Title: Ngā Tohuwhenua Mai Te Rangi: A New Zealand Archeology in Aerial Photographs

Author: Kevin L. Jones

Publication details: Victoria University Press, 1994, Wellington

Digital publication kindly authorised by: Department of Conservation

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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Māhia Peninsula

The Māhia Peninsula, Nukutaurua mai Tawhiti, has a steep, cliffed, western side exposed to north-west winds, little settled and with few landing places. The eastern and north-eastern sides, by contrast, although exposed to the Pacific Ocean, have a number of open bays, including the long area of beach and dunes that connects the peninsula to the mainland. The north-eastern part comprises a generally narrow coastal strip backed by a high marine terrace. Headlands created by stream erosion cutting down through the high terrace typically have pā built on them. This part of the peninsula has many traditional and historical associations including the landing places of two great canoes. Tākitimu finished its voyage at Ōraka, on the north-eastern side of the peninsula, and now lies there in stone. ¹ Kurahaupō, bringing the founding lineages of Rangitāne and other tribes, ² also touched at the Māhia Peninsula.

A bay on the eastern side of the peninsula, known as Nukutaurua, lying a few kilometres south of Ōraka, was the home locality of the seer, Toiroa, who foresaw the advent of Te Kooti Arikirangi. ³ According to the Revd William Williams, in the 1840s this was the principal Māori settlement of the Table Cape vicinity. ⁴ A vertical aerial photograph of the Nukutaurua locality, taken in 1945, shows ample evidence of Māori settlement, although in that year it was only the site of two station homesteads. These photographs contain many sites of Māori origin but because of the clarity of the pastoral (ditch and bank fence) features they are illustrated in chapter 16 on early farming. Within a broad bay, extensive rock platforms just below the water surface extend some 150 m offshore. On the surrounding ridges were pā of relatively simple construction, following the typical East Coast model. A single ditch, occasionally double, cuts off points; or the edge of the terrace may be cut off by rectangular enclosures of ditch, reminiscent of pā on river flats in Poverty Bay. In other places, a small 'island' of the high terrace is further reinforced by steepening its sides and creating a ditch. One such 'island' is Maungakahia, a pā associated with Kahungūnu himself. ⁵