Young Nick's Head / Te Kurī is a headland at the southern end of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. The area is the landing place of the

Horouta In Māori mythology, Māori tradition, the canoe ''Horouta'' was one of the Māori migration canoes, great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand approximately 800 years ago. The story goes that Kahukura, a man from Ha ...

and Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru waka which carried

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 Co ...

settlers to the region around 1350 AD. In

, the

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...

is named Te Kuri o Pāoa (alternatively known as Te Kuri, or Te Kuri a Pawa). The settlement of

Muriwai Muriwai, also called Muriwai Beach, is a coastal community on the west coast of the Auckland Region in the North Island of New Zealand. The black-sand surf beach and surrounding area is a popular recreational area for Aucklanders. The Muriwai ...

is located just inland.

Name

In pre-contact times, the headland was known to Māori as Te Kuri o Pāoa, which translates to "The Dog of Pāoa". Māori legends recount that Pāoa lost his

kurī The Kurī is an extinct breed of Polynesian Dog kept by Māori people. It was introduced to New Zealand by the Polynesian ancestors of the Māori during their migration from East Polynesia in the 13th century AD. According to Māori tradition ...

(Māori dog) in the Poverty Bay area and the dog is still there waiting for his master to return. It is said at dawn the white cliffs resemble the outline of a dog in a crouching position. Te Kurī was centuries later the first land sighted by the crew of Captain James Cook's ship, '' Endeavour'', dated on Friday, 6 October 1769. Cook promised a reward to the first crewman to sight land and this reward was delivered to 12-year-old Nicholas Young, assistant to the ship's surgeon, in the form of two gallons of rum and the name of a prominent landmark for their own maps.

History

Nick's Head Station is a 661 hectare property consisting of the headland and its surrounding coastal, wetland and farming areas. It was listed for sale in November 2000 and in January 2002 New York

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

John Griffin entered into a contract to purchase it for $4 million after an attempt by the Ngāi Tāmanuhiri

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

failed through lack of finance. Protesting against foreign ownership of the culturally and historically significant land, a group of local Māori led by

Tu Wyllie Tutekawa "Tu" Wyllie (born 24 October 1954) is a former New Zealand politician and rugby union player. A first five-eighth, Wyllie represented Wellington at a provincial level, and played one match for the New Zealand national side, the All Bl ...

occupied Young Nick's Head and staged protests at Parliament. After negotiations with iwi took place, Finance Minister Michael Cullen announced in August 2002 that "Young Nick's Head will be protected and the cliffs, pā site and peak of Te Kuri gifted into public ownership as part of a purchase deal for Young Nick's Station". Griffin also agreed upon purchasing the land to establish an open covenant through the

Queen Elizabeth II National Trust The Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (QEII) is a registered charity and statutory New Zealand organisation independent from the government and managed by a board of directors. It was established in 1977 by the Queen Elizabeth the Second Natio ...

to protect the remainder of the headland area from commercial development. The station is currently owned by Griffin. After buying it, he engaged in a long-term plan to restore the area's vegetation and wildlife. More than 600,000 trees were planted, 26 hectares of wetlands were restored, and a 2-metre-high predator-proof fence was constructed as native species such as

tuatara The tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is actually the only extant member of a distinct lineage, the previously highly diverse order Rhynchocephal ...

, blue penguin and

wētā Wētā (also spelled weta in English) is the common name for a group of about 100 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae endemism, endemic to New Zealand. They are giant wingless insect, flightless cricket (insect ...

were reintroduced. In 2005 Ecoworks, an

ecological restoration Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair ...

company in Gisborne, successfully used solar-powered, acoustic-attraction methods and artificial burrows to establish breeding colonies of six

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

seabird species at Young Nick's Head which had previously been severely affected by human colonisation and the introduction of new predators. Under the Ngai Tāmanuhiri Claims Settlement Act 2012, Young Nick's Head/Te Kuri a Paoa Historic Reserve became a

national reserve A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

per section 13 of the

Reserves Act 1977 The Reserves Act 1977 is an Act of Parliament passed in New Zealand. It is administered by the Department of Conservation It contains provisions for the acquisition, control, management, maintenance, development and use of public reserves. T ...

and was renamed Te Kuri a Paoa/Young Nick's Head National Historic Reserve.

References

{{Gisborne District Headlands of the Gisborne District History of the Gisborne District