Auckland Region Auckland () is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland Metropolitan Area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containing ...

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 ...

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 ...

Hunua Ranges The Hunua Ranges is a mountain range and regional park to the southeast of Auckland city, in the Auckland and Waikato regions of New Zealand's North Island. The ranges cover some and rise to 688 metres (2255 ft) at Kohukohunui.

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Clevedon, New Zealand, Clevedon. The

Hunua Falls The Hunua Falls are on the Wairoa River (Auckland), Wairoa River in the Auckland Region of New Zealand, near Hunua. The land around was bought by Auckland for water supplies between 1940 and 1960. The mean flow of water downstream at Clevedon, New ...

form a section of the river.

Description

The river begins in the

Hunua Ranges The Hunua Ranges is a mountain range and regional park to the southeast of Auckland city, in the Auckland and Waikato regions of New Zealand's North Island. The ranges cover some and rise to 688 metres (2255 ft) at Kohukohunui.

east of Paparimu. Paparimu Road and Hunua Road follow the course of the river as it flows northwards through farmland. Much of the western Hunua Ranges flows into the Wairoa River, including Cosseys Creek and the Ōtau Valley, both of which have been dammed as freshwater reservoirs. In addition to these, the Wairoa River is joined by other tributaries: the Mangawheau Stream, the Hunua Stream which flows past the settlement of

Hunua Hunua () is a small settlement in the rural outskirts of south Auckland, New Zealand. Hunua is east of Papakura, from Hunua Falls and lies at the foot of the Hunua Ranges, from where Auckland obtains most of its water supply. The literal tran ...

, and the Taitaia Stream, which meets the Wairoa River north of Clevedon, New Zealand, Clevedon. Past Clevedon, the river veers north-east, meeting the Urungahauhau Stream and the Aroaro Stream of the Ness Valley and forming an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

. The estuary reaches the

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Pouto Point in the east.

Geology

The river first formed during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Manukau Harbour The Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and opens out into the Tasman Sea. Geography The harbour mouth is between the northern head ("Burne ...

past Weymouth. Much of the river flows along the Wairoa River Gorge, formed along a fault line. The

Hunua Falls The Hunua Falls are on the Wairoa River (Auckland), Wairoa River in the Auckland Region of New Zealand, near Hunua. The land around was bought by Auckland for water supplies between 1940 and 1960. The mean flow of water downstream at Clevedon, New ...

, a 30 metre high waterfall, flows overtop of an ancient

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged mag ...

.

History

The Wairoa River's traditional name, Te Wairoa ("The Great River") was named by early

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki is a Māori tribe that is based in the area around Clevedon, part of the Auckland region (''Tāmaki'' in the Māori language). It is one of the twelve members of the Hauraki Collective of tribes. The founding ancestors o ...

ancestors of the

Tainui Tainui is a tribal waka confederation of New Zealand Māori iwi. The Tainui confederation comprises four principal related Māori iwi of the central North Island of New Zealand: Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa and Waikato. There are oth ...

waka, referencing Te Vairoa in

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

, which in turn took its name from a similarly named river in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

. Te Wairoa was a name applying to the river mouth and surrounding area, while Ōtau referred to the upstream areas further, including where the river passes by Clevedon, New Zealand, Clevedon. The early

Tāmaki Māori Tāmaki Māori are Māori ''iwi'' and ''hapū'' (tribes and sub-tribes) who have a strong connection to Tāmaki Makaurau (the Auckland Region), and whose rohe was traditionally within the region. Among Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau (the M ...

hapū of the Wairoa river valley between the 14th and 16th centuries included Te Ngungukauri, Te Uri Kupai, Ngāti Ruangaingai and Ngāti Parahanga, who identified as both Ngāti Tai Manawaiti, and Ngā Iwi (

Waiohua Te Waiohua or Te Wai-o-Hua is a Māori iwi (tribe) confederation that thrived in the early 18th century. The iwi's rohe (tribal area) was primarily the central Tāmaki Makaurau area (the Auckland isthmus) and the Māngere peninsula, until the 17 ...

). The related hapū were united under the

rangatira In Māori culture, () are tribal chiefs, the hereditary Māori leaders of a hapū. Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority () on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that ...

Te Wana in the early 18th century, under the name Ngāti Tai (now more widely known as

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki is a Māori tribe that is based in the area around Clevedon, part of the Auckland region (''Tāmaki'' in the Māori language). It is one of the twelve members of the Hauraki Collective of tribes. The founding ancestors o ...

). The river mouth formed the traditional heartland of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. Ngāi Tai peoples traditionally lived in seasonal cycles, focusing on fishing and shellfish collecting, cultivations and collecting berries and snaring birds in the river's upper reaches, depending on the season. The river-mouth was used as a summer pioke (

Shortspine spurdog The shortspine spurdog (''Squalus mitsukurii'') is a dogfish, a member of the family Squalidae, found on continental shelves off Japan in temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to ...

shark) fishing ground, which were dried for the winter months. Ngāi Tai settled at many

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites o ...

and

kāinga A kāinga ( Southern Māori ''kaika'' or ''kaik'') is the traditional form of village habitation of pre-European Māori in New Zealand. It was unfortified or only lightly fortified, and over time became less important to the well-defended pā. D ...

along the river, especially at the river's mouth. In November of 1769,

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

visited the

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Ōrere Point, Ōrere, who then planted these at Te Hūnua, along the Wairoa River (likely near modern-day Clevedon). These were the first crop of potatoes grown in New Zealand, and three years later, potatoes were gifted during a feast at Te Hūnua to the tribes of the Hauraki Gulf and Waikato, becoming some of the first varieties of rīwai ( Māori potatoes) in New Zealand. When

William Thomas Fairburn William Thomas Fairburn (3 September 1795 – 10 January 1859) was a carpenter and a lay preacher or catechist for the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) in the early days of European settlement of New Zealand. Early life He was born in England ...

visited the area in 1833, it was mostly unoccupied due to the events of the

Musket Wars The Musket Wars were a series of as many as 3,000 battles and raids fought throughout New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) among Māori between 1807 and 1837, after Māori first obtained muskets and then engaged in an intertribal arms ra ...

, as most members of Ngāi Tai had fled to temporary refuge in the

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

. In 1836, Fairburn purchased 40,000 acres between

Ōtāhuhu Ōtāhuhu is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand – to the southeast of the CBD, on a narrow isthmus between an arm of the Manukau Harbour to the west and the Tamaki River estuary to the east. The isthmus is the narrowest connection between the ...

and Umupuia (

Duders Beach Duders Beach or Umupuia Beach (the official name) is located in Manukau City, New Zealand, to the east of Maraetai on the North Road from Clevedon. Duder Regional Park is on the headland immediately to the east. The land was purchased in 1866 f ...

), including much of the catchment of the Wairoa River. Fairburn's Purchase was investigated by the

New Zealand Land Commission New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

in 1841 and 1842 and found to be excessive and reduced in size. The disallowed parts of his purchase were not returned to Ngāi Tai, however in 1854 a reserve was created for Ngāi Tai between the eastern shores of the Wairoa River and

Maraetai Maraetai is a coastal town and the easternmost suburb of greater Auckland in New Zealand. The closest town, Beachlands, lies approximately 4 km to the west. Its name is Māori meaning "meeting place by the sea". Maraetai was the origina ...

/ Umupuia. From 1854, European farming settlers began to arrive on the banks of the Wairoa River, forming the township of Clevedon, New Zealand, Clevedon. Ngāi Tai held a defended settlement on the eastern banks of the Wairoa River opposite Clevedon, known as Ōtau. During the first decade post European settlement, Ngāi Tai and the European settlers had cordial relations, trading goods and assisting each other. In September 1863 during the

Invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

, Ōtau was attacked by the British army, and the village was evacuated, living in communities at the river's mouth. For the remainder of the war, Ngāi Tai were designated as a "friendly" people by the Crown, and remained neutral in the fighting. After the Native Lands Act of 1865, the

Native Land Court Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

individuated the collective Ngāi Tai lands, and in the process the majority of land near the Wairoa River was alienated and sold to European farmers. During European settlement, most of the Wairoa River catchment was deforested. In the early 1900s, the river mouth became popular with Auckland residents for duck shooting and picnicking. In 1955, the Cosseys Creek Dam was constructed in the Hunua Ranges, a rolled earth dam constructed to secure fresh water supplies for

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 ...

. This was joined by the Wairoa Ram in 1975. Both dams were constructed on tributaries of the Wairoa River. In 2002, the

Auckland Regional Council The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The AR ...

began developing a management strategy for the river, with was further developed in 2016 with the founding of the Wairoa River Steering Group, now a part of the volunteer conversation group Friends of Te Wairoa Catchment, which formed in 2017 In 2017, the Wairoa River won a New Zealand River Award for being the most improved river in the

Auckland Region Auckland () is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland Metropolitan Area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containing ...

.

References

External links

Photographs of Wairoa River
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. {{Franklin Local Board Area Rivers of the Auckland Region Franklin Local Board Area Hauraki Gulf catchment Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki

Description

Geology

History

See also

References

External links