Dune country

The west coast of Auckland and Northland has prevailing strong south-westerly winds, difficult harbour entrances and many long exposed beaches. Transported to the shore by ocean currents, the sand on the beaches was driven inland by wind action along very extensive sections of coast, so that, where steep, hilly topography does not dominate and prevent the migration, dunes run inland for up to 15 km. Over time the raw sand became covered with forest, until it was disturbed by Māori burning or deteriorating climate and wind patterns. The Kaipara Harbour was formed over tens of thousands of years by massive deposits of sand forming peninsulas which enclosed a bay. Most of the other sheltered harbours, such as the Hokianga, were formed by somewhat smaller sand peninsulas. ¹⁴ Settlement on this coast seems to have been late in pre-European history, with widespread deforestation on the extensive dunes commencing about 400 years ago. Earlier ages for first settlement have been reported only for the far north of Ninety Mile Beach, and there is a single early (thirteenth-century) radiocarbon age for settlement at Maioro south of the Manukau Harbour. ¹⁵

Two broad zones held contrasting settlement potential: the inner harbour shores, and the active dune country of the ocean coast. The highest, inland tracts of sand towards the harbours had a kauri forest cover. The surfaces of these sands are now exposed as a brittle crust, occasionally broken into and eroded but generally stable. The soils are of poor natural fertility. These areas have relatively few pre-European sites except near the edge of the harbours and on the hill country inland from the immediate coastal strip. ¹⁶ Pā are common on the eastern harbour margins and on the central hills of this dune country.

Further towards the ocean coast, the younger, sandy soils were more prone to wind erosion, especially once their original vegetation cover was destroyed. In periods with little wind erosion, the blown sand has been stabilised first by the colonisation of manuka and kanuka, then by a light coastal forest cover. This locked up an available source of nutrients that, once released by firing, were used for Māori gardening. Gardens were also created on swamps in the dunelands. Burning not only set off a renewed bout of erosion, forming the apparent duneland 'deserts' that are seen today, but also offered a useful opportunity for Māori settlement. These were the subject of study by John Coster during the early 1980s as part of an effort to reduce the destructive effects of planting pine trees. ¹⁷ There were small whānau settlements throughout the western dune country, but not within 1 km of the sea. ¹⁸ Occasionally there are pā, especially by the dune lakes, examples of which are illustrated in chapter 15 where the primary point of interest is gum-digging. On dunes in the immediate vicinity of the coast are remarkable, more or less continuous, large middens, scattered over and eroding down the surfaces of the unstable dunes.

Volcanic landscapes

Because of their landscape prominence, the pā, pits, terraces and gardens of the volcanic cones are easily recognised. The lava fields and ash soils of the northern volcanoes attracted pre-European Māori because of their horticultural potential. The principal areas of good soils are in the inland Bay of Islands, in localities just to the west of Whangarei township, and on the Auckland isthmus itself. In some other places in Auckland, the volcanic products turned to sticky clays, unsuited to horticulture. The land south of the Manukau Harbour was not settled, providing a great contrast with the settlement on the surrounding fertile soils. ¹⁹

Polynesians would instantly have recognised the potential of these cones because of their familiarity with the high-island volcanic cones of Eastern Polynesia. The soils are of recent origin, dating from the last 10,000 years or so, and have not been in existence long enough to have been leached of their fertility. They are produced from lava flows and localised ash showers that weather over time to friable, fertile soils. ²⁰ The soils also tend to be quite stony, offering the natural properties activeb sought by Māori gardeners. Because they are stony, the] cannot be readily ploughed and their original Māori land use patterns have survived in good condition in several localities.

In the Bay of Islands, the large terraced cones am lava fields of the Taiamai plains (lying from Kaikohe t( Kawakawa) are good examples of this landscape. Again as at south Manukau, the contrast between these soil: and the adjacent clay country is striking. ²¹ Pouerua, one

Pouērua, a volcanic cone pā in the inland Bay of Islands

A volcanic cone typically splits open to one side as it approaches its mature form, with a new vent forming outside the split. This has happened at Pouērua. The pā has been built in a number of defended segments around the rim and has a total perimeter-length of some 600 m—about the same size as the larger ridge pā in other regions such as Taranaki or the Bay of Plenty. The view is to the north. The interior of the cone is about 350 m across.

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One Tree Hill, Maungakiekie, Auckland City

The soft scoria slopes of the volcanic cones have been extensively terraced. The scarps were probably defensive while the upper flat areas held houses, storage pits and other living space. A ditch and bank has been constructed on the level ridge immediately to the left of the tihi (summit platform) where the obelisk has been erected. The broad lower terraces in the foreground and at right were probably for gardens which would have spread well out into the built-up areas of today.

of the most spectacular of the volcanic cones, was closely settled by Māori. The cone and its immediate vicinity have recently been studied by Doug Sutton ²² who found the area was first settled 500 years ago. His work has shown that the cone was extensively terraced before the present form of the defensive ditches and banks was created in the early fifteenth century. The most recent occupants of this pā were hapū of the Ngā Puhi subtribe, Ngāti Rahiri. ²³

The cones provide a unique opportunity to see distinctive patterns of fortification. Usually, the cones have a crater, where the volcano originally erupted. These are often breached in the course of successive eruptions, so that the crater is open to one side. The horseshoe-shaped rim that resulted was treated by the Māori much the same as the ridges in hill country elsewhere. Its exterior slopes page break

The Ohaeawai battlefield of July 1845 and St Michael's Church, Bay of Islands

In the watercolour by John Williams (top right), the British troops are advancing across the centre of the field. In the left foreground is the British camp and slightly forward of that again is a lengthy breastwork of which no trace is to be seen in the modern photograph (above). (It would lie at about the line of the old Ohaeawai Maori School, the prominent white building with a wide verandah.) St Michael's Church is on the same location as the original stockade—where it commanded the field forward (north of) a shallow gully (filled with many dark trees in the photograph). The British troops attacked the near right (northwest) corner of the fortification from the north and from a position in the gully running towards the camera viewpoint about 100 m west of the churchyard. Both painting and photograph are oriented to the south-east.

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St Michael's Church, Ohaeawai

The enclosing stone wall was built not long after the church in 1871 and probably followed a depression or other outline left by the original stockade and perimeter rifle trench. Traces of the trench could be seen until recently in the vicinity of the small stockyards in the immediate left foreground. The parallel lines running away to the upper right from the stone wall are the result of ploughing. The view is to the north-east, and the walled enclosure is 85 by 50 m in extent.

page 108 were intensively terraced and scarped, partly for defensive reasons. Across the ridge were built successive lines of defensive ditches and banks. In places, the ditches encircle a segment of the rim, with other terraced segments lying outside the heavily fortified centre. The largest populations probably gathered on the cone in certain seasons, in autumn and winter perhaps, or when war threatened. The total population centred on a cone may have been as large as 1,000 people, but was generally fewer than this. ²⁴

Below the cones lie undulating volcanic stonefields— the prime horticultural lands. Although the cone defences just discussed were probably built by hapū or iwi, the gardening would have been done by whānau living in small settlements around the cone and as much as 5 km from it. ²⁵ Further away from the cone, they may have found it convenient to align themselves with other kin on another cone or in another area. The stonefield gardens are marked by concentrations of stone gathered from the fields and placed in mounds; occasionally the stones were placed in rows. There are also stone-faced terraces and stone-edged pathways. Other features related to horticulture are field boundaries, in the form of trenches, and storage pits. The trenches lie at the foot of the volcanic cone slopes and the bottoms of the small, fertile valleys surrounding it. As discussed in chapter 4, they may have been not only garden boundaries, but also simple forms of irrigation with water or moisture concentrated at the bottom. Open rectangular storage pits were dug on the cones or on low ridges or hillocks in the garden areas.

The areas on the stony country around the cone were also the site of much nineteenth-century Māori settlement. The Te Waimate mission house, site of a model farm established by the Anglican Church in 1831, was established in this general area to be near such Māori settlement, ²⁶ and will be described in some detail in chapter 16.

Cones were also occupied in Auckland where the stonefields are smaller, but with much greater numbers of the cones themselves. Mangere, Maungawhau (Mt Eden) and Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill) are three such cones. Other examples are Orākei, Mt Roskill, Mt Wellington (Maungarei) and Mt Albert (Owairaka). ²⁷ Many other cones have been and are being, sadly, ruined by the extraction of scoria for industrial aggregate. The radiocarbon ages for the gardens in the Auckland isthmus tend to be slightly older than those for the inland Bay of Islands. The ages are as old as 700 years, ²⁸ in contrast to the inland Bay of Islands, reflecting perhaps the accessibility of the isthmus from the sea. The Hauraki Gulf also has one island created by volcanic activity, Browns Island, with significant pā and stonefield gardens.

Nineteenth-century sites

Sites of the first, northern phase of fighting in the New Zealand Wars, which took place in 1845 and 1846, ²⁹ have left significant landscape elements, notably Ohaeawai and Ruapekapeka. Fortifications important in the opening stages of the fighting were Puketutu in the Okaihau locality, and Ohaeawai near Ngawha, inland Bay of Islands. There is little to be seen today at Puketutu. ³⁰ Ohaeawai is now the site of a church, St Michael's, of the Anglican Māori pastorate. The stone walls enclosing the churchyard are understood to lie on the line of the original trench and stockade. They were probably built in 1870-71 at the same time as the church was built. ³¹ The stockade line may have remained as a slight but distinct perimeter trench in 1870, 25 years after the fighting, and the workmen may have followed it in creating the wall. In its original form, the fortification had a distinctive double stockade, with a screen of heavy support posts, external padding of bundles of flax, and a firing page break

Ruapekapeka, scene of fighting between the British and Kawiti in the summer of 1845-46

The pā lies on a broad ridge and consists of a perimeter of closely spaced rifle pits, with many pits within the defended area. The perimeter originally had a substantial stockade in places and a solid screen of tree trunks designed to resist shelling or solid cannon balls. The screen or stockade was immediately outside the distinctive line of rectangular pits forming the perimeter. Note the use of a distinct bastion to the south (bottom of the photograph) and the flanking gun pits at the north-west and north-east corners. The well (fenced for safety) is at bottom left immediately outside the main perimeter. The pā occupies an area of about 110 by 80 m. In the event, most of Kawiti's force had left the pā during the shelling, and had occupied the slopes to the south (in the foreground in this view). When the pā was assaulted by British troops on foot, they found little resistance until they attempted to go beyond the southern perimeter towards the forest edge. The view is to the north.

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The British forward position on the ridgeline about 300 m north of Ruapekapeka

The faint trace of ditch and bank enclosure is the artillery position. When this position was established there appears to have been some concern about fire from the pā and the possibility of a flanking counter-attack, hence the entrenchment of the artillery. To the rear of the entrenchments is a small enclosure said to be the 'first aid post' (another possibility is a munitions store). The artillery position is approximately 35 by 25 m in plan. The view is to the southeast. The photo appears to be out of focus because of the indistinct nature of the archaeological features.

gap at the bottom. On the interior of the screen (peke-rangi ³² ) was a rifle trench and breastwork perimeter. The pā was subjected to an unsuccessful assault by marines and infantry, and many casualties resulted. ³³

Of the surviving nineteenth-century sites in Auckland and Northland, one is widely recognised as being of national significance. Ruapekapeka, the last engagement in the northern phase of fighting in the New Zealand Wars, lies in hill country about 10 km south of the inner, estuarine reaches of the south-western Bay of Islands. The British soldiers used heavy cannon and howitzers with ball and shell against the pā; rockets were also used. Kawiti, the principal chief of the group occupying the pā, had designed the site with this in prospect. The interior defences of Ruapekapeka consisted of deep pits roofed over with timber and earth, 'bomb shelters', while the perimeter was defended by a heavily timbered palisade, flax-padding, and a continuous line of rectangular pits at the foot of an inner bank. Bastions and flanking angles were formed in the perimeter. These earthwork features all show clearly in the aerial photograph view.

In the fighting, the northern edge of the stockade was breached by cannon balls. As a result of the persistent cannon-fire, most of Kawiti's forces had been forced to camp in the rear of the defensive perimeter. On the advice of their Māori scouts, British troops attacked suddenly, on a Sunday morning. They found the fortification only lightly defended, and forced Kawiti himself to abandon it. The engagement was finished finally by the British forces occupying the pā against Kawiti's counter-attack from breastworks and the forest edge to the south. ³⁴ The position in which the British troops hac their cannon also survives as a shallow ditch and breast work. I photographed this site in February 1992, just after it fell into a light overcast. Luckily, there were distinct crop marks (browned grass) on the breastworks and their pattern shows clearly in the photograph.