in 2016 with diggers and loads of boulders, building an illegal “ford” over Te Ārai Stream on public land that is destined to become a regional park. Opponents, who maintained the structure in the stream was illegal, called it a “weir” or “dam”, and argued it was disrupting the life cycle of fish. Those fish are crucial to the survival of the fairy tern, which are known to feed and flock at the Te Ārai Stream mouth.

Despite grave fears held by fairy tern advocates, “Green” MP Eugenie Sage – the Conservation and Land Information Minister, refused to step in. Source: David Williams

It took court action and five years to get this illegal dam removed. Obviously, money talks.

Ric Kayne owns the luxury Tara Iti Golf Club where former PM John Key took former US President Barack Obama for a round of golf in 2018.

Source: Illegal dam in regional park causes court confusion

Ironically, the Golf Club was named after the Fairy tern, whose Maori name is Tara-iti.

So much for the Resource Act and exercising kaitiakitanga.

Kaitiakitanga means guardianship, protection, preservation or sheltering. It is a way of managing the environment, based on the traditional Māori world view.

Who are guardians for tara iti, the fairy tern? Only a small group of people, many of them volunteers, stand between it and oblivion. I hope the birds can come back from the brink. There are only forty left.

Should overseas investors be allowed to buy New Zealand land?

John Key, Te Arai foreign ownership row