The Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour (GT48A) 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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To complete this Geotour and receive your special geocoin, record the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour codeword in your GeoTour Passport. Download the GeoTour Passport from Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour Passport. If the passport is unavailable for any reason keep a note of the codeword and try again later.
Whareakeake is a key place in the stories of first contact between Otago Māori and the takata pora (people of the boats), during the sealing era 1800 – 1830.
Enjoy a stroll along the quiet beach to find the cache.
Note: Whareakeake Road is steep and a dry weather road only. This is a wildlife area so your dog must be kept on the lead at all times.
If you had been here at Whareakeake between 1815 and 1816, you would have met Otago’s first deliberate European settler, William Tucker. This was then a thriving palisaded village of about 500 people, an established processing site for pounamu brought from the West Coast, and a favourite place for sealing ships to re-provision. Wioree Taka (William Tucker) married a Māori wife, built a house here, and kept goats and sheep. It seems that William was the local contact for an export trade in pounamu hei-tiki, which were in demand as native curiosities in Sydney and London. Pounamu adzes, obsolete since the introduction of iron axes, were worked with iron tools into pendants.
And of course, here in December 1817 began the best-known and bloodiest conflict of “The Sealers’ War” (1810- 1823). This Sophia incident resulted in the deaths of perhaps 16 or 17 Māori and three Europeans (one of them was William Tucker), plus the burning of houses and destruction of waka at Te Rauone beach. Consequently, until recently this bay was commonly known as Murdering Beach.
Overall perhaps 74 people died from the Sealers’ War – about 41 sealers and 33 Māori (although this may underestimate the Māori deaths). Encounters between the Māori and European cultures were fragile. It was all too easy for a mistake, misjudgement or over-reaction on either side to unwittingly precipitate conflict. So… how did William Tucker end up living at Whareakeake? And, since Māori were eager to trade and contact was very profitable for both Māori and takata pora... what changed to trigger this Sealers’ War?
A bountiful land
People were attracted to the Dunedin coastline because of the food they could harvest from the rich ocean. Only 10 km off the coast is the edge of the “Subtropical Front” where subtropical inshore water meets offshore subantarctic water. This feeding ground attracts fish, seabirds and seals.
First settlers
No doubt Otago was settled soon after Polynesians migrated to Aotearoa, about 1320 - 1350. Maybe Shag Beach village was one of the first settlements.
Tradition says Te Rapuwai came on the waka Uruao, followed by Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe in the Takitimu during the 1500s, and the Kāti Kuri and Kāti Tuhaitara hapū of Kai Tahu, in the 1700s. The waka Araiteuru, sent back to Hawaiki to collect kūmera, was wrecked on return at Shag Point and gave its name to the Otago coast Te Tai o Arai Te Uru. Each group of newcomers blended with the previous occupants through warfare, diplomacy and marriage.
Kūmera could not be grown south of Christchurch and therefore southern Māori followed a seasonal round of food gathering. Each community travelled to their inherited mahinga kai, food gathering areas, when the season was right. Food was preserved for trading, which could be as far away as the North Island, and stored for survival over the cold winter months. Seals were a desirable food - three islands on the outer coast were mahinga kai seal colonies.
Cook’s visit 1770
When Lieutenant James Cook sailed the Endeavour south past Otago in February and March 1770 he did not land but he noted a “saddle-shaped hill”, named Cape Saunders, and saw a good sheltered anchorage in the large bay north of the cape. In the Catlins they saw an immense fire on the hillside, showing that the land was owned by natives. Cook also described seals…which let the Sydney entrepreneurs know where to come sealing in the 1800s! A Captain Cook medallion was found at Whareakeake in 1863, showing the trading links between Otago Māori and other areas of the country.
Sealing
From 1792 onwards, sealing ships from the British prison colony at Sydney (Botany Bay) explored the Subantarctic Islands and southern coast of New Zealand. The sealing gangs provided work for ex-prisoners and brought in revenue for the Sydney colony.
Gangs might be ship-based, or shore-based (where the men were dropped off at a rookery and, if all went well, picked up by the ship some months later).
Seals were clubbed and skinned, then the pelts were salted (for the London market) or dried (for the Chinese market). Each sealer was paid a “lay’, usually one-hundredth of the take of skins.
The waterproof fur seal pelts were sold in China and later in London. The Sydney market price was around 3/- per skin, while in London it might sell for 7/- or 10/-. This was at a time when 5/- was an average week’s wage! Obviously each gang killed as many seals as possible, knowing that a rival gang would take any left.
The first sealing rush on the Otago coast was 1803 – 1812, followed by a revival of sealing and mixed trade in the 1820s. Our Whareakeake settler William Tucker first arrived at Otago in November 1809, when he was one of a gang dropped off at Green Island by the Brothers.
Potatoes
Sealing gangs introduced potatoes and European vegetables to the far south around 1803. Māori quickly developed suitable potato varieties and successful growing techniques for the colder climate. The fast-growing and reliable food crop immediately became a crucial part of the Southern Māori diet. This became even more important with the loss of birdlife as introduced Norway rats spread though the country.
Potatoes (mahetau – “a string of sinkers”) allowed large groups of people to settle permanently by harbours where sealers anchored. They were the primary trading item with takata poro.
Dunedin trading
The Dunedin coast was heavily populated during the sealing era. In total there were probably over a thousand people living in the area, compared to Sydney’s population of about 2000 in 1804.
At the Otago Harbour heads, there was a string of half-a-dozen villages between Pukekura (now Taiaroa Head), along Te Rauone Beach to Ohinemu (near Harwood). Chief Kōrako lived here. (His famous son Taiaroa was born in the late 1790s.)
North of the harbour, there were large kaika at Wauwerawera (Long beach), Whareakeake and Takiratawai (Kaikais Beach). Te Matahaere was the chief at Whareakeake.
Otago Harbour was difficult to enter, with an unpredictable bar at the entrance. Ships preferred the sheltered anchorage in “Otago Bay” (Te Muriwai) close to the kaika at “Small Bay” (Whareakeake). Here Māori obtained steel nails, steel tools, tobacco and other European goods in exchange for food (potatoes, fresh vegetables), fresh water, firewood and hospitality.
Southern Māori, although proud and warlike, were friendly and eager to trade. Since contact was so profitable for both Māori and takata pora... what happened in 1810 to trigger the Sealers’ War?
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Sealing club from Martins Bay, Westland. Made of rata wood with an iron bolt in the striking end
and two holes drilled in handle for a wrist strap. |
The start of the Sealers’ War: Sydney Cove 1810
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Puddingstone Rock seal rookery,
Cape Saunders |
In November 1810 men from Sydney Cove were sealing at Cape Saunders. As was customary, Māori went on board to trade food for European goods. A chief, either Te Warepirau or Te Wahia, stole a knife, a red shirt and other items.
Nothing happened at the time, but later the Sydney Cove was at Whareakeake. The sealer who had lost the shirt recognised the pilferer and attacked him with a cutlass. The chief was stabbed in the stomach and died. The Māori counter-attacked and killed a seaman called Perkins.
This over-reaction to a theft precipitated 13 years of intermittent feuding between the Māori and sealers. According to Māori custom the whole of the tribe was implicated in the misconduct of one member and therefore any sealers visiting Otago were liable to be killed in reprisal.
The Sydney Cove fled down the coast to the Clutha Mouth, where seamen killed a chief Te Pahi. A ships boy, James (Hemi) Caddell, was captured by the Māori; he was later adopted, was permitted to take a full moko and married Tokitoki, the niece of leading Murihiku chief Honekai. Four men who had been dropped off by the Brothers in 1809 and three earlier deserters from the Sydney Cove were killed at Tautuku.
When news reached Sydney, the Sydney Gazette reported on “several boat’s crews … having been barbarously murdered, and mostly devoured by the cannibal natives” Sydney Gazette 30 Mar 1811
The Matilda 1814
In 1814, Captain Fowler of the sealer Matilda found the Māori of Otago Bay very friendly and helpful in trading for food and preparing flax ropes to replace the ships’s rigging. However, at the same visit six Lascar (Indian) seamen deserted and were captured by other hapū. Three of the men were killed and three were taken prisoner. One, named Te Anu (the cold one) married a Māori wife and was living at Whareakeake in 1817 and in Stewart Island in 1847. A boat’s crew from the Matilda, sent to look for the deserters, was killed near Tavora (Bobby's Head).
A year later, in 1815, William Tucker arrived back in Otago and was accepted into the Whareakeake hapū.
William Tucker (1784 – 1817)
William Tucker was born in Portsmouth, England. In 1798, aged 13, he shoplifted goods worth over 5/- from a drapery store and was therefore sentenced to be hanged. This was commuted to 7 years’ transportation to New South Wales.
The voyage of the Hillsborough to Botany Bay took a harrowing 212 days; 95 of the 300 convicts aboard died. In 1803 Tucker stowed away on the Atlas and got back to England. Lucky to escape hanging, he was returned to Botany Bay on the Experiment in 1804.
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Sydney Convict 1793.
William Tucker would have
worn clothes like this. |
Once his prison term ended in 1805, the 20-year-old signed on for sealing voyages. In November 1809 he was one of a gang dropped off at Green Island by the Brothers. The ship didn’t return until May 1810, by which time most of the gang had deserted. Tucker was sent in a ship’s boat to search for the missing men.
While searching the sealers called in at one of the kaika, probably near Riverton, where they were soon on friendly terms – William obviously got on well with people. But, during the visit he stole a preserved tattooed human head from his hosts. Was this a victory trophy? Or a memento of a loved one? The theft was discovered an hour after William left; the boat crew only just escaped capture.
After another sealing voyage in 1810-11, Tucker returned to Sydney and sold the stolen tattooed head. This was not the first preserved head that had been collected, but it was the first to be re-sold. Decent people found such trade outrageous, but the “curio” would have fetched him a pretty penny - in 1812 Māori heads were sold in Sydney for £21.
However, by August 1812 William had run through the money. He was convicted to a year’s hard labour in Newcastle for stealing a woman’s silk cloak. After his sentence he left New South Wales.
Then in 1815 William returned to Otago, perhaps in the Governor Bligh. He obviously received permission from chief Te Matahaere to settle at Whareakeake and carry on his business enterprise there.
It seems that William was the local contact for an export trade in pounamu hei-tiki, which were in demand as native curiosities in Sydney and London. Pounamu adzes, obsolete since the introduction of iron axes, were worked with iron tools into pendants.
This agreement was sealed in the usual way, making him part of the hapū through marriage to a woman of appropriate status. These two years at Whareakeake must have been the happiest of William’s life – he had social standing, a wife (although no child), a house and kept goats and sheep. His Māori name was Wioree Taka.
Apparently several ships visited Whareakeake during the years William was living there, perhaps by arrangement for provisioning and to trade for the hei-tiki pendants. We know William went back to Hobart in 1817 and then returned to Otago on the Sophia with Captain James Kelly. It seems he was bringing other European settlers to join the venture.
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Captain James Kelly
of the "Sophia". |
The Sophia 1817
The Sophia, under Captain James Kelly, anchored in Otago Harbour on
11 December 1817. Ōtakou* Māori welcomed Wioree and friendly trading began.
However, this was a serious insult to Te Matahaere. Because William was living under Te Matahaere’s protection, he was obliged to trade with Te Matahaere before any other chief.
Worse still for Te Mataheare’s mana, Kōrako monopolised the Sophia’s trade for several days. When people walked from Waikouaiti, Matanaka and Okahau (Moeraki) to greet Wioree, chief Kōrako refused to ferry them across the harbour to Ōtakou. William’s betrayal was unforgivable and “Te Matahaere’s heart was dark with anger”.
Kelly, William, and five others took a longboat to Whareakeake two or three days later. William clearly didn’t realise he had done anything wrong, since he persuaded Kelly to leave all firearms behind. Wioree was welcomed by his friends at Whareakeake and immediately went off to see his house and wife. Kelly made a gift of iron to Te Matahaere. Te Anu, a deserter from the Matilda who was living at Whareakeake, interpreted as Kelly bartered for potatoes with the chief.
But while Tucker was away at his house, on Te Matahaere’s orders the Māori attacked the others. Veto Viole and John Griffiths were killed, but Kelly escaped back to the longboat, as did William. He lingered in the surf, calling on Māori not to hurt Wioree, but was speared and knocked down. He called "Captain Kelly for God’s sake don’t leave me," before being hit on the head by Riri and killed. Kelly saw him "cut limb from limb and carried away by the savages!" All the dead were eaten. Australian newspapers reported Kelly’s version of the deaths. Otago Witness 21 August 1858
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Part of chart by Herd 1826: Shows sandbar across
the harbour entrance, a preferred anchorage in the Otakou channel, and five villages between Pilots Beach and Harwood.
Te Rauone beach is shown in brown, with sandhills
but no houses. This is thought to be the area burnt
by James Kelly and the "Sophia" in 1817. |
Kelly and the three other survivors returned to the Sophia in Otago Harbour, where Ōtakou Māori were still on the ship trading. They asked Kelly where Wioree and the other men were. Kelly seems to have panicked and attacked the Māori. The sealers killed several Māori (including women), threw the others overboard and captured chief Kōrako.
The Ōtakou Māori planned to rescue their chief. Wearing rain capes (pokeka) as protection against musket balls, they approached the Sophia with a canoe-load of potatoes as ransom for Kōrako. But, warriors were hidden under the potatoes.
When the Māori tried to board the Sophia, several were killed with boarding pikes. But Kōrako, who had managed to free his tied hands, chose this moment to jump overboard and swim ashore. Although he was shot in the leg, the Maori reports say chief Korako survived.
The Sophia had not yet fully re-provisioned so the next morning, Kelly sent a boat ashore under covering fire. The shore party sawed up several canoes, using cross-cut saws, and took the pieces aboard as firewood. Seeing this destruction the Ōtakou Māori attacked.
The sealers then set fire to the village (though to be at Te Rauone Beach). It was “a fine clear summer day blowing a fresh hot wind from the NW” and they burnt “the beautiful city of Otago” to ashes.
On the 27 December the Sophia sailed for the Chathams and eventually returned to Hobart. (Kelly became known as the Father of Tasmanian whaling - but when ships he owned visited the Weller Brother’s whaling station at Ōtakou in 1831 and again in 1834, they weren’t welcome.)
Kelly’s savage retaliation against innocent Ōtakou Māori fuelled the ongoing feud.
The General Gates
Between 1819 and 1823 the General Gates dropped off sealing gangs at Stewart Island and the Fiordland coast. From 1821 a number of the men were killed by Otago Māori, who used this region for food gathering. Another ship, the Snapper, happened to be at Chalky Inlet in November 1822 and picked up the remaining men from one of the gangs. When the pursuing Māori arrived, Captain Edwardson was surprised to find that two of them were Europeans – James Caddell and also another man, James Stuart, who had been with the first 1819 sealing gang but who was now working as a guide for the chiefs.
Truce at last 1823
The two Pākehā-Māori agreed to go with Edwardson to Sydney, along with Caddell’s wife Tokitoki and the young soon-to-be famous chief Tuhawaiki.
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| His Majesty's cutter "Mermaid" 1817 |
As well as Caddell’s crucial role as a go-between for the two cultures, there were renewed prospects for trade. The Snapper’s visit to Foveaux strait was to investigate the possibility of a flax fibre industry, on behalf of the New South Wales government. During his voyage Captain Edwardson introduced pigs to southern Māori, which soon became a significant trading commodity, and he returned with highly-marketable Māori curios.
Both sides wanted peaceful trade. A truce was concluded in 1823.
The New South Wales government now sent the Mermaid under Captain Kent which reopened contact between Otago Māori and the wider world. The peace held; leading chiefs of Murihiku and Otago forbade the killing of takata pora.
Whareakeake deserted
By 1825 the settlements at Wauwerawera (Long Beach), Whareakeake and Takiratawai (Kaikais Beach) were deserted as people moved to the new trading centre of Ōtakou. Whareakeake was regarded as a forbidden place, until the tapū was lifted in 1868 by a North Island tohunga at the request of the Purakaunui Māori.
Hundreds of pounamu artefacts have been found here, including many hei-tiki. In the second half of the 19th century the beach was systematically mined, collecting about 180 kg of worked nephrite and semi-nephrite. Many artefacts were sold to tourists, but a large collection has also ended up in the Otago Museum.
The seals return
As seal numbers dwindled, after 1875 hunting was limited to a winter season. But from 1894, apart from 1914 and 1915, there was no open season. The last sealing was an open season in Otago and Southland during 1946 when it was thought that seals were harming the fisheries. The 6,187 seals killed between June and September 1946 were the last seals legally killed in New Zealand.
Seals have rapidly recolonised Otago coasts since returning to breed on the Otago Peninsula in the 1970s. One place to see seals easily is on the rocks at the end of Aramoana mole.
Fur Seal Facts
Follow these simple guidelines when watching seals for your safety and that of the animals:
• stay at least 20 m away
• don’t disturb seals by making loud noises or throwing things
• keep dogs and children away
• don’t feed the seals
• never attempt to touch a seal.
It is an offence under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 (MMPA) to disturb, harass, harm, injure or kill a seal.
More information:
• “Behold the Moon” (Second edition 2010) by Peter Entwisle
• “Taka: A Vignette Life of William Tucker 1784 – 1817” (2005) by Peter Entwisle
• “Gaining a Foothold: Historical records of Otago’s eastern coast 1770 – 1839” (2007) by Ian Church
• “The Archaeology of Otago” by Jill Hamel https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/science-and-technical/the_achaeology_of_otago_jill_hamel_web.pdf
• “The NZ Sealing Industry” by Ian Smith https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/science-and-technical/nzsealing.pdf
* Note: Ōtākou was the name for the channel that ran down the eastern (southern) side of the Otago Harbour from the mouth to Harwood Point, past the whaling station site and main Māori villages. Aramoana was the channel down the western (northern) side through to Koputai/Port Chalmers. Sealers used the name Otago to refer to both the land by the anchorage and the wider region. When the Weller brothers established a whaling settlement by Te Umu Kuri/Wellers rock in 1831, it became known to the whalers as Ōtākou, as are the present Kāi Tahu marae and kaika.
Remember to write down the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour codeword inside the logbook.
To complete this Geotour and receive your special geocoin, record the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour codeword in your GeoTour Passport. Download the GeoTour Passport from Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour Passport. If the passport is unavailable for any reason keep a note of the codeword and try again later.
There is plenty of room in the log book to put in the date that you sign it. Because the date can be important for some challenges, logs without a correct date may be subject to deletion. I will use my common sense and discretion as we all make genuine mistakes at times.