Part 1 - Early Human Visitors and its
Inhabitants
 |
Karewa Island
Whites Aviation, Karewa Island, February 1954, with Mount Maunganui and the
Tauranga Harbour entrance in the background
Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. WA-35082-F |
Karewa Island is
located some 4 miles or 6.5 km north-east of the Tauranga harbour entrance.
When viewed from the higher parts of Tauranga township, it appears as a
solitary, conical rock, jutting abruptly from the waters of the Bay of the
Plenty. When viewed during a north-easterly blow from atop Mt Maunganui, the
island seems to be on the move. It appears as an orca or great white shark swimming
on the surface and steadily battling its way out to sea. The island’s foreshore
environment comprises bedrock slopes, rocky reefs, and rock pools with several
small, sandy beaches. Parts of the island are forested in taupata, a resilient,
low growing shrub or small tree bearing very shiny dark green leaves. Widely
used as a hedge plant for seaside gardens, taupata forms the low, dense forests
that we often see on coastal islands and along the exposed coasts of the North
Island and upper South Island.1
For Maori, Karewa
island was a traditional harvest site for titi (mutton
birds) and kai moana (sea food), with paua, crayfish and kina (sea
urchins) abundant on almost all the rocky reefs. The island remains a very
popular dive site and is well known among locals, for the variety of fish
caught in the surrounding waters.2 Karewa
is a home to kekeno or fur seals, but is best known for its high densities of
tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus). These ancient reptiles are dependent on
the continued productivity of the surrounding marine environment, especially
the well-being of the mutton birds or sooty shearwaters which coexist with them
and share their burrows.3
When Captain Cook sailed the Endeavour between Mount
Maunganui and Mayor Island on 3rd November 1769, he did not name
Karewa, describing it instead as ‘a small high island’.4 The late 19th
century ethnologist Elsdon Best wrote that Karewa was the named by the first
Polynesian deep-sea navigators who arrived in the Bay of Plenty on the Takitimu
waka around 12th century A.D. He states that they named Karewa after
the star, upon which they relied, to make their voyage to New Zealand.5
Gilbert Mair, the colonial soldier and New Zealand Cross winner who, from the
1860s, lived out his life in the Bay of Plenty, said however that the first
arrivals on the Te Arawa waka named the island Karewa because: ‘In fine weather, owing to
mirage, it appears to be like Mahomet's coffin, floating in the air, the silver
streak of sea showing plainly underneath; hence the name Ka-rewa, to float’.6
 |
Gilbert Mair later sailed tuatara collectors from Taurangato to Karewa Island on board his 35-foot whaleboat
Gilbert Mair in military uniform, glass copy negative of half-tone print, unidentified photographer
Alexander Turnbull Collection, Ref. 1/1-017971-G |
Mair added, that to his annoyance, the Maori
name Karewa and other Tauranga place names were too often mispronounced by Pakeha.
Some friends in Tauranga, where I am
now resident, pronounce the simplest Maori names quite incorrectly… Here are a
few illustrations of this ear-annoying mispronunciation:
Katikati is popularly Katty-kat.
Maungatapu is mutilated into Manggertap.
Waimapu is called Waimap.
Paapaa moa becomes Papper-moa.
And Karewa is Karewha.7
Sir Maui Pomare recorded
that traditional uhi Mataora or the face carving chisels used by tohunga ta
moko (tattooing experts) were often made from the wing-bone of the albatross,
adding that: ‘The Bay of Plenty tribes made expeditions to Karewa Island, which was a
breeding place for the albatross and many other sea-birds.8 Among
the other sea-birds nesting on Karewa were gannets, whose feathers were highly
prized by the rangatira class as adornments for their hair. One of the myths
recorded from Rotorua’s Te Arawa people concerning Hatupatu, describes the
appearance of this famous ancestral hero figure, when he stood to address and
inspire his warriors before battle.
He had been sitting down, and as he
gracefully arose, it was beautiful to see his plumes and ornaments of feathers
fluttering in the breeze; the long hair of the young man was tied up in four
knots, or clubs, in each of which was stuck a bunch of feathers; you would have
thought he had just come from the gannet island of Karewa where birds' feathers
abound.9
 |
Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)
Bernard Sladden. Close-up view of a tuatara on a branch. Date: Within Sladden's
adult life (1900-1961) Tauranga City Libraries. Pae Koroki Ref. Photo bs-205 |
Karewa
Island is often mentioned in the journals of Tauranga’s pre-Treaty
missionaries. After arriving in the Bay of Islands in 1834, the
missionary printer William Wade went on to the Bay of Plenty to help establish
the new mission station at on Tauranga’s Te Papa Peninsula. When intertribal
warfare broke out in the district in 1836, he was evacuated back to Paihia.
After a dispute with the Anglican Church Missionary Society over his
employment, in April 1840, Wade left Tauranga to serve as a baptist minister in
Tasmania. One of his journal entries read:
In every part of New
Zealand that I have visited lizards are numerous. There are several varieties
of small green lizard; and, by native account, many of the insular rocks abound
with guanas. The island Karewa, off Tauranga, is
said to swarm with them. Although perfectly harmless, the lizard is held in
great abhorrence by the New Zealanders, who say it is the form or resemblance
of Wiro, the evil Spirit.10
 |
A portrait of Taurikura, the mythical
ancestress of Karewa Island’s tuatara can be seen today in the poupou (carved
wall pillars) of the meeting house
Tamateapokaiwhenua in Tauranga’s Judea
Photographer unknown, Tamateapokaiwhenua Wharenui, 1962. Tauranga City
Libraries, Pae Koroki Ref. Photo 16-139 |
In Maori mythology, Whiro,
the god inhabiting the underworld was a personified form of evil, misfortune,
darkness and death. The
first tuatara to resemble Whiro on Karewa was, according to Ngati Ranginui
legend, their female ancestress Taurikura. A spoilt young woman of noble birth,
she one day refused to fetch water for her thirsty koro [grandfather], With
great difficulty, the old man who was disabled, descended a steep track to the
river, before returning with a gourd of water which Tauri-kura demanded. The old man became angry and told her that she
was selfish and a disappointment.
Embarrassed and ashamed of
her behaviour, Taurikura left the village with a kit of charms and went down to
the river. There she turned herself into a ngarara or reptile and swam down the
Waikaraeo Estuary and out to Karewa where she became the ancestor of the
tuatara that live on the island today. Taurikura is remembered at Judea today,
where her carved portrait can be seen on the poupou (carved wall pillars) in
the meeting house Tamateapokaiwhenua.11
During the
1830s, the island became a regular provisioning port of call for the Bay of Islands’
missionaries during voyages on their small sailing vessels to and from
Tauranga, Maketu, Whakatane and Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty. In February 1832,
the Rev. Henry Williams and his Maori crew, sailed the mission schooner Karere
(Messenger) to Maketu in the hope of making peace between warring tribes.
After camping overnight at Mercury Bay on the 26th he recorded:
Fine morning. I intended to
move at break of day, but the boys were apprehensive of a Southerly wind;
delayed till 9 o'clock when we pulled out in quest of a wind. A breeze sprung
up at East, which shifted in the course of the day to North. Passed on at an
agreeable rate to Karewa. Mr. Chapman out of sight. The boys landed and
caught a number of young birds and found some potatoes, which afforded them a
good supper. Entered Tauranga by 9 o'clock, landed under the Great Hill,
"Maunga nui." Kindled fires and cooked our supper which we all stood
much in need of having taken nothing. Rolled ourselves up in blankets, and laid
down on the ground…Our distance run today about 40 miles.12
 |
A stylised
painting of Henry William’s Karere (Messenger) accompanying a Ngapuhi
predatory expedition to Tauranga in 1832, in the hope of negotiating peace.
Joseph
Josenhans, “War Canoes’ in Illustrations of Missionary Scenes, An Offering
to Youth, Mainz, Joseph Scholz, 1855. XII |
Departing
Maketu on the Karere with a full complement of Maori passengers six
weeks later, Williams again described landing on Karewa, and an additional
Maori reason for fearing the tuatara:
Tuesday, 26. A quiet night. At daylight
calm but cloudy, afraid to move out. No stir amongst the natives, all quiet. At
5 p.m. light airs from the N. E.; left the harbour on our way home, in all
seventeen including Hamu our old lady who accompanied us from the BOI, besides
a dog and two kittens, our boat was very full. We pulled to Karewa, a small
island 8 miles from Tauranga. Some of the boys landed here to look for birds
and potatoes. Upon the island are Ruatara, a species of the lizard
about a foot in length, which are regarded by the natives as Atua. Strict
orders given [by Hamu or an accompanying rangatira] not to disturb them in
their holes lest we should be upset. About 8 o'clock a light air from Southd;
got underweigh and stood on our course.13
 |
Dr Ernest Dieffenbach
Dieffenbach, Ernest, Travels in New Zealand, Vol. II, John Murray, London,
1843: Frontispiece
Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. A-259-010 |
Karewa’s tuatara drew several famous
men of science to Tauranga during the 1840s and 50s. The touring German
naturalist and geologist Dr. Ernest Dieffenbach visited Tauranga’s Te Papa
mission station for several days during June 1841. Wishing to obtain a tuatara
specimen, he attempted to visit Karewa as a passenger on one of the mission
station’s whaleboats, but was forced back to port by bad weather. He was not
however, entirely disappointed in his quest:
I had been apprized of the existence
of a large lizard, which the natives called Tuatera, or Narara,
with a general name, and of which they were much afraid. But although looking
for it at the places where it was said to be found, and offering great rewards
for a specimen, it was only a few days before my departure from New Zealand
that I obtained one, which had been caught at a small rocky islet called Karewa, which is about two miles from the
coast, in the Bay of Plenty, and which had been given by the Rev. W. Stack, in
Tauranga, to Dr. Johnson, the colonial surgeon.
From all that I could gather about
this Tuatera, it appears that it was formerly common in the islands; lived in
holes, often in sandhills near the sea-shore; and the natives killed it for
food. Owing to this latter cause, and no doubt also to the introduction of
pigs, it is now very scarce; and many even of the older residents of the
islands have never seen it. The specimen from which the description is taken I
had alive, and kept for some time in captivity: it was extremely sluggish, and
could be handled without any attempt at resistance or biting.14
 |
HMS Pandora
Thomas
Hornbrook, HMS Pandora (1833), Wikipedia |
During his survey of Tauranga Harbour
in November 1852, Captain Byron Drury of HMS Pandora described Karewa
as: ‘a rugged island about half a mile in circumference) 6 miles N. E. by N. of
Monganui, is two miles off this sandy beach, having a channel on either side,
of 12 to 15 fathoms’.15 According to Lieutenant Theodore Jones of
the Pandora who toured the Tauranga district with some of the ship’s
officers:
During our absence Capt. Drury accompanied by
the doctor [surgeon John Joliffe, R.N.], had visited the little Island of
Karewa, about three miles from the entrance of the harbour, where they
succeeded in capturing some very large lizards, the longest measuring 20
inches. It had been supposed that this was the only Island on which they were
to be found, having been quite exterminated on the mainland. On a subsequent
visit to Mongonui one had just been found in that neighbourhood, and I believe
on Moto horo [Moutohora-Whale Island], they have also been seen. They have a
rather repulsive appearance – of a darkish brown colour with serrated back –
and of them either living or dead the Natives have a most lively horror.16
Not all Maori appear to have held the tuatara ‘in great
abhorrence’. On Motiti
Island where they were once common, Gilbert Mair saw one that Maori had kept
safely from predators in an old kumara pit ‘for over three generations’. 17
Endnotes
1 Karewa
Island – Dive Zone Tauranga, https://www.divezonetauranga.co.nz ›
karewa-island
2 Site 68 Karewa Island Risk Ranking, https://www.boprc.govt.nz › media › karewa
3 https://www.divezonetauranga.co.nz ›
karewa-island
4 Reed, A.H. and A.W; (eds.), Captain Cook in
New Zealand: Extracts From the Journals of Captain James Cook, A.H. and A.W.
Reed, Wellington, 1969: 55.
5 Elsdon Best, The
Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori, Genuine and Empirical, W.A.G.
Skinner, Government Printer, Wellington, 1922: 40.
6 Mair,
Gilbert, Reminiscences and Maori Stories, Brett Publishers, Auckland
1923: 52-53. 1923:
7 Ibid.
8 Pomare, Maui, Legends
of the Maori, Vol. II, James Cowan (ed.), Southern Reprints, Papakura,
1987: 315
9 Grey, Sir George, Polynesian
Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, H.
Brett, Auckland, 1885: 122.
10 Wade, William, A Journey in the Northern Island of
New Zealand, George Rolwegan, Hobart, 1842: 178.
11 Bay of Plenty Times, 23
December, 1948: 4. Rotorua Daily Post, 22 June, 2013: 7. Taurikura – Te
Rununga O Ngati Ranginu, http://www.ranginui.co.nz › taurikura
12 Williams, Henry, The Early Journal of
Henry Williams, L.M. Rogers (ed.), Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1961:
286-287.
13 Ibid: 301.
14
Dieffenbach, Ernest, Travels in New Zealand, Vol. 1, John Murray,
London, 1843: 206.
15 Byron
Drury, Sailing Directions… For the Northern Part of the Colony of New
Zealand, Williamson and Wilson, 1854: 28.
16 Jones,
T. M; ‘HMS Pandora in the Bay of Plenty, 1852’, Extracts from the Journal of
Lieutenant T.M. Jones, RN, Part II: 72, in Historical Review: Journal of the
Whakatane and District Historical Society Inc. Vol. XVIII, No.2: 72.
17 Waipa Post,
1 March 1923: 3.
.jpg)
