Walk #181, 20th December 2025
Walk: Bay of Plenty 7
We did part of the 9km long estuary walkway, from McCardle Reserve to the Esplanade Reserve. It’s a flat, easy walk but stick to the left and watch out for cyclists.
History
The area forms part of my childhood memories from when I stayed with my mother’s family in Tauranga in the 1960s and early to mid 1970s. The area has changed quite a lot since then.
They lived in a large house on the hill at 31 Chapel Street which overlooked the estuary. It was situated next to the Mission House, which in those days ran a farm and had milking cows and animals which were kept on what is now the Domain.
My grandfather owned two boats, which I don’t remember because it was before my time. He built a small jetty just below the Domain where the boat was moored.
My mother is in black togs seated next to my grandfather who is standing in the water. My great-Grandfather is the one wearing a hat at the other end of the boat.
Pre-european history
The earliest people known to have lived in the Tauranga area are the Purukupenga, whose name alone survives, and the Ngamarama, who inhabited all the land from the sea to the Kaimai ranges.
So numerous were these people that when the Tainui canoe passed through the Tauranga harbour, she made only a brief stay.
An anchor stone was found on the foreshore directly below the old Otumoetai Pa. The pa originally belonged to the Ngamarama people. They were replaced by Ngati Ranginui and then later by Ngaiterangi. The latter were in control of the Tauranga district when the missionaries and traders arrived in the early 19th century. As the largest pa in the district it was referred to by missionaries as “the capital of Tauranga.”
Source: Tauranga Heritage Collection
NZShortWalks 