Tag: megalithic

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

Related post

Waipoua Forest, Northland

Mahia Peninsula Scenic Reserve

Walk #96, 5th January 2023

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 Tākitimu waka (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 bullaun bowls displayed in the above pictures are from New Zealand, except the one at the bottom right, which is in Samoa. Bullauns, like these, are found throughout New Zealand in both the North and South Islands. Source: http://www.celticnz.co.nz/SolarObservatoriesNZ/SolarObservatoriesPart13.html

The Takitimu Canoe

The History of the Ngati Kahungunu of Wairoa

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.

Kahungunu History

Takitimu

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.

Source:

The Yellow Brick Road – How Rocket Lab Success Was Built At The Expense of the Locals

Significant places