Features

The Cape Kidnappers Gannet Reserve is managed by the Department of Conservation for the purpose of protecting the gannet nesting sites.

The 13 hectare reserve includes the Saddle and Black Reef gannet colonies. Both are closed to public access, however the Black Reef colony can be viewed from the beach.

The Plateau colony is the main place for viewing the nesting gannets where there are also good panoramic views from this elevated headland. This colony is located on private land. Visitors are asked to co-operate with the landowners by keeping to the defined track and not disturbing stock.

The Australian gannet

Australasian gannets at Cape
Kidnappers

The Australasian gannet (takapu) is one of three species of gannet which belong to the booby family. They are usually found in large colonies on offshore island around New Zealand and southern Australia and have been nesting at Cape Kidnappers since the 1870s.

Numbers have steadily increased to 6,500 pairs, which makes it the largest and most accessible mainland colony in the world.

The gannets average lifespan of between 25 to 40 years has a remarkable start. The 16 week old chicks, which have never been airborne before, take on a 2,800 kilometre Tasman Sea crossing. Two to three years later, the young birds return from Australia to undertake tentative mating. However, it is not until they are five years old that they nest in earnest, after which most spend their life around the coastal New Zealand seas.

History

The fish hook shape of the Hawke Bay coastline adds to the imaginative legend of Cape Kidnappers origin.

Maui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, a famous mythical hero, was fishing with his brothers, and decided to show them his supernatural powers.

He chanted his prayer, broke his nose and smeared the blood onto a magical jawbone. With it, he fished up the North Island or as the Maori name it, Te-Ika-a-Maui, the Fish of Maui. After Maui departed, his brothers attached the fish with their weapons, hacking it into pieces and helping to form the mountainous terrain of the North Island. The sacred jawbone used as the hook was left to form what is now known as Hawke Bay.

When Captain Cook visited the area in 1769, a group of Maori in canoes came out to the ship Endeavour to trade. They took aboard the canoes a Tahitian boy. Shots were fired at the retreating canoes resulting in some Maori being killed and the boy swimming back to the ship. Cook then named the area where this occurred as Cape Kidnappers.

Coastal conservation

The coast, cliffs and dunes of the Cape provide habitats for distinctive vegetation and wildlife. Some not so common birds that can be seen are the white fronted tern (tara), variable oyster catcher (torea pango) and reef heron (matuku-moana).

The offshore reefs are also rich in marine life including the unusual sand mason tube worms which construct sand tubes on the rocks.

Although the original coastal vegetation has been depleted, the Department of Conservation, helped by volunteers, is progressively restoring the natural vegetation in some fenced off areas by planting trees and shrubs and the native sedge - pingao.

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