Whangaroa Harbour

Coordinates: 35°3′0″S 173°44′0″E / 35.05000°S 173.73333°E / -35.05000; 173.73333
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For Whangaroa harbour in the Chatham Islands, see Port Hutt.

Whangaroa Harbour is located in Northland Region
Whangaroa Harbour
Whangaroa Harbour
The settlement of Whangaroa, with the volcanic plug of St Paul's Rock rising over it
Whangaroa and St Paul's Rock

Whangaroa Harbour (

State Highway 10 runs through Waitaruke.[1][2] The name comes from the lament "Whaingaroa" or "what a long wait" of a woman whose warrior husband had left for a foray to the south.[3] The harbour was formed when rising sea levels drowned a river valley about 6,000 years ago. Steep outcrops remain from ancient volcanic rocks.[4]

There are extensive mangrove swamps at the head of the harbour,[5] and some of the oldest fossils in the North Island, dating to the Early Permian about 270 million years ago, are in the Whangaroa area.[6]

History

According to Māori traditions, the

Mataatua waka crews.[8]

killer whales
still visit the harbor more frequently.

A Wesleyan mission was founded in June 1823.[10] Hongi Hika attacked local Māori to gain control of millable kauri on 10 January 1827. A party of his warriors, without his knowledge, ransacked the mission and it was abandoned.[11] In 1828 Hongi Hika died at Whangaroa, from a wound suffered 14 months earlier in the Hokianga.[5]

Europeans settled the harbour in the 1840s, and a Catholic mission was established at Waitaruke. The harbour was a centre for timber milling and

gum digging after the arrival of the immigrant ship Lancashire Witch in 1865. Shipyards were established in Totara North in 1872.[9] Thomas Major Lane and William Brown started a yard at Kaeo in 1870 and moved it to Totara North in 1872. By 1887 they had built 26 ships.[12] The yard closed in 1905,[13] but some buildings remain.[14] Kauri logs were chained together to make rafts, and towed by steamer. It took three days for the logs to reach Auckland.[15] In the early 20th century Sea Sick Bay near the south head was a whaling station, which by the 1920s had moved to Ranfurly Bay, near the north head.[9]

After the

Mangamuka Gorge road was sealed in 1961 it became the main route from Whangarei to the Far North, bypassing Whangaroa.[5]

Whangaroa mangroves

Education

decile rating of 1 and a roll of 18.[16]

Totara North School is a contributing primary (years 1-6) school with a decile rating of 3 and a roll of 39.[17]

Both schools are coeducational. Other schools in the area are at Oruaiti, Kaeo and Matauri Bay. 35°3′0″S 173°44′0″E / 35.05000°S 173.73333°E / -35.05000; 173.73333

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-7900-0952-8
    .
  2. ISBN 1-877333-20-4
    .
  3. ISBN 0-473-00387-2
    .
  4. ^ "Whangaroa Harbour". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  5. ^ a b c "Whangaroa and district". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  6. ^ "Oldest fossils – Paleozoic". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  7. ^ "Ngāti Whātua - Origins". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  8. ^ "Ngāti Kurī, Ngāi Takoto, Te Pātū and Ngāti Kahu". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  9. ^
    Encyclopedia of New Zealand (1966)
    .
  10. Encyclopedia of New Zealand (1966)
    .
  11. ^ "The Church Missionary Gleaner, March 1867". Wangaroa, New Zealand. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Auckland shipbuilding trade. New Zealand Herald". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 11 June 1887. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Lane & Brown Shipyard and Sawmill". nzhistory.govt.nz. 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  14. ^ "49 Okura Bay Rd". Google Maps. February 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  15. ^ "Moving kauri: dams and rafting". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  16. ^ "Te Kete Ipurangi - Te Kura o Hato Hohepa Te Kamura". Ministry of Education.
  17. ^ "Te Kete Ipurangi - Totara North School". Ministry of Education.

External links

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