Free Kai! (Dunedin, Otago) Traditional Cache
Hidden : 8/10/2016
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
3.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:


Hah! Knew that cache title would get your attention!

Sadly, there's no free food on offer . You’ll understand the cache name once you’ve heard the story…

Have you ever explored the rarely-visited Takeratawhai, or Kaikai Beach? This 2 litre screwtop is hidden at ground level on public land at the western end of the beach.




You will need to arrange access over private farmland (unless you kayak to the beach or wade/swim around from Murdering Beach).
You may need to postpone your trip or use a different route, depending on farming requirements (eg lambing Sept/ Oct), but the farmer welcomes walkers.

ACCESS PERMISSION: Phone the farmer Sue Chapman: phone 482-1123 or cellphone 027-482-1104
NOTE: Dogs are not permitted.
Leave gates as you find them.
Gate Etiquette: The person who opens the gate, waits and closes the gate.

The waypoints below describe the most scenic route to Kaikai Beach, from the end of Heywards Point Rd via the Heywards Point Scenic Reserve track and then over farm paddocks to the cache. You can assure Sue that a friend has given you a map of how to get there! It is a comfortable 1 hour 30 minutes walk to the cache plus perhaps 1 hour 45 minutes to trudge uphill on the return trip. The walk is all on a track or over paddocks. There are some steep hills to go down and up, but it is suitable for people of average fitness - there is definitely no bushbashing or cliff-climbing required.

A shorter popular route to Kaikais Beach is from Murdering Beach Road, walking through paddocks over Purehurehu Point and down to the Kaikais Beach. Waypoints also provided for this easy route. Contact the farmer for permission.

Kai Kai’s Beach

Shortly before Europeans arrived, the only people living at Takeratawhai were an elderly Ngati Mamoe couple. The story passed down is that the husband would accost anyone walking the coastal track demanding Kai! Kai!

Begging for free kai earned the man the nickname Kai Kai. Therefore, the beach became known as Kai Kai's Beach to the Maori and later also by Pakeha. But, Kai Kai was clearly able to hunt or garden for food - when his wife died Kai Kai carried her body over Heywards Point, down Jacob's Ladder, along to Aramoana and back to Otakou for burial.

Kai Kai's Cave

The spacious cave that Kai Kai and his wife lived in was inside the impressive cliff about 50 metres from the cache. This cave was still being used for sheep shearing in 1916 (see photo by W A Taylor), but over the last century it has disappeared.

In the ODT 18 May 1929 E.V.B. noted a fairly large cave which, however, is uninhabitable because of the depth of the watery mud on its floor. But. the strange thing about this cave is the fence—nearly buried in the mud, it is true—which stretches across its interior. Apparently the opening was once much wider when the fence was built, but a fall of rock from above has left only the narrow opening through which we entered.
In 1942 Murray Thomson lamented that blown sand meant that Even the cave, in which I had seen the Maoris living when on eeling expeditions or on the lookout for frost fish, were blocked up and made no longer habitable.
By 1998 Stan Durry & Dawn Paterson reported that the cave entrance has now been almost totally blocked by a slip from the cliff above.

Lewis's Cave

But, with permission from the farmer, you can still see the Lewis’s cave further back from the beach. This smaller cave is a well-appointed holiday crib with all mod cons including a long-drop toilet (BYO toilet paper).

This cave is named after the Lewis family who lived at Deborah Bay from 1906. You will have looked at their tiny two-roomed cottage, tucked between Aramoana Road and the sea, and wondered who lived there – read more about the Lewis family here: Cottage restoration a real family affair ODT 20 Nov 2013. The girls slept in the cottage kitchen and the boys slept in the shed... this cave would have been spacious by comparison? William, Adelaide and their 17 children regularly walked over to Kaikai Beach and used this cave as their weekend home. The visitors’ book shows that people still enjoy staying here!


Maori settlement

Maori originally called this beach Takeratawhai 'where chiefs wander'. There were several periods of Maori occupation, from Moahunter through to recent times. Excavations and fossicking have found moa-bones, ovens, middens, dog (kuri) bones and artifacts such as pounamu, fish hooks, cloak pins, pendants and whalebone patu. Apparently there used to be many whale vertebrae around Jennings Stream. There was never a whaling station at Kaikai Beach, but possibly dead whales washed ashore and were cut up on the beach.

Maori coastal tracks

Kaikai Beach was part of the well-used Maori walking route north from Otakou. Murray Thomson writes that the main coastal track left the Spit and followed the beach line to the cliffs at Hayward's Point. Here the Maoris ascended the almost precipitous cliff of 200 feet by a winding track called by the old hands 'Jacob's Ladder'. The track then led through the bush to the edge of the cliffs on the eastern side of Kaikai's Beach, then descending to the beach below by a track not less difficult to negotiate than 'Jacob's Ladder'. The track then followed along the beach to the mouth of the lagoon, crossed part of the flat, and traversing a rocky approach, climbed up to the clear on Purehurehu, where it lead past the lonely grave of William Coleman and the sites of some old Maori gardens.

Another Maori track went from Aramoana up to the high land above Hayward's Point. Now turning to the left, it wound down the long hillside to the native village behind the lagoon on Kaikai's Beach flat. The track then climbed the hill, almost reaching the stone house built by Jennings on the slope above Purehurehu Point.

Kai Kai and his wife were living in an ideal place to intercept travellers carrying food!

Richard and Motoitoi Driver

After Kai Kai, the next people to live long-term in his cave at Kai Kai's Beach were the freelance harbour pilot Richard Driver (1809 - 97) and his wife Motoitoi (1824- 46). Richard arrived at Purakaunui in 1839, married the chief's daughter Motoitoi and set up house in Kai Kai's cave. About 1841 he built a house on the headland between Kaikai and Murdering Beaches, where there was a spring for water, flat land and established Maori gardens. From this cleared area, there was a good view of approaching ships needing a pilot. There were three other pilots also in the area – their boats would race to any ship sighted, with the first aboard getting the job and the piloting fee of £5.

The Drivers had three children before Motoitoi's death in 1846 (the photo is Maria, born 5 November 1940). Motoitoi's sister then moved in to care for the family and bore Richard another son. In 1847 Richard Driver was appointed by Governor Grey as the first official Otago Harbour pilot, at a salary of £180 a year. While piloting the 'Philip Laing' into the harbour in 1848 he met 17 year old Elizabeth Robertson and married her in 1849, leaving Kaikai Beach (and his de-facto wife 'Mother Kai') for good and moving to the pilot station at Taiaroa Head.

Some accounts say the Drivers lived at Whareakeake but that doesn't seem likely - there is no cave at Murdering Beach. Several changes in the names of the headlands between 1830 and 1860 probably caused this confusion.

William and Rosa Coleman

In 1856 the first European settlers arrived. William and Rosa Coleman came from Sydney on the Magnet in 1840 to farm at Matanaka for John Jones. In 1856 William applied for a block of land, hired a surveyor and selected a desirable 92 acre section on Purehurehu Point, including the flat land and spring, with areas of dense bush in Murdering Beach and Kaikai Beach either side.

At first the Colemans lived in a 'deserted whalers hut' - perhaps Richard Driver's? - then built a substantial house. They cleared the bush off the surrounding hillside and sold it to firewood merchants in Dunedin and Port Chalmers. Lighters were brought around from Otago Harbour, beached at half tide, loaded with firewood and floated off at high tide. On 10 February 1860 William Coleman went overboard in Otago Harbour - many days later his body was washed ashore at Kaikai Beach. He was buried in a 'lonely grave' on Purehurehu Point. Rosa later married American whaler John Hunter and settled at Murdering Beach.

Farming

Heywards Point Road, following the line of a Maori track, was opened out as a surveyor’s line by Mr Arthur and party in 1863 or 1864. Shortly after, sections were balloted and farmers settled the area. From sometime before 1894 to the early 1900's Kaikai Beach was farmed by Jennings, who built the old concrete farmhouse you can see on the slope above Purehurehu Point. By 1910 it was owned by T J Harrison, who also asked for the road to be upgraded 1912. At present the Kaikai Beach farmland is owned by Heyward Point Farm Limited.

Wetlands & Dunes

Jennings Creek Marsh at Kaikai Beach is a regionally significant wetland. Up until the 1880s the sand dunes which protect these lowlands at Kaikai’s Beach were stabilised by the native pikao sedge. As you can see, marram grass has now taken over.



In his memoir, Murray Thompson is saddened by the changes in Kaikai's Beach since he was a boy in the 1860s:

But the beauty of Kaikai’s flat has disappeared. As on the other beaches, the midnight fishers destroyed the native grass with the inevitable result; the regular line of sandhills that had made a sheltered home for old Kaikai and his wife were cut into and blown over the flat, burying what was once a lovely green sward dotted with beautiful native shrubs. The pretty little creek that flowed through the flat was blocked by the driven sand, making several swampy places. Even the cave, in which I had seen the Maoris living when on eeling expeditions or on the lookout for frost fish were blocked up and made no longer habitable.

Up until the year 1884 the flats behind the beaches of these bays were protected for their whole length by an unbroken line of sandhills, clothed with a strong, wiry, brown grass that was at one time common on the sandhills of our coastline, This native grass effectually held the sand against the strongest winds and made and excellent shelter for the flats behind.

Thomson blames destruction of the pikao on people collecting frost fish which stranded at night along these beaches during the winters of 1882-1886. To relieve the monotony of waiting and at the same time to cater for their comfort, the boys used to set fire to the native grass, and night after night saw patches of the sandhills ablaze. In places the grass disappeared altogether, and that these points the strong north-east wind cut its way through, opening up long hollows through the protecting sandhills and carrying the sand over the flat.

Fossickers also damaged the dunes:

The curio hunter was yet another contributor to this work of destruction. The grass having been burnt away, the level of the sand was lowered and consequently what remained of the corner posts of old-time Maori whare appeared above the surface, and old fireplaces, long hidden were exposed to view. Collectors knew that the Maoris were in the habit of hiding their valuables round the base of their whare and shovel and spade were soon at work removing the sandhills.

Murray Thomson learnt that marram grass and lupins would stabilise the sand. From 1897 onwards he gathered marram grass seed at Ocean Beach and planted it along Murdering Beach and Long Beach. In 1911 he gathered seed from Murdering Beach and spent a day sowing it [at Kaikai Beach]. The seed grew in patches, but, for want of attention, only a few hummocks of sand were formed and this once beautiful flat has since been left to the mercy of the elements.

Penguins?

If you walk to the eastern end of Kaikai Beach and look uphill, you will see some yellow-eyed penguins gazing back – but why don’t they move?

These plywood dummy penguins have been placed inside the farmer's fenced 1.4 ha Queen Elizabeth II covenant area to demonstrate that this is a safe area for penguins. At times real penguins are seen on Kaikai Beach - so hopefully there will be a breeding colony here sometime in the future.

And then there's people who don't like birds! As reported in the ODT 11 Nov 1903 some chaps were here on Kaikai Beach to shoot birds... they shot one seagull, then an accidental shot from Thomas Thompson killed his friend Harold Brittenden. Let's stick to geocaching folks, it's safer!

Information sources:

"The Archaeology of Otago" Jill Hamel
"A Pakeha’s Recollections: The Reminiscences of Murray Gladstone Thomson"M G Thomson (1944)
"Te Pari Rehu: The Misty Cliffs" Stan Durry & Dawn Paterson (1998)
THE OLD MAORI TRACKS, Otago Daily Times, 2 September 1922
 A LONELY GRAVE, Otago Daily Times, 22 March 1930 (William Coleman)

Access notes

The scenic way to Kaikai Beach is marked on the map and with waypoints. Follow the DoC track to Heywards Point then, with the farmer's permission, over farmland to the beach.

Alternatively, with the farmer's permission, you can walk 20 minutes over paddocks from Murdering Beach Road over Purehurehu headland to Kaikais Beach.

There are unmarked legal roads approximately following the old Maori track route from Heywards Point to Kaikai Beach and from Kaikai Beach to Murdering Beach. View these on the Walking Access map.

Unfortunately, just as the Heywards Point Reserve fence is 25 m away from the surveyed property boundary, the surveyed alignments of both the public roads to Kaikais Beach go over steep bluffs instead of where they were probably meant to be - so they are not safe routes. Also, the fenced QE2 covenant area is over part of one public road - please stay out of the QE2 area for wildlife protection. Phoning the farmer and asking permission for access is the safe, friendly and most enjoyable way of getting to Kaikais beach!

Apparently it used to be possible to scramble around the headland rocks from Murdering Beach to Kaikai Beach at low tide. However, there has probably been some sand erosion in recent years - it may still be possible at very low tide, but you would probably need to wade waist-deep to get past a sea cave channel. Sea-kayaking would be another option to reach the beach.

Note well: the cave crib is on private land, so you need the farmer's permission to see it. It’s definitely worth visiting!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Faht orgjrra ynetr ybt naq obhyqre.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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