We visited the Pāpāmoa Hills Regional Park today, via a walk along a mountain bike trail, entering the ‘back way’ to avoid the long uphill hike from the official entrance!

The view from the top of the Hills!

The Pāpāmoa Hills were a strategic site for the Māori to control the fertile coastal plain and the rich fisheries of the Bay of Plenty. Thought by archaeologists to have been first occupied by the Māori around 1400 AD, at least 17 Pā (fortified villages) sites have been found, with 8 prominent on these hills.

Robert is standing on the site of the most fortified of the Pa sites, the farthest to the left, Karangaumu.

According to a ranger; “Karangaumu Pa, at the summit of the hills, was a defensive pa. It was in times of attack and battles when it used to be heavily occupied and there’d be over 2000 warriors here. One of the other pas, Patangata (towards the ocean from the summit), was where the women and children would head in times of battle. So if it’s all going completely wrong, they’ve got some really good escape routes to get them off the hills and away to safety. Not all the pa sites were occupied at one time. Apart from the ones where their nine-to-five job was to grow kumara (a type of sweet potato the Māori brought with them when colonizing New Zealand). They’re the ones who would be on-site and in one particular spot the whole time.”

There was extensive competition for resources which led to inter-tribal warfare creating the need to fortify villages! When Europeans arrived in the mid 1800’s a whole new wave of competition was created resulting in the “New Zealand Wars” between 1845 and 1872. Ultimately the Māori land in the Bay of Plenty was confiscated by the British Crown and redistributed to Pākehā (‘white’ settlers, pronounced Paa-key-haa).

Pine trees were planted on the hills by the white settlers over 150 years ago. Most have been toppled by age and winds. We can see these trees, at a different angle, from the top of the hill at our B&B!

The B&B is at the base of a huge hill that is part of a Māori legend.

Long ago, a mother whale and her baby swam into Tauranga Harbour. The two whales swam up the harbour and into Rangataua Bay. They found that the water was getting shallow and they tried to return to the deeper water but they became trapped.

They knew in which direction the ocean lay, they could hear the waves pounding on the beach at Omanu and Pāpāmoa, and they struggled over the mudflats of Rangataua trying to find a way back to the open sea.

Tired and thirsty they stopped on the eastern shore to drink from a stream at Karīkarī. The stream was magical and turned both the whales into stone. The mother whale was fixed there as a gently rolling hill (Mangatawa) gazing northward out to Pāpāmoa and the sea. The baby who had been nestled beside the mother was transformed to a lower peak (Hikurangi).

The father whale came looking for his family. He followed the same journey they had taken and he too drank at the spring at Karīkarī. He was transformed into the high rounded hill south of Mangatawa (Kopukairoa).

The foundation of the first house our hosts built about 20 years ago on the top of Father Whale hill. A fabulous view, but very windy!

Mother Whale is the forested hill in the foreground and the calf whale is the green hill on the right with hedged kiwi orchards at the base.

Way down at the base of the hill is their current house and the separate B&B with attached shop.

 

We moved a little further east to the Bay of Plenty area, to a farm stay in the hills outside of Tauranga. We went for a hike to the nearby Kaiate Falls.

From the top of the trail there is a great view down towards Tauranga with the backdrop of Mount Maunganui, officially known by its Māori name Mauao.

Kaiate stream.

The 3 tiers of the upper falls.

The lower falls, with a great swimming hole! Unfortunately the water has bacterial pollution and swimming is not allowed.

Pink hued dawn clouds.

We decided to stay close to ‘home’, to Matarangi Bluff trail near the enclave of Matarangi, a sand spit only a 15 minute drive away.

We had to climb up, up, up to the top of the bluff for a great view of Matarangi.

The Bluff encircles an amphitheater with a wetland in the center. From the trail around the rim there are great views out to sea and inland.

Down in the bowl of the amphitheater is a regenerating forest.

And a bonus beach!

We explored the Mercury Bay area, starting at Shakespeare Cliff Lookout.

Looking down at Lonely Bay, the small beach nearest the cliff, and the long curve of Cook’s Bay, the beach stretching into the distance.

Captain Cook anchored in this bay from November 5 to 15, 1769. He named the bay, Mercury Bay due to his assignment: “James Cook helped his astronomer Charles Green observe the transit of Mercury at Te Whanganui-o-Hei (Mercury Bay), Coromandel Peninsula. When the planets Mercury and Venus pass across the Sun, they are visible as small black dots. Timing these ‘transits’ from different locations was the first accurate way to determine the distance between Earth and the Sun.  After observing the transit of Venus from Tahiti, Cook sailed HMB Endeavour towards the land skirted by Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1642, which was sighted on 6 October 1769″.

Cook completed his observation of the transit of Mercury on November 9, 1769.  Subsequently Cook explored the Mercury Bay area, traded with the local Māori for fresh fish mainly, and continued north to the Bay of Islands area. Mercury Bay was the first and most thoroughly explored area of Cook’s first voyage around New Zealand.

We hiked down a path to check out Lonely Bay.

The small, but remote beach is covered with a thick layer of seashells that have been ground down to a fine tan/white sand.

I took off my shoes to walk in the surf and explore the beach.

We hiked along Shakespeare Cliff and down to Maramaratotara Bay (Flaxmill Bay).

On returning uphill we passed this kauri, planted in 2001. It would be considered a juvenile. Kauri begin flowering from age 20 to 50 years. They can live over 1500 years!