Hopukiore

Ocean Beach and Hopukiore (Mt Drury) from Mauao, Mount Maunganui, c. early 1950s
Postcard, unidentified publisher, collection of Justine Neal

Hopukiore, at 40 metres high is much smaller than its famous counterpart, Mauao but it’s history is just as fascinating. From the late 1500’s the Ngati Tauaiti had a marae there, along with another marae on Moturiki. The name Hopukiore means to catch kiore (rats), the bones and the teeth of which were used for carving chisels and tattooing instruments. The area was used as a carving school and a wahi tapu (sacred site) for ta moko (traditional tattooing).

Ocean Beach, Mt. Maunganui, c. 1970s-1980s
Postcard published by Pictorial Publications Ltd, Hastings
Collection of Justine Neal

On the eastern side of Hopukiore there are at least five caves, some of which are known to have been used for burials. The 1820 battle fought between Ngapuhi and Ngaiterangi resulted in a large number of deaths for the Ngaiterangi. Te Waru’s (Ngaiterangi) chivalrous treatment of Te Morenga (Ngapuhi) after the battle led to peace between the two tribes and the Ngaiterangi dead were honoured with burial in the caves of Hopukiore.

East Cave, Hopukiore, 2025
Photograph by Justine Neal

The caves were also used by the men of the 80^th Regiment under Major Bunbury when they were sent from Auckland to deter hostilities between Arawa and Ngaiterangi, occupying the hill from December 1842 to March 1843. One cave was enlarged and shelves installed for munitions storage and a door was fitted. Another two caves were used for general storage and a bakehouse.

Hopukiore (Mt Drury) and Mauao, from Marine Parade, Mt Maunganui, c. 1950s
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo 99-028

In the 1980’s two young local boys were amusing themselves using old boxes to slide down the slopes of Hopukiore,  After a while, as they happened to have a small torch with them, their attention turned to the caves and they decided to do a little exploring. On entering the cave it felt cold and damp, the floor was hard packed dirt and there was enough headroom to walk. The cave narrowed, then came a shoulder height drop but they were still able to walk down to the next level. The cave narrowed again, it appeared to be solid rock in front of them but the torch showed that in one place the rock overlapped leaving a narrow gap to squeeze through. There was no way an adult could manage it but the boys thought they would be able to. At that moment they had a couple of choices and sensibly decided the way back was the safest one.

In 1853 Hopukiore was given the extra name of Mount Drury, named after Commander Byron Drury who arrived in Tauranga in 1852 on board the H.M.S Pandora to complete a coastal survey of the Bay of Plenty started in 1848.

Hopukiore (Mt Drury) from the quarry on Moturiki, Mount Maunganui, 1921
Postcard by unidentified publisher
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0197/08

In 1913 a railway line that had been built to the railway workshops (situated between Salisbury Avenue and Rata Street) was continued up the main street, curving round the northern end of Hopukiore to service the quarry on Moturiki. A crushing plant had been built on the foreshore of Hopukiore to deal with the stone coming from the quarry.

The big swing at Mount Drury (Hopukiore) playground, Mt Maunganui, January 1967
120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 13 Jan 1967
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-14286

Mrs. Gilchrist in the book ‘A History of Mount  Maunganui’ by Don Cunningham remembers the Public Works picnics:

“When they got the rail through a bit they would have open carriages with seats across and you’d come down to the Mount from Te Puke. The railway line went right along where the Main Road is now. We would all get off at the foot of Mount Drury on a platform and then take our picnic baskets into the big pine trees.”

Tunnel of the Mt Drury (Hopukiore) Railway Line, Mt Maunganui, December 1966
Crop of 120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 28 Dec 1966
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-14079

From 1960 to 1975 there was a miniature railway as part of a children’s playground. There was a man-made tunnel that it went through at the base of Hopukiore and that’s where it lived. There were doors at each end that were kept locked when it wasn’t in use. It only used to run in the summer. Since 2008 there has been a playground on the western side of the reserve.

Mount Drury Tower (Hopukiore), Mt Maunganui, February 1963
120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 26 Feb 1963
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-4488

In 1958 the Harbour Board Signal Station was erected on the summit of Hopukiore, the ideal place with its sweeping views out to sea. It served as a communication tool for navigation and relaying important information to the ships. It has been inoperative for many years now and at the present time only the signal station mast and a shed remain on the site.

Hopukiore (Mount Drury) with Soundshell, taken from Moturiki (Leisure Island), c. 1970s
Silver gelatin snapshot print by unidentified photographer
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0040/25

In 1967 a Soundshell was built on the flat surface at the base of Hopukiore on the Moturiki side. The seating was provided by man-made terraces or by spreading a towel or a blanket on the grassy slopes. It proved very popular with locals and visitors alike, and was regularly used for concerts and events, such as the Miss Mount Maunganui contest on New Year’s Day. The Soundshell was demolished in 1999 and the area reverted back to grass.

Mount Maunganui 5,000 Club junior pageant at the Soundshell,January 1967
120-format film negative, published in Bay of Plenty Times, 4 Jan 1967
Collection of Tauranga Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo gca-14153

In 1978 the Council decided to extend the Grace Avenue frontage of Hopukiore by buying the small cottages that had been built there. These worker’s cottages were relics of the days when Moturiki had been quarried by the Railways Department and coincidentally several of them came on the market at this time and others were obviously reaching the end of their useful life.

Radio mast and shed, Hopukiore, 2025
Photograph by Justine Neal

The Council employed a land agent whose job was to enquire from the landowners if they were interested in selling. Unfortunately, he rather overstepped his job description by threatening them that if they did not sell the Council would take the land under the Public Works Act. Eventually the cottages were acquired by the Council and the land incorporated into the reserve. It just took a little bit longer and without the help of that particular land agent.

References

2019 Tauranga Reserves Management Plan
Tauranga City Library
Tauranga Heritage Collection
Explore Tauranga
The Weekend Sun, 22 February 2013
Sunlive, 10 May 2021
A History of Mount Maunganui, compiled by Bruce Cunningham & Ken Musgrave, 1989

Accessing the Otūmoetai Beachfront Path, The Wairoa River’s Outer Ford - Some Early Māori and Pākehā Crossers

The Wairoa River entrance at low water showing Kaiarero (Tilby) Point on the north-west corner of Fergusson Park

Living in early Tauranga, a place of many peninsulas, rivers, estuaries and fords, often meant getting your feet wet and muddy depending on where you crossed - and now and again in the case of a misstep when travelling on foot or horseback, a complete soaking or drowning. Before the 1870s, overland travellers from the north wishing to access the Otūmoetai Peninsula and beachfront path to Otūmoetai Pā and Te Papa mission stationwere confronted with a final watery challenge - a crossing of the Wairoa River, which contributes about 50% of the total freshwater inflow to Tauranga Harbour.

On 3 July 1838, travelling English botanist John Carne Bidwill and his party of Māori porters crossed the Kaimai range to the Te Puna peninsula, from where he was carried at low tide ‘half a mile’ over the Wairoa Rivers dangerous outer crossing ‘on the shoulders of one of the natives’. to the Otūmoetai beachfront path.¹ The outer crossing from Te Puna’s Oikimoke Point, which followed a narrow zig-zag causeway with quicksands on either side, had a sinister history, with fatalities among both Māori and Pākehā who mistimed the crossing or strayed from the path.

In March 1832, the chief Titore Tākiri’s predatory Ngāpuhi amphibious expedition from the Bay of Islands entered Tauranga Harbour. Initially camping on Rangiwaea Island, the invaders crossed to the Te Puna side of the Wairoa River. When a daring group of Ngāpuhi musketeers attempted the outer crossing at low water, they became caught fast in quick sands off what is now Tilby Point, on the north-west corner of the Matua foreshore (Fergusson Park). All attempts by their comrades to extricate them failed and they remained trapped with their heads barely above the tides. When the sufferers called out for sustenance during the stillness of the nights, the Otūmoetai defenders from the pa, called to them contemptuously Kaiarero! (Eat your tongues!), by which name the point is known to Ngāi Te Rangi to this day.²

Wairoa Swamp

This watercolour was painted by an unknown soldier. He was present at the siege of Maketū, the battles of Pukehinahina (Gate Pā) and Te Ranga in in 1864, and the subsequent occupation of the Tauranga District. Titled ‘Wiroa Swamp’, the sketch shows the old Matua-Otūmoetai Swamp, which was later drained to become today’s Fergusson Park. Kaiarero (Tilby) Point is in the foreground with Te Puna across the Wairoa River entrance at high water. From Kaiarero Point, north bound travellers left the Otūmoetai beachfront path and depending on the tide, walked, rode or were ferried by canoe directly across to Te Puna’s Oikimoke Point.                                  

Miss Eliza Jones, 1858

Eliza Stack née Jones in later years

In June 1858 the Anglican missionary John Kinder accompanied Miss Eliza Jones, a well travelled,  adventurous young woman, from Auckland to Tauranga in the schooner Hope. Having lost her Welsh parents at an early age, Jones who had been born and raised in Edinburgh, came out to New Zealand with her brother Humphrey, an officer in the Britsh Army in 1857. After enduring an appalling ten-day, rough weather voyage in a dirty, cramped cabin, half suffocated, amidst dogs, poultry, potatoes and three additional fellow passengers, Jones resolved never to repeat the experience and later returned to Auckland on horseback.

Arriving at Tauranga on 9 July 1858, Jones lived at the Te Papa Mission Station with the Volkner family and later with the Chapmans at the Maketū station. Her enjoyable and memorable sojourn which included picnics, local explorations, and a visit to the Rotorua themal district soon came to an end. On 25 October, she departed overland to Auckland by way of the Kaimai Ranges’ Wairere Track accompanied by Rev Karl Volkner. The Maori travellers and porters accompanying the party travelled on foot while Volkner rode a horse and Miss Jones rode Archdeacon Brown’s pony Robin Hood, sitting side saddle, with a starched bonnet and thick veil to ward off the ‘venomous bites’ of mosquitoes.³ She recorded:

It was sad parting from my dear friends at Te Papa, who had been so kind to me, and to whom I was indebted for one of the most notable experiences of my life. The whole party together with the [Maori] school children, came to the beach to see me off [from where they crossed the Waikareao Estuary by boat]. The horses were already waiting for us on the Otumoetai side, and a few minutes after saying good-bye I was mounted on Robinhood and cantering along the beach with Mr Volkner, to catch up our Maoris who had gone on with the baggage and provisions. We found them waiting for us at Te Puna, a broad estuary which could only be crossed at low water, and under the guidance of some-one who knew the fords.

As soon as the tide permitted, we commenced what proved to be a most disagreeable undertaking. We had to traverse a wide extent of sand and mud flats, crossed by many water channels, varying from two to four feet in depth. The sides were steep, and getting in and out was very unpleasant. The shortness of my pony's legs caused him to drop into the water with such a sudden jerk every time that he nearly pitched me over his head, and I was very thankful when the last channel was crossed and we got back to dry land. The danger when crossing this estuary is being caught by the tide. The channels are only fordable at dead low tide, and as it takes some time to get over them all, it proved nervous work till it was done.⁴

Near the end of her return journey to Auckland in October-November 1858, 29-year-old Miss Jones stayed at the Kohanga mission station on the Lower Waikato River. There she met for the first time James Stack, a young missionary who was then assisting the missionary-linguist Dr Robert Maunsell. On the 28 January 1881, Eliza Rachel Jane Jones and James West Stack were married by Bishop Selwyn at Auckland; they had seven children.

Eliza Stack and her party were fortunate to have crossed the Wairoa safely. The river’s outer crossing continued to take the lives of the tardy, the reckless and the unlucky into the 1870s. Under the heading A Horseman Lost, the New Zealand Herald reported on 14 August 1871:

A man named E. G. Hall, attached as foreman to the party engaged in the erection of the telegraph to Katikati, was on Tuesday reported to the police by Mr. Floyd, as missing. He had started to cross the Wairoa at the ford on horseback. The horse was caught on the Te Puna side of the river with saddle and bridle on, but the rider has not since been seen. He was believed to be drowned while crossing that very dangerous ford. Mr. Hall was seen riding east Mr. McSweeny’s place beyond Otumoetai, going towards the Wairoa, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, with a heavy bag over his shoulders and long boots on ... [A] native coming down from Te Puna to the Wairoa river to fish for eels, met and caught the horse just as he came out of the wnter on the Te Puna side, with a saddle and bridle on, but no rider, so it must have been almost immediately after the catastrophe.

Only those who have crossed this ford can properly describe its dangerous character. The ford is at the mouth of the river, which there is very wide; and the track - if it may be so called - is on a narrow strip of solid sand, on each side of which are numerous quicksands. The water, at the lowest tide, is over the saddle flaps, and the route for more than half-a-mile goes in a zig-zag direction, only known to those who have to cross frequently, and very unsafe for an unpractised traveller. It is said that a Maori and his horse once disappeared altogether in one of the quicksands. The search party returned again on the evening of the 6th instant, without having found the remains Mr Hall. It is said that he was the bearer of a considerable sum of money, wherewith to pay the men employed at the telegraph camp.⁵

Wairoa Village

Painted by the same unknown soldier, the original handwriting on the front reads ‘Wiroa vilace.’ Looking across the Wairoa River from the Matua side to Te Puna, the watercolour shows the Wairoa River at high water with Wairoa Pā and kainga in the background. In the foreground is a waka tētē (utility canoe) for ferrying travellers across to Te Puna.

Travellers crossing to Te Puna from the Otūmoetai Peninsula were able to avoid the treacherous outer crossing by bypassing Kaiarero Point. Wading over Wairoa Bay (today’s Matua Saltmarsh Reserve) which could be safely crossed at half tide, they made their way to Bethlehem, where, depending on the state of the tide, they waded or were canoed across the Wairoa at its safer upper ford - crossed in later times by three successive bridges.⁶

In 1874, with travel across the Wairoa River increasing, the government built a one-way bridge of kauri timber. It replaced the ferry service operated by Te Puna’s Ngāti Kahu who were transporting travellers across in waka and row boats. The wooden structure was replaced in 1913 by a single laned concrete bridge. The two-laned State Highway 2 bridge that motorists use today was opened in February 1968.⁷

References

¹  Bidwill, John, Rambles in New Zealand, W. S. Orr and Co. London, 1841: Capper Reprint 1974: 79-81.

² Rorke, Jinty, Fergusson Park and the Tilby Point Farm: The Maori History, Tauranga City Council, 1997: 1.

³ Matheson, A.H; The Wairere Track: Ancient Highway of the Maori and Missionary, The Elms Trust, Tauranga, 1975: 56-58.

⁴ Stack, J.W; Early Maoriland Adventures of J.W. Stack, A.H. Reed (ed.), A.H. and A.W Reed, Dunedin, 1935: 48.

⁵ New Zealand Herald, 14 August 1871: 2.

⁶ Von Hochstetter, Ferdinand, New Zealand: Its Physical Geography, Geology and Natural History, J. G. Cotta, Stuttgart, 1867: 445.

⁷ Neal, Justine, ‘The Wairoa River Bridge’, Tauranga Historical Society, 3 September 2021. https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-wairoa-river-bridge.html

Images

Photographer, White’s Aviation, ‘Aerial view of Matua Peninsula, Otūmoetai, with Mauao and Mount Maunganui in the background’. Photo 00-Whites Aviation 52741 (473i), 17 March 1960.  Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 00-434.

Artist unknown, ‘Wairoa Swamp’, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries. Art 21-042.

Photographer unknown: ‘Portrait of Mrs James West Stack’. Williams, Nigel (Canon), 1901-1980: Photographs of Maori chiefs and others. Ref: PA2-2782. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

Artist unknown, ‘Wairoa Pa’, Te Ao Mārama, Tauranga City Libraries. Art 21-043.

Bunka embroidery and a book by Rata Roden

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

One of the items recently digitised by the Heritage & Research Team is this framed embroidery mountain scene, worked by Rata Roden when she was 84.

'Japanese Punch' embroidery by Rata Roden, 1992  (Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 457/4/9)

Japanese punch embroidery, or bunka embroidery, bunka shishu, uses a specialised hollow needle to weave rayon thread from the front of the fabric, through to the back. The effect is often likened to oil paintings or watercolours. As finished pieces tend to be fragile, they tend to be displayed as art, rather than onto clothing.

 

Rata was born 'Bessie Rata Lever', and the Lever family papers in our archives include her workbox and pincushions.

Workbox and contents (Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 406/1)

 

Also in the workbox was a copy of her autobiography 'Here, there and most places'. Published in Tauranga in 1973, Rata acknowledged the assistance of Miss Joan Mirrielees, Kathleen Stratford and Gaye Rendell. The jacket blurb describes her story:

 

...Rata Roden has made an interesting record of her experiences in a variety of occupations in a variety of countries. It is the biography of a New Zealander, a farmer’s daughter, who, through dogged persistence realised her two main ambitions – to become a nurse, and to travel to foreign places. It is an absorbing account covering backblock farming days, nursing in the slums of London, living in many parts of Africa, the World War II in Egypt and England, travel to Japan, the Orient, Iceland, Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia. Altogether Mrs Roden has made eleven trips out of New Zealand and in her story she takes us with her."

 

Inside dust jacket and back cover of 'Here There and Most Places', published 1973.

 

Writing was in the family, as it's Rata's cousin Arthur Gray who wrote 'An Ulster Plantation'. Copies of both books are in the reference collection at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Library.

  

Sources

Clasper-Torch, Micah. (2021, April 27). The history of punch needle. Sister Magazine, (61). sister-mag.com/en/magazine/sistermag-no-61-may-2021/the-history-of-punch-needle

Roden, Rata. (1973). Here, there and most places. Ashford-Kent Ltd.

Tokyo Bunka Art. (2007, May). Japanese Bunka Embroidery - The art of thread. tokyo-bunka-art.blogspot.com/2007/05

Victoria's Custom Framing & Stitchery. (2024, December 3). Bunka embroidery. facebook.com/story.php

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Written by Kate Charteris, Heritage Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

Tauranga City Centennial Celebrations,1882-1982

 

Tauranga Centennial Programme. Courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries

I was recently given a pamphlet that was produced in 1982 as part of the yearlong centennial celebration of Tauranga becoming a borough. The official programme boasted one hundred and sixty-three events, with promoters, the Tauranga Public Relations Office, promising there were more to come. Several of the events listed left me pondering their connection to Tauranga becoming a township in 1882. The ‘Centennial North Island Midget Car Championships’ and the ‘Centennial Deerstalkers Championships’ are a long way from the trials and tribulations of our first council election.    

Tauranga Centennial Motocross event held at Rocky Cutting Road, Welcome Bay, on 3 January 1982
Screen grab of video, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. F40328

A film of the celebrations, shot by J.B. Kirk, C.R Thomas and N.W. Blackie and preserved by Tauranga City Libraries and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, fortunately provides a clue to the motivation of organisers.[i] Simply, the greater the diversity and number of contributors and participators, the greater the success of the celebrations. Bringing people together and creating a sense of belonging was paramount.

“The element of success lies in getting every group involved. Every group within the city in this centennial celebration has contributed its share to our tremendously successful activity. I wish everyone all the very best for the planning of the second centenary.” Mayor Ray Dillon

Mayor Ray Dillon speaking at the end of the film documenting the centenary
Screen grab of video, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. F40328

An event that brought people together was the much-anticipated Centennial Gala Parade held on Saturday 20 February and organised by Tauranga Rotary clubs. Despite unseasonal rain locals lined the footpaths along Devonport Road from 6^th Avenue to The Strand to watch Army and Navy representatives, marching bands and floats. The parade was followed by an air show, yacht regatta and harbour swimathon. Governor General Sir David Beattie was on hand to present the winners of the swimathon with trophies.

The Historic Village double decker bus enthralls onlookers at the top of Devonport Road,
as part of the Centennial Parade, 20 February 1982
Collection of Tauranga Museum, Ref. 0129/15

Beyond the centennial programme, there are other tangible reminders of the commemoration. For many of us interested in the history of Tauranga, the publication Tauranga 1882-1982: The Centennial of Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough, is the greatest legacy of the centennial – I may be biased as I’ve often turned to it as a starting point in my research.[ii] The museum collection also holds several souvenirs, including a coin minted in Tauranga and, of course, Bob’s Centennial Brew featuring Sir Robert Owens on the label.

Souvenir centennial coin commemorating Tauranga becoming a borough
Made by H.K. Graham Ltd., Tauranga
Collection of Tauranga Museum, Ref. 0123/22

Bob's Centennial Brew. Tauranga 1882-1982
Bottled in Hastings for Sir Bob Owens
Collection of Tauranga Museum, Ref. 0091/04

References

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[i] https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/93350

[ii] Known as ‘the brown book’, Tauranga 1882-1982: The Centennial of Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough was edited by A.C. Bellamy and had many contributors and supporters.