The Mighty Kaipara

THE MIGHTY KAIPARA is not just the largest harbour in Aotearoa but also the Southern Hemisphere, and its history of logging and gum digging, shipwrecks, failed visions and lost settlements is the stuff of legend. Exploring that past - as well as the present of this little piece of paradise - is the perfect Auckland getaway.

Kaipara Harbour is in fact a drowned river valley system, which has alternated between forested rivers and flooded harbours for hundreds of thousands of years. To Māori it was a rich source of food - kai Moana from the ocean, produce from its rich soils, and birdlife from its dense forests. But that ocean could take life just as it supported it; the evershifting sandbanks and tides were treacherous, and according to oral tradition the ocean-going canoe Māhuhu voyaged from Hawaiki to New Zealand only to be overturned on the northern side of the entrance.

Early European settlers also learnt that Kaipara demanded respect. The first European ship to be wrecked there was the Aurora in 1840, and over the following decades so many more would be caught out - estimates range from between 43 to over a hundred - that the sandbanks would earn the eery nickname of The Graveyard.

But so many of the early settlers were willing to run the risk of Kaipara because of the riches it offered. In addition to the bounty of the sea, Kaipara’s hills were covered in kauri and with the burgeoning settlement of Auckland nearby, timber for building was in great demand. Logging got underway in the mid-1800s, and over the next one hundred years nearly 1,200,000 hectares of forest were harvested - and Kaipara boomed. Dargaville and Helensville were established, ports were built, and even tram lines were laid to carry the timber. The discovery that kauri gum was nearly worth its weight in gold brought another boom, with thousands of migrants enduring the wretched life of digging in the clay to find their fortune. The bonanza became so frenzied that, at one-point, public notices were posted in Helensville asking the locals to stop digging up the main street in search of gum!

All good things must come to an end though, and so it was with Kaipara’s boom. With the hills denuded of Kauri and the gum gone, the region experienced a marked reversal of fortunes. Numerous attempts to establish new industries were attempted, but all with mixed results. One would-be entrepreneur spent £12,000 on importing ostriches from South Africa, only to have a severe drought leave the birds starving; and our country’s first tobacco plantation was established at Pahi in 1882, only to fail as recession kicked in.

It wasn’t just industry that faltered however. In the early 1860s the ‘Albertlanders’ began to arrive, non-conformist Protestants from the United Kingdom who had been sold the vision of an Antipodean utopia at what is now Port Albert (named after Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria). But the settlement was, to put it mildly, ill-conceived and over-optimistic, with more than half of the Albertlanders choosing to pursue opportunities in a growing Auckland rather than face a perilous journey to virtually an imaginary outpost of the Empire. And after months or years of breaking in dense bush many of those that did chance it gave up and moved elsewhere; the last large-scale organised settlement of New Zealand ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

Early European settlers learnt that Kaipara demanded respect

Which is not to say that the mighty Kaipara is a footnote to history, because it is not. Now it is the golden sands of Kaipara Harbour that mix with cement to make the footpaths and driveways of new Auckland suburbs, just as it was the kauri from Kaipara’s hills that built that city’s villas and verandahs a hundred years ago. And just as the loggers and gum diggers flocked to Auckland to let off steam, now it is the turn of the city slickers to find some rest and recreation in the tranquility of Kaipara.

A great place to start your Kaipara adventure on your way up from the city is The Riverhead Tavern. The oldest riverside pub in the country at 160 years young, The Riverhead has hosted ‘countryfolk and townspeople, fishermen and farmers, smugglers and clergymen, marauding riders of the night through to social visits from the local constabulary’ so soak up the history - and enjoy the food!

Just up the road and you are in wine country, with the likes of Coopers Creek, Soljans Estate, and Kumeū River offering tasting rooms and cellar sales, and if you manage to make it through without deciding to linger a lot longer than planned, then you are on to Helensville and Kaipara proper. There are numerous nature walks, harbour cruises, and bike rides, but it’s not all about the great outdoors; try the kilometre-long arts trail at the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens, the grand scale sculptures up north at Gibbs Farm, or the Kaukapakapa Village Market (now relocated to Helensville due to flood damage). And if you have time on your hands there is still Dargaville to the north - but that’s probably another story.

At one-point, public notices were posted in Helensville asking the locals to stop digging up the main street.

Which brings us neatly to the one problem with Kaipara; it’s just so big it’s hard to know where to start and when to finish. So much more than a day trip, so spectacular, so rich in history - and so, so close to home.