Tolaga Bay

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Tolaga Bay.
Tolaga Bay wharf - New Zealand's longest wharf

Tolaga Bay (Māori: Uawa) is both a bay and small town on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island located 45 kilometres northeast of Gisborne and 30 kilometres south of Tokomaru Bay.

It was named Tolaga Bay by Lt. James Cook,[1] but the original Māori name is Uawa Nui A Ruamatua (shortened to Uawa), and some local residents now refer to the area as Hauiti, and themselves as Hauitians[2] from the local iwi Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti.

The region around the bay is rugged and remote, and for many years the only access to the town was by boat. Because the bay is shallow, a long wharf - the longest in New Zealand (600m) - was built to accommodate visiting vessels. In the 1830s there was a thriving flax trade involving early European traders like Barnet Burns.[1] By 1998, the wharf had deteriorated and was in danger of being closed. In response, the Tolaga Bay Save the Wharf Trust raised funds and gained technical help to restore it. The wharf has now been re-opened and the refurbishment project should finish by May 2013.[3]

Two rivers reach the Pacific Ocean at Tolaga Bay - the Waiau and the Mangaheia.

An island in the bay was originally named Spöring Island by Cook, after his expedition's assistant naturalist and instrument maker, Herman Spöring, a Finnish botanist. It is however today again known by its Māori name, Pourewa.

The town is a popular holiday spot. Its population is predominantly Māori, a centre of the Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti iwi and home of Ariki - Te Kani a Takirau[4] and Tohunga - Rangiuia.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tolaga Bay, GisborneNZ.com, accessed 8 December 2008
  2. ↑ (in the comments)
  3. ↑ Gisbourne Herald, Friday, March 08, 2013, Project to restore old wharf nears end
  4. ↑ "Te Kararoa". Register of Historic Places. New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Retrieved 2009-12-21. 
  5. ↑ "Taharangi". Register of Historic Places. New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Retrieved 2009-12-21. 

Coordinates: 38°22′S 178°18′E / 38.367°S 178.300°E / -38.367; 178.300

External links


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