Whangaroa is a settlement on Whangaroa Harbour in the Far North District 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 coun ...

. It is 8 km north-west of Kaeo and 35 km north-west of

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is the largest town in Northland, New Zealand. It is a tourist destination north of Auckland and north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei. It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of ...

. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.

History

The harbour was the scene of one of the most notorious incidents in early New Zealand history, the Boyd massacre. In December 1809 almost all the crew and 70 passengers were killed as ''utu'' (revenge) for the mistreatment of Te Ara, the son of a Ngāti Uru chief, who had been in the crew of the ship. Several days later the ship was burnt out after gunpowder was accidentally ignited. Relics of the ''Boyd'' are now in a local museum. On 16 July 1824 on a voyage to Sydney from Tahiti, the crew and passengers of the colonial schooner ''Endeavour'' (Capt John Dibbs) stopped in Whangaroa Harbour. An altercation with the local Māori Ngāti Pou

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

(subtribe) of the Ngā Puhi iwi resulted in an incident where Maori warriors took control of the ''Endeavour'' and menaced the crew. The situation was defused by the timely arrival of the Ngāti Uru chief Te Ara, of ''Boyd'' fame. In February 1827, the famous Ngā Puhi chief

Hongi Hika Hongi Hika ( – 6 March 1828) was a New Zealand Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the iwi of Ngāpuhi. He was a pivotal figure in the early years of regular European contact and settlement in New Zealand. As one of the first Māor ...

was engaged in warfare against the tribes of Whangaroa. Acting contrary to the orders of Hongi Hika, some of his warriors plundered and burnt Wesleydale, the

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 ...

mission that had been established in June 1823 at Kaeo,Journal of William Williams, March 1st 1827 (Caroline Fitzgerald, 2011) nine kilometres from Whangaroa. The missionaries, Rev Turner and his wife and three children, together with Rev. Messrs, Hobbs and Stack, and Mr Wade and wife, were 'compelled to flee from Whangarooa (sic) for their lives'. They were conveyed by ship to Sydney, NSW. During a skirmish Hongi Hika was shot in the chest by one of his warriors. On 6 March 1828 Hongi Hika died at Whangaroa. There is no actual evidence that Hongi himself plundered the mission; he was busily pursuing the enemy and being wounded. Nor is there any direct evidence to implicate anybody else An alternate ideas was put forward by William Williams of the CMS. " It appears beyond doubt, though our Wesleyan Friends are loath to believe it, that it was their own chief, Tepui, was the instigator of the whole business". The local Ngatiuru had made the land available to the mission. For years the missionaries had lived amongst them and grown prosperous while the tribe still ate fern root. There was no prospect of the missionaries moving on and no prospect of them becoming acceptable neighbours. They had not joined the tribe. They had set up their own tribe which was steadily wearing down the authority of the Ngatiuru leadership. By the latter 19th century, the Whangaroa Harbour had become an important location for the kauri gum digging trade.

Demographics

Statistics New Zealand describes Whangaroa as a rural settlement. It covers . Whangaroa is part of the larger Whakarara statistical area. Whangaroa had a population of 144 at 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 short ...

, an increase of 42 people (41.2%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 39 people (37.1%) since the 2006 census. There were 72 households, comprising 78 males and 66 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.18 males per female. The median age was 62.5 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 12 people (8.3%) aged under 15 years, 3 (2.1%) aged 15 to 29, 69 (47.9%) aged 30 to 64, and 54 (37.5%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 87.5% European/Pākehā, 14.6% Māori, 2.1% Pacific peoples, 2.1% Asian, and 2.1% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. Of those people who chose to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 50.0% had no religion, 35.4% were Christian, 2.1% were Hindu and 2.1% had Māori religious beliefs. Of those at least 15 years old, 24 (18.2%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 21 (15.9%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $24,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. 21 people (15.9%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 36 (27.3%) people were employed full-time, 24 (18.2%) were part-time, and 6 (4.5%) were unemployed.

References

Wises New Zealand Guide, 7th Edition, 1979. p. 508.

External links

Photographs of Whangaroa
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. {{Far North District Far North District Populated places in the Northland Region Whaingaroa Kauri gum