The Kahuterawa Valley is located near Palmerston North in the foot of the Tararua Ranges.
We walked the Sledge track in the Kahuterawa Valley with our friend who knows the area. He was very keen to go as far as we could.
Having now walked the track, if you’ve only got a couple of hours I recommend only going as far as the Arapuke Swing Bridge.
From the swing bridge it’s all uphill on a ridge with no views. That part of the track is called “the Elevation.” There are no helpful signs on this section, just a hand-painted sign in red saying “2.8.kms to B.B.”
We had no idea what that stood for, it could have been “Black Bridge,” but that was back the way we came! Further up we came to a fork, which could have been the Toe Toe Junction, leading to some platinum ore mines from the late 1800s and early 1900s. With no signage we didn’t know where or how far it was. We carried on uphill for another 15 minutes and met some people coming back from the platinum mines – which we didn’t have the time budget for, so we went back the way we came.
The track is semi-maintained. I give it three stars because of the lack of signage and bush bashing.
While it’s winter time I’m posting some walks we did years ago, this is one of them. It was a lovely summers day with a warm wind blowing when we crossed the coast to Muriwai from our place at Snells Beach. It was an easy walk and we were able to see the gannets up close.
There used to be two pa at Otakamiro Point where the gannets now are. There’s a seal colony at Oaia just off shore. The gannets began establishing nesting sites on Oaia, then in 1975 on they moved to Motutara Island, and from there they settled on Otakamiro Point, one of only two mainland nesting sites in NZ.
The white fronted terns occupied Motutara Island. Then came the gannets. The gannet invasion of Motutara Island caused the white fronted terns which formerly nested there to shift down to the small crevasses on the sheer cliffs.
To really top the walk off there was a sea cave on the beach. All in all it was a cracker day.
Walk: Auckland 11
History
The earliest known chief associated with the Motutara area was a renowned rangitira or chieftain known as Takamiro. He, like his famous contemporary Tiriwa, lived at a number of places between Motutara and Whatipu, although he generally occupied the headland that dominates Muriwai Regional Park. This landmark, and the pa which was constructed on it, are still referred to as ‘O-Takamiro’ or ‘the dwelling place of Takamiro.’
Both Tiriwa and Takamiro were Turehu leaders credited in tradition with great spiritual power, and with the ability to modify the landscape.
Korekore Panear Muriwai Beach
According to local tradition the area was subsequently settled by the ‘Tini o Maruiwi’ or the people of the Kahuitara canoe who migrated north from the Taranaki coastline. Some of this iwi settled on the coastline between the Manukau and Kaipara harbours where they intermarried with the Turehu people.
Ngati Te Kahupara, a sub tribe of both Te Kawerau a Maki and Ngati Whatua descent, lived at Korekore pa until the 1700s. The pa was abandoned before the coming of the European.
“The largest of the pa on the west coast is at Muriwai and is known as Korekore or Oneonenui and locally as Whare-kura. This pa has been fully described by Firth while Best also makes reference to it in his monograph on the Pa Maori.
This conspicuous headland pa jutting out into the sand dunes about 2½ miles to the north of Motutara was until 1938 one of the best preserved of pa sites. Its covering of pohutukawa and puriri trees has however been since removed and the whole area grassed. To prevent cattle and sheep being trapped, many of an extensive series of subterranean storage chambers have been blocked up, while the huge defensive earthwork 60 feet across and 27 feet deep has been partially infilled to provide tractor access to the western section of the pa.
The carvings on the side of the large storage pit situated on the ridge running south-west from the main pa are still in a good state of preservation, as are house sites and storage pits in this area in general. But much of interest on the main pa site has been obliterated. There was a kumera pit 28 x 21 x 7 foot deep.”
Source: Maori in the Waitakere Ranges, by J.T. Diamond, p 304-314/p1
Pillar, ancient Korekore pa siteA member of the Auckland Tramping Club exiting the mouth of a burial cave at Korekore Pa site with view down onto the dunes, beach and sea in the distance.View of dunes, Korekore Pa site and Muriwai Beach 1905, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections JTD-01E-01240
This track leads to a beautiful little waterfall in urban Mount Albert. Unfortunately the path is still damaged from the double-whammy of Cyclones Hale in January 2023 and Gabriel in February 2023. We walked with friends who knew the place. Even so there was a tricky creek crossing near a washed-out bridge.
Our walk started at Phyllis Reserve and ended at Unitec.
Disappointingly some of the signs are vandalized making it difficult to learn about this hidden treasure. What I can make out from the sign about the trees is this; they’re a mix of native and exotic. The older, exotic trees are treated as part of the heritage of the creek and are only removed when they die or become a danger to the public.
The oak trees date from the period of farming on the land above the bank and being deciduous allow sunshine through the winter months.
The land on the eastern side of the creek belonged to the Auckland Lunatic Asylum. In 1973, 10.4 hectares of the Asylum farm was designated as the site for a technical institute. In 1993 the old Asylum building was sold to Carrington Polytechnic which became Unitec. The Mason Clinic, a mental health facility, is further down the creek.
The reserve is a habitat for our native copper skinks which are endemic to the North Island.
Before the start of the Waterview Connection, 204 native copper skinks were relocated from seven sites along the path of the roadworks. Monitoring conducted since the relocation has shown a healthy population of copper skinks surviving here.
Mahi Whenua Sanctuary Gardens
Just above the reserve is a thriving community garden. The site is home to more than 400 species of plants. It has been gardened for well over 100 years by Maori, Carrington Mental Hospital and Unitec staff and students.
In 2018 the community garden was saved and integrated as a valuable community green space into the Wairaka Precinct development.
Walk: Auckland 27
Wairaka Spring
Unitec has a spring which is a waahi tapu, a historic site associated with Wairaka of the Mataatua canoe dated all the way back to 950 AD. Which is interesting given that most signs showing the arrival of Polynesians to NZ earlier than 1350 AD have disappeared.
The walk incorporates two coasts and a meeting of the oceans. It’s in the westernmost part of the North Island and northernmost part of New Zealand.
Cape Reinga is a very spiritual place for Maori who believe it’s the place where spirits depart for Reinga, the underworld. The legendary early Polynesian explorer Kupe named the cape “Te Rerenga Wairua” as the point from which his descendants would travel in spirit form back to Hawaiiki-A-Nui.
Here the two oceans meet and they can be different colours. When we last visited in 2011 the Tasman was a lighter green and the Pacific a sapphire blue. It depends how quiet the sea is.
The coast on either side of the Aupouri peninsula is spectacular and wild. An ancient and very tapu pohutukawa tree clings to the rugged point beyond the lighthouse.
Offshore are the Three Kings Islands which can be seen on the horizon depending on how clear it is. The islands were named by Abel Tasman who also named Cape Maria van Diemen.
Cape Maria van Diemen
Walk: Northland 1
Te Paki Sand Hills
This video is from a holiday in 2011. My old Sanyo digital camera did tragic video back then, hence our return to the area for a better video of the walk at Cape Reinga.
No visit to Cape Reinga is complete without a visit to the sand dunes. These massive dunes stretch from the Te Paki stream to Te Werahi Beach, in some places they reach as high as 150 metres.
Bring a board for tobogganing and jandals to wear back to your vehicle. It’s lots of fun but you will get sand everywhere.
Ngāti Kuri are descended from the original inhabitants, the founding peoples of the northernmost peninsula of Aotearoa, in Te Hiku o Te Ika. These peoples, known also as Te Iwi o Te Ngaki, were already occupying Te Hiku o Te Ika before the arrival of the many migratory waka from Polynesia. Their ancestor was Ruatamore.
Ngāti Kuri also trace their whakapapa to the Kurahaupo waka which first made landfall in Ngāti Kuri’s rohe at Rangitahua, the Kermadec Islands.
Tasman’s ships anchored off the islands on 5 January 1643, the eve of Epiphany or Three Kings Day, which commemorates the visit of the three wise men to the infant Jesus, 12 days after Christmas. Source: Te Ara
Isaac Gilsemans, who sailed with Abel Tasman, drew this picture of the Three Kings Islands. The human figures in the background apparently gave rise to a belief amongst Europeans that Māori were giants.
Tasman also noted that “Upon the highest mountain of the island they saw 35 persons, who were very tall, and had staves or clubs . . . When they walked they took very large strides.”
While we’ll never know who these tall people were, here’s a photo I took from my research at Auckland Museum in 2021. This ancient carving was found in 1946, hidden in a cave on Great Island.
The Three Kings vineTecomanthe speciosa may once have been common on the Three Kings. By the time of its discovery, goats that had been introduced to the islands had reduced the entire population to a single specimen on Great Island, making it one of the world’s most endangered plants. The remaining specimen grew on a cliff that was too steep for the goats to reach. The original specimen still grows in the wild, and has developed more vines through the natural process of layering in the years since its discovery. The vine has been propagated and is now growing in NZ gardens.
And there was a lone Kaikōmako Manawa Tāwhi tree found on Manawa Tāwhi / Three Kings Islands north of Cape Reinga in 1945, but it took more than 40 years for scientists to successfully increase the rare tree’s numbers.
“We picked up the legacy of our grandparents to actually breed them and we have a programme where we have got 140 of those now and we are about a month away from delivering those back to the island,” Waitai said.
The project has also helped restore Bartlett’s rata, a rare shrub located at Cape Reinga.
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