Walk 50, 1st November 2020
Omokoroa is a peninsula that peninsula which stretches from SH2 into the Tauranga Harbour. It is translated as the ‘place of the long lizard.’
The reserve has some fine old trees planted by the Rev Joseph Gellibrand who came from Tasmania with his wife Selina and settled here. The house that occupied the site burned down years ago. Their adopted daughter Elizabeth married Captain Arthur Crapp and in 1975 the Crapp family gifted the land to the crown for a reserve.
Not much is known about the pa on the headland. The iwi that occupied the area were the Pirirakau hapu of Ngati Ranginui. The great Ngati Haua fighting chief Te Waharoa and his wife moved to Omokoroa in their old age and died here in 1838.
The pa has a landward defensive ditch and some old karaka trees which were used for food.
Walk: Bay of Plenty 5
Links
Omokoroa Beach
Te Waharoa : When CMS missionaries made exploratory journeys in the Thames, Tauranga and Rotorua districts between 1831 and 1833, Te Waharoa expressed to them his desire to have an Anglican missionary resident at Matamata. In early 1834 a mission station was established at Puriri, near the mouth of the Waihou River.
This chief was a shrewd man. In April 1835 A. N. Brown arrived to take up residence at Matamata, and was joined by J. A. Wilson in July. The two missionaries negotiated with Te Waharoa for a mission site outside Matamata pā. Wilson recorded in his journal: ‘The old chief seemed unsatisfied with the offered payment, which consisted of blankets, shirts, spades, iron pots, axes, adzes, etc., and he made some shrewd remarks on the durability of the land contrasted with that of the payment. “These,” he said, “will soon be broken, worn out, and gone, but the ground will endure forever to supply our children and theirs.” ‘
Te Waharoa was quick to perceive the potential use of the literacy skills the missionaries taught, as a means of diplomacy to preserve the peace with Ngāti Maru. His son and A. N. Brown wrote letters on his behalf, and on 19 September 1835 a party of Ngāti Maru from the Thames district was welcomed to Matamata at a peacemaking feast.
Recording the death of Te Waharoa in his journal, missionary A.N. Brown remarked: ‘Waharoa was a remarkable character, fierce, bloody, cruel, vindictive, cunning, brave, and yet, from whatever motive, the friend of the Mission.’
Te Waharoa was a great-uncle of Tarore, a little girl who had been educated by the missionaries. Her death led to the Maori adopting Christianity. Tarore’s story begins where her life ended at Wairere Falls.
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