Walk #6, 23rd April 2025
There are three main sounds in the Marlborough Sounds, Queen Charlotte Sound, Pelorus Sound and Kenepuru Sound. This walk leads to viewpoints across Pelorus Sound to Havelock and down another sound, Mahou Sound.
The walk is on the winding road between the towns of Havelock and Picton.
Walk: Havelock 14
The Waitaha in Pelorus Sound
There is a place named Waitaha over the stream from Bythell’s Bay, between Ngakuta Bay where we stayed, and Momorangi Bay.
Waitaha established communities across Nelson–Marlborough and are believed to have been the first to quarry the argillite (sedimentary rock) in the eastern ranges of Nelson. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
I had read there was a large pa at Pelorus Sound.
The following is from the book “The Art Workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand, page 126:
“Several interesting papers have been written describing ancient earthworks in the northern part of the South Island of New Zealand, and a large number of pits, terraces, and traces of ancient
cultivations covering large areas have been discovered. These earthworks do not, however, seem to have been for defensive purposes like those forming the citadels of the Northern tribes.
Wakefield mentions seeing the remains of a large pa covering 10 or 15 acres near where the
“Pelorus” anchored in a bay on the east side of the Sound, now known as Pelorus Sound.”
Wakefield, ” Adventures in N.Z.,” p. 123.
J.Rutland, ” Traces of Ancient Human Occupation in the Pelorus District,” Journ. Pol. Soc, Vol. iii.,
and also ” On the Ancient Pit Dwellings of the Pelorus District,” Journ. Pol. Soc, Vol. vi., p. 77.
Wakefield, “Adventures in N.Z., 1845,” p. 56
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