Walk #179, 19th November 2025
This walk is through an impressive limestone gorge that passes underneath a 17 m high natural arch. There are two arches, one on top of the other.
There are supposed to be giant oyster shell fossils beyond the bridges but we couldn’t find them.
The walk is on the scenic Te Henga road, and further up the road going west is Piripiri Cave and Marokopa Falls.
Walk: Waikato / King Country 29
Links
Walk #178, 19th November 2025
This beautiful 35 m high waterfall is on the Te Anga Road in the Waitomo region. Also on the same scenic road, going toward Waitomo, is the Piripiri cave and the Mangapohe Natural Bridge.
Walk: Waikato / King Country 30
Links
Walk #176, 17th November 2025
This old pa site at Aotea Harbour was right at the doorstep of the place where we stayed for two nights. The harbour in front of the pa was named after the Aotea canoe which is said to have arrived around 1300.
The Tainui canoe arrived about 50 years later and the people from that canoe settled at nearby Kawhia, just down the coast. The Tainui and Aotea tribes lived in harmony until the 1600s when battles started because the Kawhia people were expanding.
The two tribes united when their rohe (area) came under attack around 1800 from inland Tainui. The defeated people fled south to take refuge in pa still controlled by Te Rauparaha, trekking to Taranaki and then on to Horowhenua.
For a long time after their defeat this pa site was left empty, until the defeat of Waikato by Ngapuhi at Matakitahi in 1826 when survivors from that conflict settled here.
The book said it was an easy climb to the top – no it wasn’t. The long grass came half way up my body and it was impossible walking through it. Plus there was some dead gorse in the midst of the vegetation. I did not want to disappear into an old kumera pit so I called it a day and came back down.
The pa site is not a “wahi tapu,” a sacred locality like part of the foreshore – but when I gained the ridge I felt I shouldn’t be up there.
Walk: 26 Waikato and King Country
Walk #175, 17th November 2025
Mangaokewa means “the stones of Kewa.” This walk is about 3kms from the town of Te Kuiti. It follows the Mangaokewa River.
There’s a small waterfall about 20 minutes along the track. Beyond that is an old road going in the direction of Te Kuiti. The area has a ghost townish feel which I remarked about on the video. I later learned it was the original site of Te Kuiti before the town moved north.
Walk: King Country Walk 31
Links
Papers Past: Old Te Kuiti (By J.W.E)
Te Kooti
Te Kooti was invited to Te Kūiti, the residence of the Māori King – but only if he came in peace. He responded defiantly that he was coming to ‘assume himself the supreme authority which he coming direct from God was entitled to’. Accompanied by Horonuku and Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and his core group of around 60 whakarau, Te Kooti arrived at Te Kūiti on 10 July 1869. Rewi Maniapoto greeted Te Kooti as a kinsman (they were related through Te Kooti’s father) and Te Kooti, for his part, appeared more conciliatory. He had come not to depose Tāwhiao but ‘to rouse up the Waikato to take up arms’. A feast had been prepared, but at this point Te Kooti declared that ‘he should consider himself the host (tangata whenua) and that the Waikato were his visitors’. His men loaded their weapons and fired over the heads of the bewildered Ngāti Maniapoto.
From 1873 to 1883 Te Kooti lived at Te Kūiti. Here he evolved the rituals of his church. In 1883 Te Kooti was formally pardoned, at Rewi Maniapoto’s insistence. Te Kooti left Te Kūiti and in April moved to Ōtewā, where he founded his religious community.
Walk #173, 18th October 2025
Queen Elizabeth park is on the Kapiiti Coast between Raumati Beach and Paekakariki. We parked at the Wellington Tramways Museum at MacKays crossing and took a historic tram to the start of the walk at Whareroa Beach. It was a different and fun way of starting the walk. The tram runs on the weekend.
The central car park at Whareroa Beach is the start point for two loop tracks, one north to Raumati Beach and the other south to Paekakariki. Both have seaward tracks that follow the dunes. We kept to the inland track which is more sheltered from the westerly wind.
Walk: Kapiti 36
Links
History
The name Paraparaumu is from an early foray of the Musket Wars.
RNZ Nau Mai Town – Paraparaumu
The greater Wellington Regional Council gives the history of Queen Elizabeth Park here:
Queen Elizabeth Park Resource Statement
I have some family links with the area from the 1800’s.
History of the Howell family (my paternal Grandmother’s relatives)
From the 1850s, several Pakeha families came into the Whareroa/Paekakariki area to
farm the land which included areas currently within the Queen Elizabeth Park. From 1860, John Telford established a sheep farm know as ‘Wharemako’ and this extended around and south of current-day Raumati and presumably included the northern part of the park
In August 1879, William Bentinck Howell leased much of this land off Telford for £100 per annum for 10 years. The 1,335-acre run carried 800 sheep. In 1884 Howell agreed to buy another 600 acres or so, on deferred payment, with the result that he then held an approximately 2,000 acre farm that extended all the way down to Whareroa Stream. Howell continued leasing and acquired a right of purchase of the whole farm by the late 1880s. He began draining the swamps in between the sandhills and establishing pasture.
Howell Road, Paraparaumu Beach
Named after the Howell family, early settlers. William Bentinck Howell (named after the ship he was born on the way to NZ) settled in Wharemaku, a homestead next to the Wharemauku stream in 1879. This house was demolished in about 1949. The site is now 41 Alexander Road.
Source: Kapiti Historical Society – Street names and early dwellings Project
Walk #172, 21st September 2025
This seaside reserve, half an hour from Auckland includes a kilometre-long sandy beach and a coastal marine reserve. Green hillsides provide a buffer from the neighbouring suburbs and pohutukawas flank the beach along the length of the bay.
The parkland continues north of the beach for about two kilometres before turning inland along the Okura river.
Vaughan homestead, the original farm homestead has been restored and is open for visitors.
Walk: Auckland 4
Related walk: Okura Bush and Dacre Cottage
Links
Walk 6th Sept 2011
While it’s winter time I’m posting some walks we did years ago. The walks on this page were at Russell / Kororareka in the Bay of Islands. We’ve been to Russell twice, the first time was in early spring of 2011 when we took the ferry across from Paihia. The second visit was in the late winter of 2015, and this time I walked from Okiato near the car ferry at Opua. Despite the lawlessness of the area, for a short time in 1845 Okiato was the site of NZ’s first capital.
Russell began life as Kororareka, and it was a wild town full of whalers, grog shops, brothels and a Maori Pa belonging to Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke.
Tensions grew between the Maori and the British over the imposition of duties and tarrifs. Inspired by talk of revolution by the Americans, in 1844 Hone hacked down a flag pole he’d formerly given the British. When it was replaced in 1845 he cut it down again and actually flew the US flag from his waka (canoe).
To provide further context to the issue, according to the 19th century Pakeha Maori F.E. Maning (see links below) the Maoris associated the British flag with the lack of trade and high-prices. When the duties and tarrifs came off after the first flagpole was chopped down, it resulted in goods becoming affordable again. In the Maori mind, stopping the British flag from flying solved the problem.
The fourth time the flagpole was erected in 1845, the lower portion was clad in iron, but that did not stop Hone from cutting it down yet again – and to follow it up he sacked the town, burning down many buildings including the Duke of Marlborough Hotel.
The Duke of Marlborough Hotel was quickly rebuilt after being burned down and the establishment has been running ever since. We had lunch in the historic dining room overlooking the waterfront during our week’s stay at Okiato in 2015.
Christ Church is the oldest surviving church in NZ. It actually has bullet holes from the Battle of Kororareka. Hone Heke told his warriors to leave the church standing but its old timbers still bear the scars from the battle. It has a historic graveyard that we walked through. Among the graves in the churchyard are those of Tamati Waka Nene (a Ngapuhi chief largely responsible for the Maori’s acceptance of the Treaty of Waitangi and who fought for the settlers against Hone Heke), members of the Clendon family (James R Clendon was the first honorary United States Consul), and the men from the HMS Hazard who fell in the battle.
We went to a church service on the Sunday we were there in the winter of 2015. That was special. There was no minister, the parishioners kept the church running by themselves. After qualifiying for a degree in theology from an institution in Melbourne they all took turns at preaching. The hymns were played by MP3 through a sound system. We were impressed at their commitment and quiet ‘can do’ attitude. I met a great-granddaughter of Hone Heke at that church, she was a very elegant and well spoken woman.
On our first trip to Russell in 2011 we visited Flagstaff Hill. We strolled along the historic waterfront and then climbed the path through regenerating bush to the hill overlooking the town. A new flagstaff was erected in 1857 as an act of reconciliation by those involved in cutting down the old flagpole and it still stands today.
Back then on our first visit we were more interested in the panoramic views of Russell, Paihia, Waitangi and the islands of the Bay. Our interest in NZ history came from later walks.
Walk 4th August 2015
This was the walk from Okiato to Russell / Kororareka I did in 2015. The exercise was ruined after eating and drinking decadent chocolate at the Newport Chocolate shop in Russell. The chocolate was worth every calorie!
Orongo Bay on the walk impressed me the most, with its mangrove boardwalk and Mt Tikitikioure, a small mount rising 180m above the bay. The hill once belonged to a local chief named Ure and it meant ‘Ure’s top-knot. The Maori people there used a blue pigment found deep in the mountain for painting their faces. It turned out be be manganese which was mined until 1887.
Walk: Northland 12
Walks relating to Hone Heke:
Hone Heke Memorial Park, Kaikohe Hill
Links
Doc – Flagstaff Hill Track, Russell
Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times by Frederick Edward Maning. This book written by Maning, a Pakeha Maori, gives an insight into the time surrounding the war against Hone Heke in 1845. After the battle the maori were plundering the town “because they believed the fight was over, and the people were only quietly plundering the town which had been left for them, and which they had given fair payment for.”
That custom was called ‘muru,’ to plunder, confiscate, take ritual compensation – an effective form of social control, restorative justice and redistribution of wealth among relatives. The process involved taking all the offending party’s goods. The party that had the muru performed on them did not respond by seeking utu.
“At last, all the town people and soldiers went on board the ships, and then the ship of war fired at the Maori people who were plundering in the town. The noise of the firing of the ship guns was very great, and some of Kawiti’s people were near being hit by the lumps of iron. This was not right, for the fight was over … so in revenge they burnt Kororareka, and there was nothing left but ashes ; and this was the beginning of the war.”
Walk 5th Dec 2010
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.
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.
J.T. Diamond writes,
“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
View from quarry over dunes to Korekore Pa
from collection J.T. Diamond
Links
Walk #170, 25th May 2025
The track to Orokawa Bay starts at the northern end of Waihi Beach. Orokawa Bay is a perfect, unspoilt beach overhung by ancient Pohutukawa trees. A side track leads up to the 28m high William Wright Falls (30 minutes return) which we didn’t have time for.
The coastal stretch from Orokawa Bay to Homunga Bay is worth doing but we didn’t have time for that either, it would have been four hours return. The walk there and back to Waihi Beach was about 90 minutes.
We could see the Bowentown Heads walk we did in December 2024 in the distance.
There are two old pa sites in the area. Neither pa is named nor is there any signage. The area was devastated by Ngapuhi raids in the Maori Musket Wars. By the time the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, few Maori remained.
Related walk:
Links
Walk #169, 23rd May 2025
Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari is an ancient volcano in the central Waikato. It’s the largest predator-fenced eco-sanctuary in the world.
The mountain has been recognised as a reserve since 1912. In 2001, the community came together to form the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) with the goal to restore and protect Maungatautari’s ecosystem. In 2002, the fence build got under way and by 2004 all mammals were eradicated from the initial two enclosures. The mountain is now completely enclosed by a pest-proof fence.
Our walk was through the Northern enclosure. We didn’t hear any birds, they are spread out over 3400 hectares and the forest is very old and tall. The only native bird we did see was a Kingfisher (Kotare) sitting on a fence post on our way in.
You have to park your car at the Maungatautiri Marae and walk for about 45 minutes to get to the actual walk, and the last part is steep. There’s a rope to help you up if needed. The walk inside the enclosure is about 35 minutes. So budget about two hours of time for the walk including the ‘there and back.’
History
The area has a long history of settlement. The first inhabitants, the indigenous Ngāti Kahupungapunga people, were annihilated by the Maori Raukawa tribe before the 16th century. The Tainui tribes Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Hauā and Ngāti Korokī still own lands on the slopes.
Walk: Waikato 10
Links
Sanctuary Mountain, Maungatautiri
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“We are the largest predator-fenced eco-sanctuary in the world. A little fun fact: We are as big as Uluru in Australia and 10 times the size of Central Park [in New York],” SMM general manager Helen Hughes said.
Over the years, Maungatautari has become a sanctuary for endangered birds, native wildlife and plants.
Last year, SMM wrote history when it became home to a kākāpō population. It was the first time, kākāpō had been living on the mainland in 40 years.” Source: Waikato Herald, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari on the brink of closure due to financial struggle
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Ngati Kahupungapunga | Some 400 years ago, they occupied all of the valley of the Waikato from Huntly to Taupo and Rotorua. They had many settlements along the Waikato River, including Karapiro.
Related walks:
NZShortWalks 