The Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour is about having fun discovering the history of Aotearoa New Zealand by finding sites of significance in local communities from early Pacific voyaging and migration, European settlement to present day. The interaction between people, and people and the land have provided a rich history that the GeoTour invites you to explore.
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Much of New Zealand's early pākehā immigration and settlement was facilitated by the New Zealand Company, and they purchased land in a number of areas for sale to colonists. Wellington, Nelson, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Dunedin, Christchurch and Picton are all company towns.
Te Ātiawa already had a kianga (village) here on the Picton foreshore when Frances Bell of the New Zealand Company came in 1848 to purchase the land. After selling the land the Te Ātiawa people moved to a new home in Waikawa, 8km away. Although the bargaining was long and difficult, the sales process was peaceful. This was not always the case.
Māori and pākehā had different concepts of ownership of land, and the New Zealand Company, having sold more land to settlers than they had available, was desperate to aquire more. Their dubious dealings were one of the catalysts for the land wars of 1845 - 72. Although the South Island was spared the conflict that occured in the north, the first battle of the New Zealand land wars and the only one in the South Island occured not far away when the New Zealand Company invoked the wrath of Te Rauparaha near Blenheim. For an excellent account of this see another cache in this series, Ko Te Rauparaha ahau.
To find this cache study the two information boards which tell you more of this story. One is at the published coordinates and the other at the attached waypoint. Then follow the Te Ātiawa people to their new home in Waikawa.
The cache is at S 41° 16.ABC E 174° 01.DEF, where:
A = Date of Fox's painting, 18x8
B = Name of the native grass mentioned, first letter, first digit of position in alphabet.
C = Number of other Pictons mentioned, times two.
D = Land released to New Zealand Company, x5 acres.
E = Total acerage Māori had under crop, x0 acres.
F = Over a period of x50 years, factions settled, battled and intermarried.
Σ (A..F) = 30.
Good luck!
To be able to complete this Geotour and recieve your special geocoin, remember to take a note of the codeword on the logbook of the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded from here. If the passport is unavailable for any reason just keep a note of the codeword and try again later.
The cache background and the birds in the banner are kauka, bar-tailed godwits, chosen by Tuia Mātauranga as they perform the longest non-stop migration of any non-seabird, a single flight from Alaska to New Zealand and Australia.