A Brief Three-Part History of Karewa Island

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 3^rd November 1769, he did not name Karewa, describing it instead as ‘a small high island’.⁴ The late 19^th 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 12^th 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 26^th 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.