Your first stop on the Pou Trail where you can learn about the Maori history and Te Paki Farm, climate, flora and fauna, and geology of the area.

Maori history of the Far North and Te Paki

The Far North peninsula is often known as Te Hiku o Te Ika, the 'tail of the fish' – from the Maori legend of Maui fishing up the North Island retold as Te Ika a Maui, the fish of Maui. The Far North region resembles the tail of a skate fish, with its head about Wellington and its fins on the east and west capes of the North Island.

Te Hiku o Te Ika peninsula is a place of deep spiritual and traditional significance to Maori people and to the tangata whenua in particular.

According to oral history, Te Ngaki, the original inhabitants of the Far North intermarried with those that arrived in the Kurahaupo. Pohurihanga married Maieke and they had four sons and a daughter Muriwhenua who lent her name to the whole region.

Early European explorers sighted the Far North coast in the 17th and 18th centuries; first Tasman in 1642 and later Cook and De Surville in 1769.

From the late 18th century until 1820 the visits of the whalers, missionaries, traders and convicts broadened the contact between Maori and European. It was during this early contact period that Maori warfare escalated in the Far North.

Battles continued to ravage the Far North for several decades culminating in the late 1820’s with the general exodus of both Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri. The area was made tapu and this state prevailed until c.1840.

The name Te Paki refers to the tupuna Tohe stopping near a local stream and being trapped by flooding during a storm until the storm cleared and he was able to cross, hence the name Te Paki means 'the clearing of the storm'.

Te Paki Farm history

The establishment of a mission station at Kaitaia in 1834 increased interaction between Maori and European. An area of 322.5 hectares was granted to Reverend Richard Taylor in 1844.

Yates family

Samuel Yates was the first major European landowner in the area. He acquired ownership of the Muriwhenua block in 1873 and eventually owned or controlled most of the land north of Te Kao. This was run as a successful farm and also produced quantities of kauri gum. By the late 19th century the population had increased to about 150 Maori and 200 Europeans most of whom were Austrian gum diggers.

In annual musters, cattle were herded from the reserves into one large group to  be driven down Ninety Mile Beach to the Moerewa Freezing Works.

Cattle grew fatter faster in the warmer conditions of the Far North. They matured earlier than other places in the North and could be taken to market earlier to be sold.

Keene family

After the death of Samuel Yates in 1900, and the passing of his wife in 1910, Richard Keene, a Wellington business man bought Te Paki station. At first, the station was farmed under a manager and later by one of Richard Keene's seven sons, Leonard and his wife Marion. A new homestead was built at Te Paki of kauri from Totara North.

Tung oil venture

In the early 1930's, the Tung Oil Company purchased the station. Tung oil was obtained from the nuts of the tung oil tree and valued for its quality in the manufacture of paint. The company planted tung oil trees in a number of areas, but the venture failed as the harsh environment was not suitable.

Several years later, the Keene family took ownership of the station again. The more traditional regime of grassland farming has been the main land use of Te Paki since. 

The government eventually bought the station in 1966.

Te Paki Recreation Reserve

Te Paki Recreation Reserve, includes Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga), and most of the accessible recreational beaches are within this reserve. Some of the area is farmed with the balance being dunelands, wetlands, rocky coastlines and hills covered in shrublands and remnant pockets of forest.

The northern extremity of Te Ika a Maui is recognised as being a separate, identifiable Ecological Region within New Zealand. This is related to the high number of plant and animal species found only in this locality (endemic).

Climate

Northland has a moderate climate of warm humid summers, relatively mild wet winters, and prevailing south-west winds.

Rainfall varies from mean measurements of 992 mm at Cape Reinga to 1440 mm at Te Paki with higher rainfalls likely in hillier locations.

Winter is the wettest season of the year, but heavy rain may occur at any time, the heaviest rains are associated with easterly wind conditions. The driest months are January and March, with most rain falling in August.

Flora and fauna

The main sites of cultural importance - Haumu, Motuopao, Te Werahi Beach, Kapowairua-Spirits Bay, Cape Reinga, and Manawatawhi (Three Kings Islands) - are also very important natural features.

Te Paki Reserve contains three important habitats for wildlife:

• Pockets of forest containing kauri, kohekohe, taraire, hinau and puriri
• Fire-induced kanuka/mahoe/rewarewa shrublands
• Two large freshwater wetlands - Te Werahi swamp and Paranoa wetland (in Spirits Bay)

These communities contain many rare plants and are particularly notable for the high level of endemism in their invertebrate fauna. The best known are the kauri snail and the flax snail.

The biological significance of this area is so great that it is considered a Site of Special Wildlife Interest.

Geology

Northland consists of a narrow irregular peninsula no more than 18 km wide, and several groups of major offshore islands, bounded by the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean.

30 to 50 million years ago, much of Northland sunk slowly beneath the ocean. Collision of the Indian/Australian and Pacific tectonic plates then caused a wedge of rock up to 3 km thick, to be scraped off the sea floor and emplaced over the entire region.

15 million years ago, a chain of volcanoes emerged off the western coast giving rise to thick basalt flows. On the eastern coast an arc of volcanoes also emerged and these are now exposed at North Cape, the Karikari Peninsula, Whangaroa, Whangarei Heads, and the Hen and Chicken Islands.

Widespread erosion and local faulting and tilting followed the conclusion of this active period.

In the last few million years extensive coastal dune fields have formed. Sand from the erosion of offshore submarine volcanoes and erosion of volcanic materials in the central North Island has been transported northwards by longshore drift. Large volumes of sand accumulated in the Kaipara, Kawerua, Hokianga and Ahipara areas, and built up to form the tombolos such as the Karikari Peninsula.

Alternating glacial and warm periods over the last five million years have caused substantial and repeated changes in sea level.

The soils in Northland are unique because of the diversity and complexity of the underlying rocks and the influence climate and vegetation have had on soil formation, which have clay rich profiles over deeply weathered parent rocks.

Find out about Pae Totara Pa, a WW II radar station, Radar Bush, Bartlett's rātā, and wildfires.

Radar Bush

Radar Bush is the last remnant of kauri/podocarp forest left north of Kaitaia. 150 ha have been fenced against pigs to protect the extremely diverse plant populations including rimu, kahikatea, matai, miro, totara, kauri, Bartlett’s rata, kaiwaka, and tanekaha.

Tangly Vine, also known as taihoa (‘wait a while’) is a semi-parasitic plant similar to mistletoe in the way it grows on a host. Host trees give it nutrients and support as well as water, but it has its own chlorophyll so it can feed from the sun through photosynthesis. Taihoa is endemic in the Far North.

World War II radar installation

During WWII, a radar station was built on top of the pa. 

Pae Totara Pa

This impressive pa, clearly visible from the road, commanded an uninterrupted view up and down the coast. The pa was built in the traditional manner, but had been modified to suit trench warfare.

The pa is thought to have had a large population of over 2000 inhabitants, who cultivated the land around the pa and built kumara pits. Wetlands nearby also offered good food sources.

Bartlett's rātā

Rata Moehau (Metrosideros bartlettii), or the Cape Reinga white rātā, discovered in 1976 is notable for its extreme rarity and its white flowers, uncommon in that genus of red-flowered trees and plants.

It is now only found in three patches of dense native forest near Spirits Bay that escaped destruction by fire, namely Radar Bush, Kohuronaki Bush, and Unuwhao Bush. Only 34 wild adult trees are known to exist in the wild. DOC has established a programme to secure the tree’s future through seed gathering, propagation and planting to increase the number of trees. The tree may always have been restricted to the North Cape area.

Bartlett’s rātā is also known as the white Christmas Tree. Its lime-green foliage stands out from the rest of the surrounding bush. It grows to a height of up to thirty metres, usually beginning life as a hemiepiphyte. Occasionally, the tree is found growing on the ground on rock outcrops and rocky cliffs. The tree bears white flowers made up of a mass of stamens in November or December.

The effects of fire on bush regeneration

This is a landscape dominated by fire. Fires were deliberately set in the past for agriculture.

The fires would run up the ridges, leaving only the damp gullies with any growth. Repeated burning of the area has depleted the fragile soils leaving little if any soil nutrients for regeneration to occur. Low-growing hardy plants can be seen on many dry ridges.

The area continues to be under threat from accidental or deliberately lit fires. In 2005, a car crash sparked a blaze that wiped out 230 ha of dry bush and scrub just south of Cape Reinga – home to some of the world’s rarest plants, giant snails and a species of gecko. The fire led to the evacuation of 36 campers from campgrounds and tourists from Cape Reinga. It took 2 days and about 70 people, 5 helicopters with monsoon buckets, 2 bulldozers and a digger to get the fire under control. The cost of this fire alone amounted to over $10,000.

Learn about the sand dunes and wetlands, the katipo spider, and Te Ara Wairua (spiritual pathway).

Te Werahi wetlands

There are only about 9% of wetlands left in the world – they are a vital link between the mountains and the sea. Threats to New Zealand's remaining wetlands are mostly the result of human activities including reclamation, stock grazing and pollution from excess run-off of sediment and nutrients.  

Te Werahi is important as it filters marine water. It is home to threatened ferns and it provides important breeding habitats for whitebait species such as inanga and banded kokupu.

Te Paki sand dunes

Moa, kōkako, and tuatara bones have been found in the Te Paki dunes - ancestors of past biodiversity.

During the dry seasons dunes tend to advance, in wet seasons the reverse happens. It's a living tension between raw sand/encroaching dunes and agriculture and remnant forest. Wetlands may provide a barrier to encroaching dunes.  

Plants at Te Werahi

Northland toetoe is distinctly different from its southern relatives – it is not cutty! It grows in the interface between dunes and wetlands.

Pingao is capable of living in moving sand and tends to grow on the windy/coastal side of the dunes. Pingao (the eyelash of tangaroa) is in gradual decline due to rabbits, cattle trampling, being over-collected and beachfront development.

Katipo spider

New Zealand’s poisonous native spider – the katipo – is a sand-dune specialist. Two species are now recognised: red katipo (Latrodectus katipo), with a red-orange stripe on its back, and black katipo (Latrodectus atritus), a wholly black spider.

They inhabit the landward side of fore dunes, where they spread webs in pingao and marram, or under driftwood. The female can deliver a nasty bite, but by nature, is a retiring animal and only attacks if frightened. They are in serious decline throughout New Zealand as dunes become covered by dense marram, lupin, pines or pasture grasses.

Te Ara Wairua

Haumu is the convergence point of Te Ara Wairua (spiritual pathway). The spirits travel up to Whangakea cross to the west to Haumu where they merge with those travelling up the west coast.

The departing spirits would leave bundles of grass or nikau leaves or knotted plants to show where they had gone. From the beach they passed along a lonely ridge to Te Reinga.

Related links

• Te Paki Recreation Reserve
• Twilight - Te Werahi Loop Track

Learn about the whale scratching rock, other pa sites in the area, and the Kaitawa shipwreck.

The whale scratching rock

Otangawhiti (Sandy Bay) links the local iwi Ngati Kuri to whale culture. The place is known for whales entering the bay to scratch themselves on the protruding rock. South of the bay is Otangawhiti pa overlooking this rock. The type of whales calling into the bay are known to Ngati Kuri today as paraoa or tohora.

Tohora or whales are the descendants of Tangaroa, the god of the oceans. Tohora were thought of in awe, as supernatural beings, and often deemed tapu, or sacred. Māori have a long association with whales.

Pa sites

West and inland from Otangawhiti (Sandy Bay), located in the valley, are a number of lowland pa that predate other pa in the surrounding areas. The dune systems are full of middens - evidence of seafood collection. The rich food sources nearby (wetlands/sea) and the protective natural landscape explain why the area was heavily populated.

Kaitawa shipwreck

On 23 May 1966, near Cape Reinga, the collier Kaitawa was lost with all 29 hands.
In foul weather with westerly winds up to 43 knots and heavy seas, the Kaitawa drifted on to the north end of the Pandora Bank to the north and was completely wrecked, drifted north and sank some hours later.