Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 9 (January 1, 1929)

Kapiti Island

Kapiti Island.

Hereabouts, as the west coast is closely approached, the traveller has glimpses of a high hump-backed island looming blue over the nearer changing scenes of green pastures and native tree groves. At Paekakariki and thence to Pukerua there is an uninterrupted view of the island. This is famous Kapiti. once a Maori fortress isle, now a State sanctuary for native birds. The island, about six miles in length, with an average width of a mile and a half, has an area of about 5,000 acres, nearly half of which is covered by native forest.

page 51

One time a piratical cannibal stronghold of Te Rauparaha, later an early-days whaling station, Kapiti is the centre of a hundred dramatic stories. The summit (1,780ft) of the island is Titeremoana (a good name; it means “Look out over the Ocean”); it was the olden Maoris' sentry peak, where they watched for invading war-canoe fleets.