Pegasus Bay, earlier known as Cook's Mistake, is a bay on the east coast of the
South Island of New Zealand, to the north of
Banks Peninsula.
Toponymy
![Pegasus Bay's view from Mount Pleasant 2022-10-30](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Pegasus_Bay%27s_view_from_Mount_Pleasant_2022-10-30.jpg)
Pegasus Bay takes its name from the
brig ''Pegasus'', a sealing ship that was sailing from Hobart to London via the ''sealing islands'' and was surveying this part of the South Island in 1809. Attempting to sail into Gore's Bay shown on Captain Cook's map between the supposed ''Island'' that Cook had named after Banks, the crew discovered a mistake in Cook's chart and found the island was a peninsula connected to the rest of the South Island mainland by a low-lying isthmus.
Fortunately they discovered this before trying to pass between the supposed island and the mainland before dark while approaching from the north and were still in about of water.
Captain Chace (or Chase) and his first officer William Stewart, who had also surveyed Stewart Island on the same journey, were reported in the Oriental Navigator in 1816.
Charts made of this part of New Zealand from the 1809 survey give the names Cook's Mistake or Pegasus Bay to this large bay.
Maori do not divide this part of the coast in the same way, so there is no equivalent Maori name. However, the sandy beach on the shoreline between the Ashley River and Avon/Heathcote Estuary is known as ''Kairaki'' (which is an ancient name of unknown meaning for the Pacific). While a fishing ground to the east of Pegasus Bay is known as ''Komaka a Te KaiKai a Waro'' meaning ''the foodstore belonging to KaiKai a Waro''.
Geography
Pegasus Bay lies on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, between the
Motunau River and
Motunau Island
Motunau Island is a small, , island nature reserve lying off the coast of New Zealand's South Island, at the northern end of Pegasus Bay, south of the mouth of the Motunau River. The reserve is managed by the Department of Conservation (New Ze ...
in the north and
Banks Peninsula in the south.
The bay is nearly across and deep, with of water that gradually shoals to about or about from shore.
The northern part of the coast are mostly cliffs, with stony or sandy beaches at low tide.
The bay has a sandy beach that runs for about from about the
Waipara River mouth to the
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
suburbs of
Sumner and
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
on
Banks Peninsula.
Rivers
Rivers flowing into Pegasus Bay, from north to south, are:
*Motunau River
*Waipara River
*
Ashley River / Rakahuri
The Ashley River (; officially Ashley River / Rakahuri) is in Canterbury region of New Zealand. It flows generally southeastwards for before entering the Pacific Ocean at Waikuku Beach, Pegasus Bay north of Christchurch. The town of Rangiora i ...
*
Waimakariri River
The Waimakariri River is one of the largest rivers in Canterbury, on the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It flows for in a generally southeastward direction from the Southern Alps across the Canterbury Plains to the Pacific Ocean. ...
*
Avon River and
Heathcote River via the
Avon Heathcote Estuary
The Estuary of the Heathcote and Avon Rivers / Ihutai is the largest semi-enclosed shallow estuary in Canterbury and remains one of New Zealand’s most important coastal wetlands. It is well known as an internationally important habitat for migra ...
Fauna
![Spencer Beach 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Spencer_Beach_01.jpg)
Other than
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 including the endemic, endangered
Hector's dolphin
Hector's dolphin (''Cephalorhynchus hectori'') is one of four dolphin species belonging to the genus '' Cephalorhynchus''. Hector's dolphin is the only cetacean endemic to New Zealand, and comprises two subspecies: ''C. h. hectori'', the more n ...
s that regularly live or visit into the waters,
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
s such as
southern right and
humpback are known to migrate into the gulf.
Discovery
The ''Pegasus'' was the name of the sailing ship which surveyed part of the South Island in 1809. The
brig ''Pegasus'' was the former ''Pegaso'', captured at the Peruvian port of
Trujillo on 28 July 1807 by the British frigate , commanded by Captain Charles James Johnston, during a cruise against Spanish shipping and ports along the coasts of Spanish America. Johnston dispatched ''Pegaso'' to
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea ...
, where she arrived at the end of October. Submitted to the Court of Admiralty in Sydney, ''Pegaso'', was condemned as a prize on 24 January 1808 and sold off, renamed ''Pegasus''. A few months later she was acquired by Thomas Moore and in May of that year she was made ready to go on the sealing trade to the southern part of New Zealand. This expedition took place between August 1808 and March 1809, when ''Pegasus'' was commanded by Captain
Eber Bunker
Eber Bunker (1761–1836) was a sea captain and pastoralist, and he was born on 7 March 1761 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He commanded one of the first vessels to go whaling and sealing off the coast of Australia. His parents were James Bunker ...
. ''Pegasus'' went on a second expedition under the command of Samuel Chase from Port Jackson to London by way of the sealing grounds in southern New Zealand from May 1809 to August 1810:
William W. Stewart
William W. Stewart (c. 1776 – 10 September 1851) was a Scottish sealer and whaler after whom New Zealand's Stewart Island is named.
Stewart served in the Royal Navy from 1793 to 1797. In June 1801 he arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney), New South ...
was first officer and made charts of the New Zealand coast, including
Stewart Island, which was subsequently named after him.
William Stewart gave Pegasus Bay its name. The captain of the ship, Captain Samuel Chase (not to be confused with his contemporary, Captain Samuel Rodman Chace), lays claim to correcting
James Cook's charts by determining that "Banks Island" was in fact a peninsula. As late as 1843, the bay was referred to as Cook's Mistake.
References
{{Authority control
Bays of Canterbury, New Zealand
Waimakariri District