Hokianga Harbour
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The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the
North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
of
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. The original name, still used by local
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
, is ''Te Kohanga o Te Tai Tokerau'' ("the nest of the northern people") or ''Te Puna o Te Ao Marama'' ("the wellspring of moonlight"). The full name of the harbour is Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe — "the place of Kupe's great return".


Geography

The Hokianga is in the
Far North District The Far North District is the northernmost territorial authority district of New Zealand, consisting of the northern part of the Northland Peninsula in the North Island. It stretches from North Cape and Cape Reinga / Te Rerenga Wairua in the ...
, which is in the
Northland Region The Northland Region ( mi, Te Tai Tokerau) is the northernmost of New Zealand's 16 local government regions. New Zealanders sometimes refer to it as the Winterless North because of its mild climate all throughout the year. The main population ...
. The area is northwest of Whangarei—and west of
Kaikohe Kaikohe is the seat of the Far North District of New Zealand, situated on State Highway 12 about 260 km from Auckland. It is the largest inland town and highest community above sea level in the Northland Region. With a population of over ...
—by road. The estuary extends inland for from the
Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...
. It is navigable for small craft for much of its length, although there is a bar across the mouth. In its upper reaches the Rangiora Narrows separate the mouths of the Waihou and Mangamuka Rivers from the lower parts of the harbour. 12,000 years ago, the Hokianga was a river valley flanked by steep bush-clad hills. As the last ice age regressed, the dramatic rise in sea level slowly flooded the valley turning it into a tidal saltwater harbour with abundant sheltered deep water anchorages. This was the harbour that the explorer Kupe left from, and in 1822 it was home to the first European timber entrepreneurs. southern right whales possibly frequented the bay historically, prior to significant depletion of the species caused by commercial and illegal hunting. Today, large whales are rarely seen in the bay, although the harbour is a well-regarded area in which to watch smaller
dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
s and
killer whale The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pa ...
s. Numerous small islands dot the Hokianga, notably Ruapapaka Island,
Motukaraka Island Motukaraka Island (Island of Karaka) is a uninhabited island off the coast of Beachlands in Auckland, New Zealand with historical significance and a rich history of Māori occupation. The island is flat and approximately 15m above sea leve ...
, and To Motu Island, the latter being the site of a former .


Arms and inlets

As the Hokianga is a drowned valley, it is the mouth of numerous "tributaries", many of which retain the name river while effectively being bays or inlets. Clockwise from the mouth of the Hokianga, these include: * Whakarapa River *
Motuti River The Motuti River is a short, wide river in the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. More a silty arm of the Hokianga Harbour than a true river, it flows south from the settlement of Motuti to the main channel of the Hokianga west of ...
* Whangapapatiki Creek * Tapuwae River * Mangamuka River *
Orira River The Orira River is a river of the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows southwest, and for much of its length it is a northwestern arm of the Hokianga Harbour. See also *List of rivers of New Zealand This is a list of all ...
*
Waihou River The Waihou River is located in the northern North Island of New Zealand. Its former name, Thames River, was bestowed by Captain James Cook in November 1769, when he explored of the river from the mouth. An older Māori name was "Wai Kahou Roun ...
*
Wairere River The Wairere River or Wairere Stream is a river of the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows northwest to reach the Waihou River, an arm of the Hokianga Harbour. See also *List of rivers of New Zealand This is a list of all ...
*
Waima River Waima is a suburb of West Auckland, New Zealand. It is under the local governance of the Auckland Council. The majority of the modest population is clustered around the comparatively prominent Waima superette, situated just off the main art ...
*
Omanaia River The Omanaia River is a river of the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows northwest from the Waima Forest, first as a stream and then as a silty arm of the Hokianga Harbour. The township of Rawene stands at the point where the ...
* Whirinaki River


Settlements

The area around the harbour is divided in three by the estuary. To the south are the settlements of
Waimamaku Waimamaku is a village and rural community, based along the banks of the Waimamaku River south of the Hokianga Harbour on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located in the Far North District and Northland Region on State Highw ...
,
Ōmāpere Ōmāpere is a settlement on the south shore of Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 runs through Ōmāpere. Opononi is on the shore to the north of Ōmāpere. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a ...
,
Opononi Opononi is a settlement on the south shore of Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 runs through Opononi. Ōmāpere is on the shore to the south of Opononi and Pakanae to the northeast. The New Zealand Ministry for Cult ...
, Pakanae,
Koutu Koutu is a suburb of Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. Koutu was originally a home for the people of Ngati Whakaue and Ngāti Uenukukopako and has been in existence since before the establishment of Rotorua T ...
, Whirinaki,
Rawene Rawene is a town on the south side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 passes to the south. The town lies at the apex of a peninsula. A car ferry links it to Kohukohu and the northern Hokianga. History Rawen ...
,
Omanaia Omanaia ( mi, Ōmanaia) is a settlement in the Hokianga area of Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. It is part of the Hokianga South statistical area, which covers the southern side of Hokianga Harbour between Rawene and Koutu. For demograph ...
, Waima, and
Taheke Taheke or Tāheke is a village and rural community in the Far North District and Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located west of Kaikohe and east of Waima on State Highway 12. Marae Tāheke Marae is a meeting place of th ...
; to the north are Broadwood, Pawarenga,
Panguru Panguru is a community in the northern Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. The Whakarapa Stream flows from the Panguru Range in the Warawara Forest to the west, through Panguru and into the Hokianga. Demographics The SA1 statistical a ...
,
Mitimiti Mitimiti is a small settlement in Northland, New Zealand. It lies close to the Warawara Forest, between the mouths of the Whangape Harbour and Hokianga Harbour on Northland's west coast, 44 km west of Kohukohu. Mitimiti is part of the Hok ...
, and Rangi Point; and at the top of the harbour upstream from the narrows are
Horeke Horeke ( mi, Hōreke) is a settlement in the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. Kohukohu is just across the harbour. The Horeke basalts are located near the town, and can be viewed on an easy stroll through the Wair ...
, Kohukohu, and Mangamuka.


History


Pre-colonial times

According to
Te Tai Tokerau Te Tai Tokerau () is a New Zealand parliamentary Māori electorate that was created out of the Northern Maori electorate ahead of the first Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) election in 1996. It was held first by Tau Henare representing New Ze ...
tradition,
Kupe Kupe ( ~1180-1320) was a legendary Polynesian explorer, navigator and great rangatira of Hawaiki, who is said to have been the first human to discover New Zealand. Whether Kupe existed historically is likely but difficult to confirm. He is g ...
, the legendary Polynesian navigator and explorer, settled in Hokianga in approximately 925 AD, after his journey of discovery from
Hawaiki In Polynesian mythology, (also rendered as in Cook Islands Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories. ...
aboard the waka (canoe) named '' Matahorua''. When Kupe left the area, he declared that this would be the place of his return, leaving several things behind—including the
bailer Bailing is the process of removing water from a vessel. Hand bailers A hand bailer is a device used for manually removing water which has entered a vessel. In the simplest case, it is merely a smaller container which can be filled and then empt ...
of his canoe. Later, Kupe's grandson Nukutawhiti returned from Hawaiki to settle in Hokianga. In the 14th century, the great chief Puhi landed just south of the
Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for its ...
. The tribe of Puhi,
Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 165, ...
, slowly extended westwards to reach the west coast and to colonise both sides of Hokianga. Māori regard Hokianga as one of the oldest settlements in Aotearoa, and it remains a heartland for the people. Rahiri, the 17th-century founder of the Ngāpuhi
iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...
, was born at Whiria to the south of the harbour, where a monument stands to his memory. In the course of expansion, Ngāpuhi created and maintained over centuries a complex network of walking tracks, many of which evolved into today's roads.


Pā sites

More than a dozen sites lie close to the Hokianga, among them notably Motukauri Pã, located on a headland at the end of a
tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island becom ...
between the Motuti River and Whangapapatiki Creek mouths.


The arrival of the Europeans

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
(and, later,
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
)
missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
were guided along the Ngāpuhi walking tracks to make their own discovery of Hokianga and its accessible timber resources. Their reports soon reached merchant captains in the Bay of Islands. Captain James Herd of the ''Providence'' responded first, and with missionary
Thomas Kendall Thomas Kendall (13 December 1778 – 6 August 1832) was a New Zealand missionary, recorder of the Māori language, schoolmaster, arms dealer, and Pākehā Māori. Early life: Lincolnshire and London, 1778–1813 A younger son of farmer Ed ...
as guide and translator, crossed the bar and entered the harbour in 1822. His was the first European ship to do so, and it sailed away with the first shipment of timber from the Hokianga. His success inspired a strong following—the deforestation of Hokianga had begun and would be complete by the turn of the century. The only disincentive to Hokianga's exploitation was the harbour bar. Of the hundreds of ships that successfully negotiated it, records show that 16 were lost. Most came to grief when leaving fully laden, becoming caught in the wind shadow cast by South Head, where deep water lay. A temporary lull or change in wind direction could cause a sailing ship to lose steerage way and be swept onto the rocky shore. In 1828, the missionary
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
''Herald'', built by
Henry Williams Henry Williams may refer to: Politicians * Henry Williams (activist) (born 2000), chief of staff of the Mike Gravel 2020 presidential campaign * Henry Williams (MP for Northamptonshire) (died 1558), Member of Parliament (MP) for Northamptonshire ...
and sailed by Gilbert Mair, foundered while trying to enter Hokianga Harbour.Crosby, Ron (2004) – ''Gilbert Mair, Te Kooti's Nemesis''. Reed Publ. Auckland. p.27 The last recorded shipwreck involved the schooner ''Isabella de Fraine'', lost with all eight crew in July 1928 after capsizing on the bar at the entrance to the harbour. In 1837, a French commoner with delusions of being an aristocrat, the self-titled "Baron"
Charles de Thierry Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry (April 1793 – 8 July 1864) was a nineteenth-century adventurer who attempted to establish his own sovereign state in New Zealand in the years before the Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and the M ...
, sailed with 60 settlers into this hive of export activity to claim an immense tract of land that he believed he had purchased 15 years earlier in exchange for 36 axes. He was eventually granted about at Rangiahua where he set up his colony, declaring himself "Sovereign Chief of New Zealand", a title that failed to endear him to Ngāpuhi. His project collapsed, but it highlighted to the Colonial Service the need to protect against rival European powers. The year after de Thierry arrived, another Frenchman, Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier, arrived, with the aim of establishing a Catholic mission. He found the southern shores firmly in the hands of Methodist and Anglican missionaries, but the northern side was ripe for conversion. His remains, recently claimed by Ngāpuhi, lie buried where the mission began. Today the harbour, like the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
itself, stands between Protestant and Catholic. The lawyer and naturalist Sir Walter Lawry Buller was born in Hokianga in 1838. Within six days of the Waitangi signing, Governor Hobson, keen to secure full Ngāpuhi support, trekked across to the
Māngungu Mission Māngungu Mission was the second mission station established in New Zealand by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Located near Horeke, in the Hokianga harbour, it was founded in 1828 by the missionaries John Hobbs and James Stack after the first WM ...
near Horeke where 3000 were waiting. The second signing of the Treaty of Waitangi took place on 12 February 1840. With the appropriate signatures (and a few inappropriate entries) Hobson could immediately claim support from the biggest tribe in the country. While the fate of the country was being signed into history, the axemen of Hokianga scarcely missed a beat. At any one time, as many as 20 ships could be loading Hokianga timber. Whole hillsides, suddenly bared of vegetation, began to slip into the harbour, choking its tributaries with mud. The relationship between Māori and
Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...
(European) settlers was frequently tense, never more so than during the
Dog Tax War The Dog Tax war was a confrontation in 1898 between the Crown and a group of Northern Māori, led by Hone Riiwi Toia, opposed to the enforcement of a 'dog tax'. It has been described by some authors as the last gasp of the 19th-century wars betwe ...
of the 1890s, which largely centred around Hokianga. By 1900, the bulk of the forest had sailed over the bar and the little topsoil that remained was turned to dairy farming for butter production. Most of the cream delivered to the Motukaraka Dairy Factory was carried there by a fleet of about fifty locally-built launches which criss-crossed the harbour daily, creating in the process a service for both passengers and freight. For half a century, the communities on both sides of the harbour were linked internally by sea transport, before improved roads in the 1950s finally displaced this energetic flotilla and the harbour once again divided the community. By 1914, a rustic telephone system linked some of the Hokianga communities with each other and with the outside world. A government-subsidised, weekly coastal shipping service ran between
Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Onehunga is a ...
and Hokianga, bringing in freight and taking away butter. The communities of Horeke and Rawene are the second- and third-oldest European settlements in New Zealand. Rawene is still the most important of the coastal settlements in the Hokianga and is where the base of Hokianga's community owned health services (
Hauora ''Hauora'' is a Māori philosophy of health and well-being unique to New Zealand. It helps schools be educated and prepared for what students are about to face in life. There are four dimensions of hauora: ''taha tinana'' (physical well-bei ...
Hokianga) is located, on top of the hill at the Hokianga Hospital.


1918 influenza pandemic

The
influenza pandemic An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads across a large region (either multiple continents or worldwide) and infects a large proportion of the population. There have been six major influenza epidemics in the last ...
reached Hokianga in September 1918, and remote Waiotemarama was one of the first settlements to succumb. A soup kitchen was organised in each community. On the instructions of Dr George McCall Smith, the Surgeon Superintendent of Rawene Hospital, mounted and armed guards stood at all crossroads to turn back would-be visitors and thus restrict the spread of the disease between settlements. Travellers wishing to enter Hokianga were simply stopped at the boundary. The rule was simple: anyone could leave, but no one could enter. The local epidemic lasted six weeks and a significant number died. Each community attended to its own, and mass burials were commonplace. Few Maori deaths were recorded – the true impact of the epidemic on Maori is unknown.


Industry

The first major industry of the region was based around the
kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...
trees, both logging and the gum, the strong thick resin which came from the trees. After the forests started to thin, dairying and cheese production took over as the mainstay of the economy, but they too fell away after the closure of the Motukaraka Dairy Cooperative in 1953. For a while during the 1970s and 1980s, there was little economic base for the area, and it became a haven for
alternative lifestyle An alternative lifestyle is a lifestyle perceived to be outside the norm for a given culture. The phrase "alternative lifestyle" is often used pejoratively. Description of a related set of activities as alternative is a defining aspect of certain ...
rs. In recent years, however, tourism has become of significance to the region. Attractions such as the great kauri trees of the
Waipoua Forest Waipoua Forest is a forest, on the west coast of the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It preserves some of the best examples of kauri forest remaining in New Zealand. It is notable for having two of the largest living kauri t ...
(including the country's largest tree,
Tane Mahuta Tane or Tāne may refer to: People * Tane Ikai (1879–1995), a Japanese supercentenarian * Tané Matsukata (1918–1989), founder of Nishimachi International School in Azabu, Tokyo * Tané McClure (born 1958), an American singer and actress * Tan ...
), the historic waterfront villages of Kohukohu and
Rawene Rawene is a town on the south side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 passes to the south. The town lies at the apex of a peninsula. A car ferry links it to Kohukohu and the northern Hokianga. History Rawen ...
, cafes, the
Horeke basalts The Horeke basalts is a disused formation that contained Miocene-Pliocene basalt lava flows that covered a large area in central Northland Region of New Zealand, and in places forms a high plateau around Okaihau. Wairere Boulders is a nature ...
, beaches, historic buildings, nature walks, horse trekking, boat trips, and fishing are bringing more visitors every year. In 2002 the first walking tracks were opened at the
Wairere Boulders Wairere Boulders is a privately-owned nature reserve and tourist attraction at Horeke in the south Hokianga region of Northland, New Zealand. The property contains geologically rare rock formations. Visitors to the property can walk around th ...
allowing a close inspection of the basalt rocks in the Wairere valley.


Notable people

Three iconic and very different figures in New Zealand history have been closely associated with the Hokianga.


Dame Whina Cooper

Dame
Whina Cooper Dame Whina Cooper (9 December 1895 – 26 March 1994) was a respected (Māori elder), who worked for many years for the rights of her people, and particularly to improve the lot of Māori women. She is remembered for leading the 1975 Māori la ...
was born at Te Karaka, Hokianga on 9 December 1895, the daughter of a leader of the
Te Rarawa Te Rarawa is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand. The iwi is one of five Muriwhenua iwi of the far north of the North Island. Rūnanga and marae Te Rarawa has 23 foundation marae: *Korou Kore Marae, '' Ahipara'', represents the hapū of Ng ...
iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...
. From an early age she showed an interest in local community affairs and politics, and her flair and abilities led to her becoming the undisputed Māori leader of the northern Hokianga by her mid-30s. In 1949 she moved to
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
, and by 1951 she was elected first president of the new Māori Women's Welfare League. The league's success was largely due to Whina's efforts, and she became well known throughout the country. In 1957 she stepped down as president and the annual conference rewarded her with the title ''Te Whaea o te Motu'' ("Mother of the Nation"). Whina Cooper continued to work for the community throughout the 1960s, but it was her 1975 leadership of a hikoi – a symbolic march – to protest against the loss of Māori land for which she is best remembered. The march, from the northern tip of the North Island to Parliament in
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
at the other end of the island made her nationally recognised, with her determined figure, no longer strong in body but strong in
mana According to Melanesian and Polynesian mythology, ''mana'' is a supernatural force that permeates the universe. Anyone or anything can have ''mana''. They believed it to be a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being ...
and will, walking at the head of the march from Te Hapua to Wellington. She was made a DBE in 1981 and a member of the Order of New Zealand in 1991. She had returned to Panguru in the Hokianga in 1983. She died there on 26 March 1994 at the age of 98.


Jean Baptiste Pompallier

Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier (1802-1871), was the first Roman Catholic bishop in New Zealand. His first mission station was situated at Pūrākau in the Hokianga from 1839 until 1915. He celebrated the first mass on NZ 'terra firma' at Tōtara Point, Hokianga, in 1838. His remains were reinterred in Motuti, Hokianga, in 2002 after a nationwide hīkoi.


Opo the dolphin

Opononi became famous throughout New Zealand during 1955 and 1956 due to the exploits of a
bottlenose dolphin Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common ...
(nicknamed " Opo"). Opo was a wild dolphin who started following fishing boats around Opononi in early 1955 after her mother had been killed, and would swim daily in the bay close to town. She was originally named "Opononi Jack", based on
Pelorus Jack Pelorus Jack (fl. 1888 – April 1912) was a Risso's dolphin (''Grampus griseus'') that was famous for meeting and escorting ships through a stretch of water in Cook Strait, New Zealand. The animal was reported over a 24 year period, from ...
, since she was presumed to be male. Unlike the majority of dolphins, she had no qualms about human company, and would perform stunts for locals, play with objects like beach balls and beer bottles, and allow children to swim alongside her and make contact. The dolphin became a local celebrity but news of her soon spread, and visitors from throughout the country would come to watch her. On 8 March 1956 official protection for Opo, requested by locals, was made law, but on 9 March she was found dead in a rock crevice at Koutu Point. It is suspected that she was killed accidentally by fishermen fishing with
gelignite Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpe ...
. Her death was reported nationwide, and she was buried with full Māori honours in a special plot next to the town hall.


Education

There are composite (years 1–15) schools at
Opononi Opononi is a settlement on the south shore of Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 runs through Opononi. Ōmāpere is on the shore to the south of Opononi and Pakanae to the northeast. The New Zealand Ministry for Cult ...
,
Panguru Panguru is a community in the northern Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. The Whakarapa Stream flows from the Panguru Range in the Warawara Forest to the west, through Panguru and into the Hokianga. Demographics The SA1 statistical a ...
and Broadwood. There are also primary schools at Mangamuka,
Horeke Horeke ( mi, Hōreke) is a settlement in the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. Kohukohu is just across the harbour. The Horeke basalts are located near the town, and can be viewed on an easy stroll through the Wair ...
, Kohukohu, Matihetihe,
Omanaia Omanaia ( mi, Ōmanaia) is a settlement in the Hokianga area of Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. It is part of the Hokianga South statistical area, which covers the southern side of Hokianga Harbour between Rawene and Koutu. For demograph ...
, Pawarenga,
Rawene Rawene is a town on the south side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 passes to the south. The town lies at the apex of a peninsula. A car ferry links it to Kohukohu and the northern Hokianga. History Rawen ...
, Waima, Whirinaki, and Umawera.


See also

*
Weller brothers The Weller brothers, Englishmen of Sydney, Australia, and Otago, New Zealand, were the founders of a whaling station on Otago Harbour and New Zealand's most substantial merchant traders in the 1830s. Immigration The brothers, Joseph Brooks (18 ...


References


External links


Hauora Hokianga
Hokianga's community governed health services

An interactive google map by Hauora Hokianga
Hokianga
from the NZ Community Development Trust
Hokianga Tourism Association

Hokianga History and Tourism

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography essay on Dame Whina Cooper

Rawene Website

Horeke Community Website

Kohukohu Community Website
{{Coord, -35.5258, 173.3786, region:NZ-NTL_type:waterbody_scale:250000, display=title Far North District Ports and harbours of New Zealand Populated places in the Northland Region Geography of the Northland Region