Rangaunu Harbour is a shallow harbour in the far north 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 ...

. It is situated on the east coast at the base of the

Aupouri Peninsula The Aupouri Peninsula is a tombolo at the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. It projects between the Tasman Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. It constitutes the northern part of the Far North District, incorporat ...

. The name in

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 ...

means "To pull out a shoal of fish". With an area of it is the fifth-largest harbour in New Zealand.

History

The harbour was an important location for the late 19th/early 20th century

kauri gum Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees (''Agathis australis''), which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, be ...

digging trade.

Demographics

Statistics New Zealand covers both Rangaunu Harbour and Houhora Harbour to the north in a statistical area called Inlets Far North District. It uses a statistical area called Rangaunu Harbour in the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

which covers the land west of the harbour between

Awanui Awanui is an historical river port in the far north of New Zealand, on the banks of the Awanui River just before it flows into Rangaunu Bay. Awanui lies at the south end of the Aupouri Peninsula in the Far North District Council of the Northla ...

and

Houhora Heads Houhora is a locality and harbour on the east side of the Aupouri Peninsula of Northland, New Zealand. It is north of Kaitaia. Waihopo, Te Raupo, Pukenui, Raio and Houhora Heads are associated localities on the southern shores of the harbour. ...

. That area is covered by the article on

. Inlets Far North District had a population of 45 at the

, a decrease of 18 people (-28.6%) since the 2013 census and the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 60 households. There were 27 males and 18 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.5 males per female. Of the total population, no people were aged up to 15 years, 3 (6.7%) were 15 to 29, 27 (60.0%) were 30 to 64, and 15 (33.3%) were 65 or older. Figures may not add up to the total due to rounding. Ethnicities were 100.0% European/Pākehā. No other ethnicities were recorded for this area. The percentage of people born overseas was 40.0, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 53.3% had no religion, 40.0% were Christian, and no one gave any other religion. Of those at least 15 years old, 15 (33.3%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 3 (6.7%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $20,600. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 12 (26.7%) people were employed full-time, 6 (13.3%) were part-time, and 3 (6.7%) were unemployed.

Geography

The harbour entrance is a wide channel to Rangaunu Bay to the north. The eastern side of the harbour is a wide

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 become ...

separating it from

Doubtless Bay Doubtless Bay is a bay on the east coast of the Northland Region, north-east of Kaitaia, in New Zealand. It extends from Knuckle Point on Karikari Peninsula in the north to Berghan Point at Hihi in the south. There are rocky headlands, backed by ...

and connecting the hillier

Karikari Peninsula The Karikari Peninsula on the east coast of the far north of Northland, New Zealand, is between Rangaunu Harbour to the west, and Doubtless Bay to the southeast. It is a right-angled land mass of two relatively distinct parts. The rocky northe ...

to the mainland. The small settlement of Rangiputa sits on the eastern side of the harbour entrance, and Kaimaumau is located on the western shore about southwest of the entrance. Unahi, at the mouth of the Awanui River, has a wharf and a fish processing plant which is now closed. An extensive wetland area, the Kaimaumau wetland, including the Motutangi Swamp Scientific Reserve, lies to the west of the harbour, north of Kaimaumau. The harbour has extensive areas of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

s, tidal sand flats and areas of eelgrass, plus several small islands, with deeper channels between. A number of rivers flow into the harbour. Clockwise from the entrance, these are: * Te Putaaraukai River * Mangatete River *

Pairatahi River The Pairatahi River is a river of the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows generally north to reach Rangaunu Harbour to the northeast of Awanui. See also *List of rivers of New Zealand This is a list of all waterways named ...

Awanui River The Awanui River is a river in the far north of New Zealand, close to the point at which the Aupouri Peninsula joins the rest of the Northland Peninsula. The Awanui flows first west and then north, for a total of , before flowing into Rangaunu H ...

* Waimanoni Creek * Waipapakauri Creek * Waiparera Stream

Ecology

Rangaunu harbour contains about 15% of the mangrove habitat in New Zealand. It is a habitat of international significance for migratory

wading birds 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

, with 10,000 birds of approximately 70 species using the harbour in the autumn. Birds observed to nest in the area include NZ dotterels, variable

oystercatcher The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

s, black-backed gulls,

red-billed gull The red-billed gull (''Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus''), also known as tarāpunga and once also known as the mackerel gull, is a native of New Zealand, being found throughout the country and on outlying islands including the Chatham ...

white-fronted tern The white-fronted tern (''Sterna striata''), also known as tara, sea swallow, black-billed tern, kahawai bird, southern tern, or swallow tail, was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789. A medium-sized tern with an all-white body inclu ...

Caspian tern The Caspian tern (''Hydroprogne caspia'') is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no accepted subspecies. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ' ...

s, black shags, little shags, pied shags, pied stilts,

white-faced heron The white-faced heron (''Egretta novaehollandiae'') also known as the white-fronted heron, and incorrectly as the grey heron, or blue crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Indo ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

s and

swan Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

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 ...

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, and occasionally

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...

s visit the harbor. Other cetacean species such as

Bryde's whale Bryde's whale ( Brooder's), or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three species of rorqual and maybe four. The "complex" means the number and classification remains unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research ...

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

pilot whale Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguishable at sea, a ...

s, and

false killer whale The false killer whale (''Pseudorca crassidens'') is a species of oceanic dolphin that is the only extant representative of the genus ''Pseudorca''. It is found in oceans worldwide but mainly in tropical regions. It was first described in 1846 ...

s are known to come into Rangaunu Bay and around

, but very few

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 actually appear into Rangaunu Harbour. The harbor environment is an ideal habitat for

southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20 ...

s, and Rangaunu harbor might once have been a resting/calving ground for these coast-hugging whales. Rangaunu harbor hosts a population of

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

s that are seasonal migrants into the harbor water regularly.

Whale sharks The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of .McClain CR, Balk MA, Benfield MC, Branch TA, Chen C, Cosgrove J, ...

have been seen in the harbor with slow but increasing regularities.Duffy C., Atkinson P., 200
Whale sharks in - New Zealand waters
. Dive New Zealand.

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

. retrieved on 03 June 2014

References

{{reflist Ports and harbours of New Zealand Far North District Kauri gum