63 of the 150 Pōkai Whenua GeoTour caches will contain a randomly placed special FTF token (a replica of the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour commemorative coin). This is yours to keep! If you find more than one, you might consider leaving it for the next person who finds the cache.
The Tuia Mātauranga - Pōkai Whenua GeoTour: Tahi follows the footsteps of early explorers of Aotearoa New Zealand taking you to places where leaders of the past searched for food, resources and ways to adapt and survive in this new land.
Use the Pōkai Whenua GeoTour as your classroom to explore the stories of the past, in the present, to preserve what is unique in Aotearoa New Zealand for the future.
Collect the codewords to get the Geocoin puzzle piece.
To be able to complete this GeoTour and receive your special Geocoin collectable, remember to take a note of the codeword placed in the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded here.
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What’s in a name? MANGŌNUI
Mangō – shark; nui – big
Mangōnui is an historic, picturesque township 36 km north-east of Kaitāia, on Doubtless Bay.
In the Māori language, the name "Mangōnui" means "great or big shark".
For Māori taniwha are supernatural creatures whose forms and characteristics vary according to different tribal traditions. Some have been described as fabulous monsters living in deep water, others looked like reptiles, had wings and ate people. Some could even change their shape and move between different forms. Some taniwha took the shape of sharks and it is after this that Mangōnui is named.
Mangōnui, a guardian taniwha who in the form of a giant shark accompanied the canoe Riukaramea into the harbour.
Originally Mangōnui was established as a whaling town, but over time as whaling declined the town changed into a milling town.
As a sailor's town it has in time past shared the notorious reputation of Kororāreka further south (known today as Russell) as a bawdy lawless place where anything and anyone could be bought for a price, and as a place for hard liquor. In pre-1840 the British did not control New Zealand meaning British law was not enforced. and Māori lived by tribal law and values of tapu, mana, mauri and utu. Many new settlers paid no respect for the traditions of the land where they were living. Itt became a lawless town. Māori chiefs met to discuss what could be done, writing a letter the King of England.
As time passed the whaling industry waned and the town turned to milling. The area around Mangōnui had great kauri tree forests that were treasured for their long un-knotted trunks for ships, masts, and spars. Kauri trees only grow in the upper part of the North Island and the timber was specially sought after by the British Navy.
In addition the ancient kauri forests also left deposits of kauri gum. Kauri gum was highly valued in Europe. Kauri gum is a fossilized resin extracted from kauri trees and was used for chewing, tattooing, and were often made into jewellery. Kauri gum was Auckland's main export in the second half of the nineteenth century, sustaining much of the early growth of the city.
Between 1850 and 1950, 450,000 tons of gum was exported. 1899 marked the peak in the gum market, with 11,116 tons exported in one year.