Beach Road Reserve Playground Whangamata

                                    " Hauturu The Friendly Taniwha  " Beach Road Playground, Whangamata
                                                                           Photo by ASB 2013

A habit from my working years and something I was encouraged to do - by an enterprising business owner - read everything cover to cover in the newspapers every day. Newspapers are a part of the past of NZ History right up to an hour ago. For a person who has a passion about our early New Zealand history, I have found that often the history may be found in newspapers and not always elsewhere.

Now why is this blog headed Beach Road Reserve Playground, Whangamata. Well true to working years tradition I read our local newspapers that come out once a week from cover to cover. On the Coromandel Peninsula Eastern side we get them all - the Leader, the Hauraki Herald, the Peninsula Post and not to forget a favorite of mine - the Coastal News. 

My mother used to report for the newspapers in the area for many years as well as write a column - " On the Beach." Think our side of the Peninsula is like all of New Zealand looking at all the newspapers on offer on Newspapers of New Zealand. They are our information sources - giving us the " hatches, matches and dispatches", who caught the big fish or who caught the shark and let it go( latest Coastal News 30/01/2014) and what happened last week.

Now what have newspapers got to do with Beach Road Reserve  Playground, Whangamata and New Zealand history which is a part of our past.
 

The Dolphin  - carved by one of the local loggers

with a chainsaw from the stump of the pine felled at Beach Road Reserve in the early 1990's

photo by CRB 1994

Well  last year reading cover- to -cover, the Coastal News, attention was drawn to changes for the Beach Road Playground at Whangamata planned by Council. Twelve years ago the Beach Road playground went through refurbishment and I wrote in " This and That " in 2001 that "recent years have seen changes to the Playground equipment because of the Playground Safety Laws. However Taniwha Hauturu has remained." I did not take photos of the upgrade to the playground or of " Taniwha Hauturu"

We have remained amazed since 2001 that the most used playground equipment has been what we still today call "  Taniwha Hauturu " The playground is relatively new history compared to the usual time of great grandparents and grand parents I write about. The history is written in " This and That " that the playground was a Garden Club  project during 1970 along with Lions and other organisations. My mother's specific project was the tyre play equipment. 

Born from  the story my father used to tell grandchildren and others. It was understandable wildlife and the reasons for not swimming by oneself in the harbour would be woven in to the story. My father was an Honorary warranted Wildlife Ranger with what was then New Zealand Forest Service, Wildlife Service  ( pre - Department of Conservation Days).

 

The other day having picnic at Beach Road Reserve Playground, once more the story was shared of the tyres at the playground and conversation about possible changes to the playground equipment once more. The thought is that  many physical heritage buildings and objects in New Zealand are demolished or changed. However there is no reason why stories as they have always been amongst families and communities passed down - some recorded. No doubt many families have stories passed down and told again and again. I think of our playground story, the "Wolfle Bug" story told to me to stop me playing in the drain on the farm and the "Spider" Story about Robert the Bruce passing on to me - keep trying. 

Yes this playground story can be read on the wonderful digital archives where it has been preserved by the National Library but here it is shared also on this blog. ( With photos also, because although we were told the story orally and were busy as a family seeing the playground to fruition, we just forgot to use photos to illustrate the story.)

" Hauturu the Friendly Taniwha"

" Once upon a time there was a Taniwha who lived on Hauturu (Clark Island). This  Taniwha was named Hauturu because he lived on the Island and helped his mother to guard all the plants and the Tuatara.
 

The Island in the photo is Hauturu ( Clark Island )

 However even though the Taniwha had lots of work to do, he in fact felt very lonely. For the Taniwha was still a child and longed to play with other children. In fact, the Taniwha was very friendly and loved people. However, not many people and especially children came to visit and play on Hauturu (Clark Island).

This was because they could only walk over at low tide with their parents and could not stay long as they had to get back to the Point before the tide came in.

 

                                       A very calm sea - Hauturu Island offshore

The Taniwha's mother knew Hauturu felt like this so, when the time was right taught him how to swim. Hauturu was excited - now he could visit and play with the children in the town. However, Hauturu was not allowed to do this until he could tread deep water and do sidestroke. Hauturu practiced and practiced swimming and then one day Hauturu's mother said " Hauturu you can swim over now but you must wear a life jacket, come back before breakfast and only play in the shallow area of the harbour.

 

 

Harbour 4 August 1988

 - Where the trees are is Beach Road Reserve Playground

Photo by H. M Stewart

 

Off Hauturu set and there he met the grandchildren of Jack Stewart. It was a lovely time playing with them. They had many friends and Hauturu let the children slide up and down the shiny scales on his back. Everyone was laughing and having fun, including Hauturu who was a true kid at heart.

Over the years, Hauturu travelled over once a week to play with the children near the Slips. Nobody minded that Hauturu had to go home in time for breakfast for they did too. In addition, just as Hauturu had work to do looking after plants and Tuatara they did too because there was always schoolwork to do."
 

 On the foreshore in front of Beach Reserve Playground

Photo about 2000

Yes the slips, pine trees and tuatara from Hauturu ( Clark ) Island  have gone but the tyre playground equipment has stayed on and who knows how many children have played " on the shiny scales over the last forty years. In their memories live the experience and for some the story. 

Playgrounds have been an integral part of past New Zealand history. The rocket at Waihi, the concrete boat Wakatere at Thames, the swings and seesaws at most playgrounds and " Hauturu " are all an integral part of childhood and history.
 

I wonder what future stories there will be about the Beach Road Playground, Whangamata.

 

 

Tyre Equipment , ( Hauturu ) Playground Beach Road Reserve, Whangamata

photo by ASB 2013

                     

Reference Source :

 Links highlighted in blog

Eastern Coromandel Coasters and Cargoes

The cutter Janet, a typical coastal trader from Auckland.
Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 110, 5 November 1938, Page 24
courtesy Papers Past National Library NZ

Beyond the white

Of Maria Light

Where the long, green seas go tramping in,

And the red of Columbia Shoal,

Tramping in, stamping in,

With slow, resistless roll —

                                                 W Lawson

Beating the Coastal Route

Despite of the lack of roading on the Eastern Seaboard of the Coromandel, settlers soon adapted. Just as always from when the first peoples came to this area, the sea and coastal transport was turned to. By the early 1900's coasters had become a lifeline for those farming on the coast.

A stone wharf  was built at Whitianga thought to have been built way back in about 1838 and recorded by IPENZ  Engineering Heritage NZ   as being  the oldest wharf structure in New Zealand. It is said that Gordon Davis Browne ( AKA Brown), an early merchant of Sydney was placed by Captain Ranulph Dacre to supervise the cutting of spars to fill a contract for the English Navy. Browne built a stone wharf and established a timber mill. The stone wharf from local material aided loading and unloading of cargo. The wharf is still there today in 2014 - used by the local ferry to pick up and drop off passengers - now called Ferry Landing.

Ferry Landing ( Early Stone Wharf ) Whitianga ( also called Mercury Bay ) - Photo by CRB 2012

By mid August 1865 another large saw mill  was newly opened at Tairua. During the first seven months of that year the 21 ton cutter, Ringdove,  Poulgrain her master, beat the coastal sea route to and from Auckland carrying cargoes of mill machinery, bush tools for the new mill being built and passengers. The return cargoes from reading the shipping lists (papers past )were gum, beef and passengers. From accounts the owners of the sawmill were up to date with the latest (for 1865) of mill machinery - 

"These  mills, the property of Messrs. Seccombe and Bleazard, were opened at Tairua about two months ago, and promise to become one of the leading mills in the province. The spirited proprietors have, at a great outlay, imported machinery on the newest principles, the most useful of which is the band saw, and we think it deserving of a few remarks. This saw is of unusually large size, in one entire piece, and in the, short space of twenty minutes will cut 550 feet, or at the rate of 2000 feet per hour, any size from up to 60 inches in width. The boiler attached to the mill is one of Harrison's patent, of 60 horse power, and takes up 8 feet square room. The bush surrounding these mills abound with the finest description of Kauri trees, and of easy access to the workmen. Yesterday we saw some specimens of timber from Tairua, received by the Mapere, and it now lies on the Company's wharf, Custom-house-street. It is from 1 inch in thickness up to 12 x 36, and it is certainly some of the best we have seen. Mr. T. W. Brown is agent for this Company, and he announces the timber for sale."

                                         THE TAIRUA SAW MILLS. New Zealand Herald,  19 October 1865, Page 4

Not long after the Tairua Saw mill opened, Captain White of the schooner Mapere reported the "commencement of the Tairua Wharf."

Looking towards Tairua and current wharf - photo by CRB 2014

The cutter Ringdove was typical of the coasters of the era - under sail and dependent on wind, sea and current. With the saw mills opened the coast saw cutters, schooners and brigantines beating their way to the small eastern seaboard Coromandel Peninsula settlements with cargoes.  

Coromandel Kauri gum was also considered good quality and in the early days   saw the cutters amongst them Mary Jane - Captain De Thierry; Tamatuiana - Captain Tamaki; Kate - Captain Nicholls; Margaret - Captain Kennedy; Ringdove - Poulgrain. Amongst the schooners were Boyd - Captain Neil; George - Captain  Ngakirikiri; Mapere - Captain White with cargoes of gum. The kauri gum coming from the valleys of Whangamata, Wharekawa and Tairua.

 Whangamata had no wharf built in those early days even though coasters were  bringing cargoes of kauri gum from Whangamata  and the first Whangamata store was opened in 1873. The  Whangamata Goldfields  opening date declared for 1873, saw enterprising J.S. MacFarlane, Agent for the Steam Packet Company announcing a special Anniversary Day trip of p.s. Enterprise up the Waihou River from Thames for the opening of the Whangamata Block. Throughout this year, J.S. MacFarlane also advertised that the steamer s.s. Southern Cross (by now doing a regular run Auckland, Whitianga (Mercury Bay), Tauranga, Opotiki return) would call at Whangamata (“if sufficient inducement offered “ ) 

Page 1 Advertisements Column 1 Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIX, Issue 4811, 27 January 1873, Page 1

courtesy Papers Past, National Library New Zealand

 

His deal must have been taken up for there are oral and written stories of the area passed down of the goods, machinery and passengers unloaded on the beach near the harbour entrance ( still no wharf then). From there it is said they were taken up to the gold mining and logging settlements up the Wentworth and Wharekawa Valleys.

Whangamata From the Air 1988 photo B Williams

James and Andrew Stewart, invited guests of George Fraser aboard the steamer  Rotomahana attended the new and upgraded Mercury Bay Saw mill opening, end of March 1883. By then regular steamer runs along the eastern seaboard coast were the norm.
 

The NZ Kauri Timber Company Prospectus of July 1888 reflected the mix of types of  coasters part of the purchase from the various New Zealand timber companies:

From Auckland Timber Company Limited, the steamers Terror, Yankee Doodle and Hokianga along with the schooners Mariner, Kauri and Rata.

From New Zealand Timber Company Limited, the cutters Fanny, Nellie and Gypsy, the barges Progress and Waitemata along with some punts and boats.

From Union Steam Saw, Moulding and Sash Door Company Limited.   the brigantine Aratapu.

From Messrs David Blair & Son the barques Grassmere and Killarney along with several boats, punts and rafting gear.

Steamers continued to make regular calls to Whangamata  dropping machinery, supplies and passengers, their entry into the Harbour dependent on the tide. During this decade of great interest, out at sea, off the coast was the reported in the Bay of Plenty times of “the somewhat unusual sight of a waterspout was this morning witnessed by those on board the Waiotahi when opposite Whangamata.” Fortunately the Waiotahi was not in its path. (Bay Of Plenty Times, 6 October 1897, p2)

Into a new century and a railway was opened at Waihi in 1905. This gave settlers and itinerants on the other side of the ranges a choice (still no roads). Either pack horse to Waihi and the railway, or use what had now become a regular coastal steamer call to Whangamata and Tairua. These were the steamers of the Northern Steamship Company and amongst those calling were Ngatiawa, Waitangi, Waipu, Waiotahi, Chelmsford and Daphne.

Schooners and cutters were being superceded and steamers well established, by the beginning of this new century. Other coasters appeared as regulars along the east coast - the “workhorses” of the coast (their sails giving way to motors). 

Over the 20th Century these scows, able to haul heavy freight,  carried cargo of logs, shingle, sand, machinery and livestock. Leyland & O Brien who had a contract up the Wharekawa Valley found the scow useful for their needs.

Rangi - One of three owned by Leyland & Obrien

 The bar at the entrance to Tairua Harbour was treacherous at times, Whangamata little better, especially in stormy weather, bringing high swells crashing against the rocky cliffs.

 Looking toward Entrance to Tairua Harbour across the bar. In centre rear of photo Motuhoa ( Shoe ) Island
photo by CRB 2014

 Cliffs Northwards of Whangamata Harbour Entrance - Photo by H M Stewart 1988

                                        
                                 

The 1860's  saw the sea claim at Whangamata - the cutter Annie Laurie, at Tairua -the schooner Mapere.

The sea continued to claim on this coast in the 1870s  - the cutter Eclair, schooner Onwards, cutter Brunette, brig Syren, cutter Glance at Tairua.

The 1880's  saw the sea claim the cutter Half Caste at Boat Harbour near Tairua, a boat said to have delivered illicit liquor to Port Charles and Opotiki.

Into the 1890's it was the Kauri Timber Company's cutter ( AKA ketch ) Nellie wrecked at Whenuakite ( Hot Water Beach ) 4th August 1894 along with the brigantine Aratapu in May 1898 ashore near Whangamata.

Whenuakite - Hot Water Beach -  Photo by CRB 2012

   The sea was to claim the scow Surprise in 1907 with the loss of life and one survivor, who scrambled up the cliffs at Ohui to be rescued (exhausted) by local farming family, the McGregors’. Later years (1976) were to see the wreck of the scow Hipi at Papakura Bay (a rugged area between Whangamata and Whiritoa). 

Papakura Bay - Southwards of Whangamata

Photo by J M Stewart 1970's

On 3 February 1919 Captain Edward Sellars and his crew of six landed ashore safely but the s.s. Wairoa, a small steamer was run aground on the bar at Tairua. Newspapers noted that the bar was "at all times  treacherous." The engine block from s.s. Wairoa, today in 2014, remains at Royal Billy Point, Pauanui - a reminder.

Engine block of s.s. Wairoa wrecked on Tairua Bar 3 February 1919 - Photo by CRB 2014

In March 1926, the “locals “of Tairua awoke to find the biggest ship yet, run fast aground on The Slipper Reef. This was the s.s. Manaia, said to be 1100 tons. Shortly after this there was a change on this stretch of coast.

Farming began to take the place of gum and gold – in the beginning days farmers using both the road/rail transport and sea transport for their produce. My own memories are of the farmers of Slipper Island (Normans followed by the Needhams) ran a barge backwards and forward ferrying livestock and supplies to and from Tairua.

Another group of settlers established themselves at Whangamata and Tairua, lured there by the bounty of the sea – fish. These harbours were to see in the place of schooners, cutters and steamers - fishing boats, the wharves (now there) useful places to unload the catch and bait up for the next trip. Many of these fishing boats, although a more recent coastal heritage of this area, in fact had a long heritage of their own and that is another blog.

Wharf, Whangamata Harbour 1970's - Photo by J M Stewart

Reference Source:

•   Cory Wright, Phyllis, “Jewel by the Sea”, Printcorp Ltd, Tauranga, 1988
•  Ingram, Chas.W.N. and Wheatley, P Owen. Shipwrecks New Zealand Disasters 1795 - 1936. Dunedin: Dunedin Book Publishing Association, 1936.
• Williamson, Beverley M, Whangamata – 100 Years of Change, Goldfields Print Ltd, Paeroa, 1988 Boat Day 
• The NZ Kauri Timber Company Prospectus of July 1888
•  Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 7, May 1967 Whangamata Stores by Jack and the Late Harry Watt Ohinemuri Journal
•  Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 1, June 1964 WAIHI TO WHANGAMATA "LUCK AT LAST", WHANGAMATA -- By the late Mr. Ben Gwilliam Ohinemuri Journal
• MERCURY BAY TIMBER COMPANY. New Zealand Herald, 3 April 1883, Page 6
• Page 3 Advertisements Column 1 Auckland Star,  16 July 1888, Page 3 Papers Past National Library New Zealand
  
  
  
  
  

      

 

 

 

Tall Ships visit Auckland

Tall Ship Europa

 Tall Ships Arrive

Beginning of Labour Weekend October 2013 marked an event not often seen in Auckland, New Zealand in modern times - the arrival of nine "tall ships" - part of the Tall Ships Festival. They were New Zealand's own Spirit of New Zealand along with the barque Picton Castle, ship Lord Nelson; from the Netherlands - Bark Europa, three-masted topsail schooner Oosterschelde and Tecla; NZ Northland's own R Tucker Thompson, a gaff rigged top sail schooner; last but not least-Breeze, a brigantine.
 

Stern of Tall Ship Picton Castle at Queens Wharf October 2013 - photo CRB

The Tall Ships berthed at Queens and Princes Wharf. Queens Wharf has played a significant historical role in the development of Auckland City since its beginnings way back in 1852. Then it was a timber wharf.

Tall ship Bark Europa from the Netherlands alongside " The Cloud " - Photo CRB

The Tall Ships berthed at Queens Wharf, bought back Part of the Past - another era when tall ships and masts crowded Queens Wharf in the Port of Auckland. A time when Queens Wharf was bustling with the loading and unloading of cargo.

Queens Wharf Auckland Waterfront

In those days Queens Wharf was a bit like an International  Airport - people

coming and going, emigrants arriving, newspaper journalists hovering around to get the latest story from shipping owners such as Henderson & Macfarlane,

Northern Steamship Company, Union Steamship Company. ( In those days there was no Skype or television news.) Nor was there " The Cloud" on the wharf such as there is in 2013.

Bow of Europa

                             

Those aboard ship throughout this Part of the Past, as in 2013, continued on with the daily tasks of scrubbing the decks; getting sails and rigging ship shape and ready for sea ; catching up on personal chores.

Washday aboard Picton Castle

Ship Shape in the washing department

Making sails and rigging ready for sea

Decks Shipshape and ready for sea

Mainsails Set

Sailing on

The last day of Labour Weekend 2013 and the end of the " Tall Ships Festival." They sailed out of Auckland Harbour and out to sea on the next leg of their voyage.

Down the Channel, in view of Bastion Point

Past Takuranga (what also became known by early European settlers in the early 1840s  "Flagstaff Hill"). Part of the Past in New Zealand History - the era of sailing ships. There were no motors in those days and with reliance on winds, tides and waters, the journey into Port could sometimes take days. Signalmen on "Flagstaff Hill" raised different flags to let the townspeople of Auckland know which ships were arriving. Also to help guide the ships in. 

One such flag used was to signal arrival of the clipper barque, Joseph Fletcher. This ship's  flag that of a private signal - a lion rampart holding a scallop shell, argent, on a field, gules. 

Past Takukuranga

Then on out to sea past Bean Rock Lighthouse and Rangitoto Island on the Port side of the tall ships. Bean Rock Lighthouse seen by these tall ships and many others since its installation in 1870.

Bound for the next leg of the voyage.

Reference Source:

• Tall Ships Festival 2013 Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum
• Takuranga - Flagstaff Hill North Shore's Monthly Magazine Channel
• Passenger Lists Joseph Fletcher New Zealand Yesteryears