The Seasider Trip

Seasider Commentary with thanks to Takata Whenua

Otepoti - A reference to a waka landing places in the upper harbour where Kai Tahu from the kaika or settlements near the entrance to Otago harbour landed there waka during the 1840’s where coming to sell produce to the early pakeha settlers in the fledgling town of Dunedin.  It’s hard to imagine now what the foreshore looked like in those days due to significant harbour reclamation that has occurred over the last 150 years.

Waters of Leith – Owheo – the place of Wheo/Whio indicates to us that the native blue duck, now threatened and rare were once associated with this stream.

Mt Cargill – Kapuka tau mahaka – this was a place where birds were hunted and was the favoured hunting ground of Poho, an early Kai Tahu ancestor who lived on the banks of the Owheo/Water of Leith.

Otago Habour – Te Tai o Rapuwai – the tides of Rapuwai refers to the Rapuwai tribe, and even early migrant group who were said to have been a numerous people on Otago Peninsula.  The name Rapuwai means to beat water; a reference to the swimming style adopted by those people.

Otakou marae – consisting of a centennial church, wharenui and other buildings, the marae complex is beautifully situated on a knoll with a commanding view of the harbour entrance and environs.  It is visible directly across from Port Chalmers and those with sharp eyes will note it’s sacred ochre or red colour.

Taiaroa Head/Pukekura – where the only mainland Southern Royal albatross colony now exists, it was the site of the famous defended pa site situated on the hill and which dominated the entrance to Otago harbour.  A large population of Maori were domiciled in kaika or village settlements occupying many of the bays inward of the harbour entrance.

The Treaty of Waitangi – Her Majesty’s Ship HMS Herald reached Otago Heads on the 13th June 1840 in “adverse winds” following signings by Kai Tahu rakatira at Ruapuke Island in Fouveaux Strait and Akaroa in Canterbury.  Crown officials Bunbury and Stewart went ashore at Otakou and secured the names of Karetai and Korako on the Treaty document.

Koputai (Port Chalmers) – a waka landing place nestled between the Port and Carey’s Bay on the site now occupied by Sims Engineering means “hide tide or filled up by the sea.”  It is said to refer to an occasion when a war party left their canoe, as they thought, high and dry at a cave at Boiler Point toward Carey’s Bay.  To their dismay the waka was carried away by the high tide.

Koputai was also the place where Kai Tahu chiefs gathered in 1844 to consider the sale of the Otakou block of 400,000 acres stretching from the harbour entrance’s northern side roughly to the Blue Mountains in West Otago and to Ka Tokata/the Nuggets on the South Otago coast.

Karitane – a picturesque seaside destination with a population of 400 has witnessed many events since the historical siege and battles between the Kai Tahu chiefs Te Wera and Taoka.  In 1837 Johnny Jones was granted the right by Kai Tahu chiefs to establish a shore whaling station on the Eastern side of the peninsula near the entrance to the Waikouaiti River.  The whaling station attracted a rough and tumble assortment of men who during the lengthy periods between chasing whales, engaged in drinking lots of rum.

James Watkin, a Wesleyan missionary arrived in Waikouaiti Bay from Sydney on the Regia at the invitation of Johnny Jones, the entrepreneurial whaler, farmer and businessman keen to provide a minister for his developing farming and whaling settlement.  Watkin declined an offer of a house on Jones’ estate and sought to quickly establish himself and his family amongst the resident Maori population at Karitane.  He established a mission station there and brought Christianity to the Southern Kai Tahu communities from Moeraki to Otakou.

Around the end of the 19th century Sir Truby King established his home Kingsgate which exists to this day on the Huriawa peninsula above the fishermans wharf at Karitane.  During the early period of the 20th century he formulated the principles of childcare which he championed which became the foundation principles of the Plunket movement and Karitane hospital care.

The Waikouaiti Native Reserve of around 300 acres was set aside following the 1848 Kemp Sale purchase of 3 million acres of land by the Crown agents from Kai Tahu stemming from Kaiapoi in North Canterbury to Heyward Point near the entrance to Otago harbour.  This sale represented the largest of any of the South Island land purchases between Kai Tahu and the Crown.

The meagerness of reserves set aside for Kai Tahu by the colonial government which was a condition of the original 1848 sale agreement was at the heart of the land grievances which Kai Tahu pursued with the Crown spanning 5 generations.  These historical grievances were finally settled in 1998 with the passing of legislation giving effect to a historic Deed of Settlement signed between Kai Tahu and the National government of Jim Bolger.

Puketapu Hill – the conical hill above Palmerston on which the monument now stands was named after a women who was a survivor of an ocean going waka unua/double hulled vessel name Araiteuru which was wrecked at Matakaea/Shag Point near the mouth of the Waihemo River here in East Otago.  Many other prominent hills of this area from near Milton in the South to the Waitaki River in the North Otago take their names from persons said to have been on this waka.