Otago Peninsula
Encyclopedia
The Otago Peninsula is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin
, New Zealand
. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour
. The peninsula lies south-east of Otago Harbour and runs parallel to the mainland for 20 km, with a maximum width of 9 km. It is joined to the mainland at the south-west end by a narrow isthmus about 1.5 km wide.
The suburbs of Dunedin encroach onto the western end of the peninsula, and seven townships and communities lie along the harbourside shore. The majority of the land is sparsely populated and occupied by steep open pasture. The peninsula is home to many species of wildlife, notably seabird
s, pinniped
s, and penguins, and several ecotourism businesses operate in the area.
The peninsula was formed at the same time as the hills that face it across the harbour, as part of a large, long-extinct, volcano
. Several of the peninsula's peaks, notably the aptly named Harbour Cone, clearly show these volcanic origins in their form. These rocks were built up between 13 and 10 million years ago.
Much of the peninsula is steep hill country, with the highest points being Mount Charles (408 m), Harbour Cone, and Sandymount
. Two tidal inlets lie on the Pacific coast of the peninsula, Hoopers Inlet and Papanui Inlet. Between them is the headland of Cape Saunders
. Nearby natural features include the 250-m-high cliffs of Lovers' Leap and The Chasm.
At the entrance to the Otago Harbour the peninsula rises to Taiaroa Head
, home to a breeding colony of Northern Royal Albatross
, the only colony of albatross to be found on an inhabited mainland. The viewing centre for the albatross colony is one of the peninsula's main ecotourism
attractions, along with other wildlife such as seals
and Yellow-eyed Penguin
s. Most of the Otago Peninsula is freehold farming land, with increasing numbers of small holdings or lifestyle blocks. Some biodiversity sites such as Taiaroa Head are managed as sanctuaries for wildlife. Many species of seabirds and waders in particular may be found around the tidal inlets, including spoonbill
s, plover
s, and heron
s.
The Pacific
coast of the peninsula includes several beaches that are far enough removed from Dunedin to be sparsely populated even in mid-summer. These include Allan's Beach, Boulder Beach
, Victory Beach
, and Sandfly Bay
.
Victory Beach, named after the 19th century shipwreck of the Victory close to this coast, features a rock formation known locally as "The Pyramids" for its resemblance to the ancient Egyptian monuments. Sandfly Bay, named not for the insect but for the sand blown up by the wind, is reached via a path through some of New Zealand's tallest sand dunes, which rise for some 100 metres above the beach.
Other tourist attractions on the peninsula include Larnach Castle
, a restored Armstrong 'disappearing' gun coastal defence post, and a war memorial cairn
. There are views of the city and surrounding country from Highcliff Road, which runs along the spine of the peninsula.
The total population of the peninsula is under 10,000, with about half of these in the suburbs of Dunedin that encroach onto its western end, such as Vauxhall and Shiel Hill
. For much of its length, only the strip adjacent to the Otago Harbour is populated, with several small communities dotting its length. Largest of these are Macandrew Bay
(the peninsula's largest settlement, with a population of 1,100), Portobello
, and Otakou
, which was the site of the first permanent European settlement on the Harbour, and the site of an early whaling
station, commemorated at nearby Weller's Rock.
Modern archaeological opinion favours a date for New Zealand's first human settlement around 1100 AD with people concentrated on the east coast of the South Island. In Archaic (or moa hunter) times the Otago Peninsula was a relatively densely occupied area at the centre of the country's most populous region.
A map of recorded Māori archaeological sites for the Otago Conservancy shows many more on the Otago Peninsula than elsewhere in the region. Another showing only those of the Archaic period shows sites clustered on the peninsula and along the coast across the harbour to the west and north. This was one of three more or less distinct clusters on the South Island's south east coast: one from about Oamaru
south to Pleasant River; another from Waikouaiti
south, which includes the Otago Peninsula and tails off about the Kaikorai estuary; another extending south from the Clutha
mouth. The clusters contain a few larger sites. On the Otago Peninsula the one at Little Papanui is of middle size while that at Harwood Township is one of the largest. These and numerous other smaller sites are clearly visible, though often not recognised by visitors for what they are.
Their occupants were people of Polynesian culture and descent, ancestral to modern Maori, who lived by hunting large birds, notably the now extinct flightless moa, but also seals and by fishing.
Whale ivory chevron pendants found at Little Papanui were made by the site's early occupants and are now in the Otago Museum
, Dunedin. The site's lowest levels have been estimated to have been occupied some time between 1150 and 1300 A.D. Another peninsula site, at Papanui Inlet, is thought to have been occupied in the same period, as was the extensive one at Harwood Township. Little Papanui and Harwood are considered to have been permanent settlements, not temporary camps. A single radiocarbon date for Harwood suggests it was also occupied in 1450. Three magnificent greenstone adzes, said by H.D. Skinner to be the finest of their type, were found nearby and are dated to the same time. They represent a form already archaic when they were made. They are in the Otago Museum.
Southern Māori oral tradition tells of five successively arriving peoples and while the earliest, Kahui Tipua, appear to be fairy folk modern anthropological opinion is that nevertheless they represent historical people who have become encrusted with legend. Te Rapuwai were next and seemed to be succeeded by two Waitaha
tribes but it has been suggested this was really one with 'Waitaha' also being used as a catchall name for all earlier peoples by some later arrivals. 'Te Rapuwai' may perhaps also have been used like this. Nevertheless some middens, such as those on the peninsula, have been identified traditionally with Te Rapuwai. Anderson's later, or tribal Waitaha, arrived in the south in the 15th century.
Moa and moa hunters went into decline but a new Classic Māori culture evolved, characterised by the construction of pa, fortified villages, and new peoples arrived on the Otago Peninsula. People here at this time practised what has been called a foraging economy. Increasing reliance seems to have been placed on harvesting the root of the cabbage tree (cordylline australis) and 'umu ti', cabbage tree ovens, proliferate over some parts of the Peninsula showing intensive use of the land.
Kati Mamoe (Ngāti Mamoe in modern standard Māori) arrived in the late 16th century. Kai Tahu (Ngāi Tahu
in modern standard Māori) came about a hundred years later. Pukekura
, a fortress on Taiaroa Head
, was built about 1650. Nearby villages on Te Rauone Beach perhaps date from the same time. Pukekura's terraces are still visible some of them co-opted into later European defence works.
Many traditions survive from this period concerning figures such as Waitai and Moki II who at different times both lived at Pukekura pa. One of the best known concerns Tarewai who is difficult to place chronologically but was of Kai Tahu descent. He gained possession of Pukekura, was in conflict with Kati Mamoe at Papanui Inlet and made a famous escape back into Pukekura by a cliff still known as Tarewai's Leap. There had been an argument about Kati Mamoe fishing rights on Papanui Inlet. A particularly fine, talismanic, whale bone fishook of the 18th century was found there and is now in the Otago Museum.
James Cook
was off the coast in February 1770 and named Cape Saunders
after the Secretary of the Admiralty. His chart showed a bay at what is Hooper's Inlet, which may have been explored and named by Charles Hooper chief officer on Daniel Cooper's English sealer, Unity, in the summer of 1808-9. Sealers used the harbour from about this time, probably anchoring off Wellers' Rock, modern Otakou, where there was an extensive Māori settlement or settlements. The Sealers' War
(also known as the War of the Shirt) was sparked by an incident on the Sydney Cove in Otago Harbour
late in 1810 while her men were sealing at Cape Saunders. This incidentally produced James Kelly
's attack on 'the City of Otago', probably the Te Rauone settlement(s) in December 1817 after William Tucker
and others had been killed at Whareakeake (Murdering Beach) a few miles north. Peace was re-established by 1823. 1826 saw the visit of the Rosanna and the Lambton, ships of the first New Zealand Company bringing the first recorded European women and producing Thomas Shepherd's pictures of the Peninsula, the oldest now known, held in the Mitchell Library
Sydney. In November 1831 the Weller brothers
, Joseph, George and Edward, established their whaling station at Wellers Rock.
In the course of a turbulent decade the Wellers' Otago establishment grew to be the largest in the country and the harbour became an international whaling port. European women were present at the station from the beginning. There was conflict with Māori who suffered epidemics of measles and influenza in 1835 and 1836. Whaling collapsed in 1839 and Dumont D'Urville, a visiting French navigator, described the Peninsula's European and Māori communities both trafficking in alcohol and sex, in March 1840. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on the Peninsula in June, although the South Island had already been annexed by 'right of discovery'. The first Christian service was preached on the Peninsula later that year at Otago by Bishop Pompallier. In 1841 Octavius Harwood and C.W. Schultze took over the Wellers' operation.
Various European visitors in the 1840s made records. In 1844 Māori reserved the land at the Heads when they sold the Otago Block to the Otago Association for its Scottish Free Church settlement. Charles Kettle
, the Association's surveyor, laid out suburban and country blocks in 1846-7. The arrival of the first migrant ships in early 1848 saw the focus of settlement move to Dunedin
while Port Chalmers
on the other side of the harbour succeeded Otago as the international port. In December William Cargill
, secular leader of the Otago settlement, successfully petitioned the government to re-instate 'Otago' as its original name. The old whaling village and adjacent Māori settlements had now become 'Otakou'.
During the Otago Gold Rush in the 1860s pleasure gardens were established at Vauxhall; George Grey Russell built his house at Glenfalloch and William Larnach
acquired the land for his big house at Pukehiki
, 'Larnach Castle
'. A lighthouse was built at Taiaroa Head in 1864 and work began using prison labour, sometimes including Maori prisoners of war, to build the winding harbourside road, with its distinctive seawalls of the local stone. Across the cleared land settlers built dry stone walls, following the pattern of 'Galloway Dykes', another conspicuous and distinctive feature of the landscape whose only other examples in New Zealand are across the harbour on the opposite heights. Stone lime kilns were built near Sandymount in 1864.
The land was used for mixed farming and later focused on dairying. This produced New Zealand's first dairy co-operative, at Springfield on the Highcliff Road, in 1871. The peninsula was made a county in 1876, the administrative centre being Portobello. In the 1880s, following fears of a Russian invasion, Taiaroa Head was extensively fortified. An Armstrong Disappearing gun was installed in 1886. Ferries linked the peninsula's harbour coast with the city and Port Chalmers.
In 1904 a marine fish hatchery was established at Aquarium Point, Portobello. Another sign of changing attitudes to wild life was the self-establishment of the Royal Albatross colony at Taiaroa Head in the 1920s which was now carefully nurtured for its scientific interest.
The 20th century saw land use change as the draining and development of the Taieri Plain eventually led to that area eclipsing the Peninsula's dairying and mixed farms gave way to extensive grazing. The rural population, especially on the Pacific coast, dwindled, leaving abandoned steadings and roads decaying slowly behind macrocarpa and hawthorn plantings. The re-made, Europeanised landscape now took on an air of mellow decay, and started to look 'natural', unusual in a recently colonised country like New Zealand. This attracted the attention of visitors and artists. Colin McCahon
, New Zealand's most celebrated painter, first worked out his 'vision' of the New Zealand landscape with studies of the peninsula, the most developed being that of 1946-49 now owned by the city and on display in the central Dunedin Public Library.
Radio masts appeared at Highcliff and rural depopulation was compensated by the growth of the harbourside settlements. Improving roads saw the demise of the ferries. After World War 2 the Taiaroa Head garrison was withdrawn and the lighthouse automated. The University of Otago
took over the hatchery as a research facility as its commercial purpose waned. The City of Dunedin absorbed Peninsula County in 1967, promising to extend water and sewerage reticulation.
In recent decades there has been growing suburban occupation of the townships, some 'lifestyle' developments on the harbour slopes and an increasing tourist traffic.
The Otago Peninsula is one of the few places in New Zealand where there is everywhere visible evidence of the long human occupation of the land. In a magnificent but compact setting the challenge is to maintain its balance of human and natural in the face of growing residential and tourist development.
, Megadyptes antipodes, Little Blue Penguin, shag
s, Jewelled Gecko
s and the Royal Albatross
. Seal and sea lion colonies have regenerated during the 20th century. A number of New Zealand Fur Seals and Hooker's Sea Lions
currently breed around Taiaroa Head
. Southern Elephant Seal
s and Leopard Seals are also known to occur.
In 1975 a whale was seen in Otago Harbour for the first time since the whaling days and the number of sighting of larger whales in this area is increasing. Southern Right Whales are the most frequent of all large cetaceans in the area, followed by Humpback Whale
. In addition, two Blue Whales were sighted just offshore from Taiaroa Head
in March 2008. Minke Whale
s also visit the area. Several species of dolphins or small whales also occur constantly around the peninsula: Dusky Dolphin
, Bottlenose Dolphin
, Common Dolphin
, and endangered Hector's Dolphin
. Orca, the Killer Whale are occasionally seen. Sperm Whales and some species of beaked whales can be found further offshore and rarely stranded.
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...
. The peninsula lies south-east of Otago Harbour and runs parallel to the mainland for 20 km, with a maximum width of 9 km. It is joined to the mainland at the south-west end by a narrow isthmus about 1.5 km wide.
The suburbs of Dunedin encroach onto the western end of the peninsula, and seven townships and communities lie along the harbourside shore. The majority of the land is sparsely populated and occupied by steep open pasture. The peninsula is home to many species of wildlife, notably seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s, pinniped
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
s, and penguins, and several ecotourism businesses operate in the area.
Geography
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
. Several of the peninsula's peaks, notably the aptly named Harbour Cone, clearly show these volcanic origins in their form. These rocks were built up between 13 and 10 million years ago.
Much of the peninsula is steep hill country, with the highest points being Mount Charles (408 m), Harbour Cone, and Sandymount
Sandymount, New Zealand
Sandymount is the name of a prominent hill on Otago Peninsula, in the southeastern South Island of New Zealand. It is 13 kilometres east of the city centre of Dunedin, close to the northeastern end of Sandfly Bay, and rises to a height of 312 metres...
. Two tidal inlets lie on the Pacific coast of the peninsula, Hoopers Inlet and Papanui Inlet. Between them is the headland of Cape Saunders
Cape Saunders
Cape Saunders is a prominent headland on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand's South Island. It is home to the Cape Saunders Lighthouse....
. Nearby natural features include the 250-m-high cliffs of Lovers' Leap and The Chasm.
At the entrance to the Otago Harbour the peninsula rises to Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head is a headland at the end of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand, overlooking the mouth of the Otago Harbour. It lies within the city limits of Dunedin...
, home to a breeding colony of Northern Royal Albatross
Northern Royal Albatross
The Northern Royal Albatross or Toroa, Diomedea sanfordi, is a large seabird from the albatross family. It was split from the closely related Southern Royal Albatross as recently as 1998, though not all scientists support that conclusion and consider both of them to be subspecies of the Royal...
, the only colony of albatross to be found on an inhabited mainland. The viewing centre for the albatross colony is one of the peninsula's main ecotourism
Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of tourism visiting fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas, intended as a low impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial tourism...
attractions, along with other wildlife such as seals
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
and Yellow-eyed Penguin
Yellow-eyed Penguin
The Yellow-eyed Penguin or Hoiho is a penguin native to New Zealand. Previously thought closely related to the Little Penguin , molecular research has shown it more closely related to penguins of the genus Eudyptes...
s. Most of the Otago Peninsula is freehold farming land, with increasing numbers of small holdings or lifestyle blocks. Some biodiversity sites such as Taiaroa Head are managed as sanctuaries for wildlife. Many species of seabirds and waders in particular may be found around the tidal inlets, including spoonbill
Spoonbill
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...
s, plover
Plover
Plovers are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. There are about 40 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subfamily, Vanellinae, comprises another 20-odd species.Plovers are found throughout...
s, and heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
coast of the peninsula includes several beaches that are far enough removed from Dunedin to be sparsely populated even in mid-summer. These include Allan's Beach, Boulder Beach
Boulder Beach
Boulder Beach is a rocky beach which is located on the Pacific side of the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. Boulder Beach can be accessed by a number of walking tracks. These tracks begin at Braidwood Road, Paradise Road, Buskin Road, Seal Point Road, and Karetai Road. All these tracks are linked and...
, Victory Beach
Victory Beach
Victory Beach is located on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Otago Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand, by road from Dunedin city centre. The longest beach on the peninsula, Victory Beach is located northeast of the entrance to Papanui Inlet and stretches for 3.5 kilometres. It is backed...
, and Sandfly Bay
Sandfly Bay
Sandfly Bay is a sandy bay with large dunes, located on the eastern side of the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand, 15 km east of central Dunedin...
.
Victory Beach, named after the 19th century shipwreck of the Victory close to this coast, features a rock formation known locally as "The Pyramids" for its resemblance to the ancient Egyptian monuments. Sandfly Bay, named not for the insect but for the sand blown up by the wind, is reached via a path through some of New Zealand's tallest sand dunes, which rise for some 100 metres above the beach.
Other tourist attractions on the peninsula include Larnach Castle
Larnach Castle
Larnach Castle , is an imposing mansion on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula within the limits of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, close to the small settlement of Pukehiki...
, a restored Armstrong 'disappearing' gun coastal defence post, and a war memorial cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
. There are views of the city and surrounding country from Highcliff Road, which runs along the spine of the peninsula.
The total population of the peninsula is under 10,000, with about half of these in the suburbs of Dunedin that encroach onto its western end, such as Vauxhall and Shiel Hill
Shiel Hill
Shiel Hill is a residential suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located at the southeastern edge of the city's urban area, southeast of the city's centre at the western end of the Otago Peninsula, close to the isthmus joining the peninsula to the mainland...
. For much of its length, only the strip adjacent to the Otago Harbour is populated, with several small communities dotting its length. Largest of these are Macandrew Bay
Macandrew Bay, New Zealand
Macandrew Bay is located on the Otago Peninsula in the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the edge of Otago Harbour, and is named for pioneer settler James Macandrew who lived here during his later life...
(the peninsula's largest settlement, with a population of 1,100), Portobello
Portobello, New Zealand
Portobello is a village beside the Otago Harbour halfway along the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin City, New Zealand. It lies at the foot of a small peninsula between Portobello Bay and Latham Bay....
, and Otakou
Otakou
The settlement of Otakou lies within the boundaries of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located 25 kilometres from the city centre at the eastern end of Otago Peninsula, close to the entrance of Otago Harbour.-Overview:...
, which was the site of the first permanent European settlement on the Harbour, and the site of an early whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
station, commemorated at nearby Weller's Rock.
Pre-European settlement
A map of recorded Māori archaeological sites for the Otago Conservancy shows many more on the Otago Peninsula than elsewhere in the region. Another showing only those of the Archaic period shows sites clustered on the peninsula and along the coast across the harbour to the west and north. This was one of three more or less distinct clusters on the South Island's south east coast: one from about Oamaru
Oamaru
Oamaru , the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is 80 kilometres south of Timaru and 120 kilometres north of Dunedin, on the Pacific coast, and State Highway 1 and the railway Main South Line connects it to both...
south to Pleasant River; another from Waikouaiti
Waikouaiti
Waikouaiti is a small town in East Otago, New Zealand, within the city limits of Dunedin. The town is close to the coast and the mouth of the Waikouaiti River....
south, which includes the Otago Peninsula and tails off about the Kaikorai estuary; another extending south from the Clutha
Clutha River
The Clutha River / Mata-Au is the second longest river in New Zealand flowing south-southeast through Central and South Otago from Lake Wanaka in the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean, south west of Dunedin. It is the highest volume river in New Zealand, and the swiftest, with a catchment of ,...
mouth. The clusters contain a few larger sites. On the Otago Peninsula the one at Little Papanui is of middle size while that at Harwood Township is one of the largest. These and numerous other smaller sites are clearly visible, though often not recognised by visitors for what they are.
Their occupants were people of Polynesian culture and descent, ancestral to modern Maori, who lived by hunting large birds, notably the now extinct flightless moa, but also seals and by fishing.
Whale ivory chevron pendants found at Little Papanui were made by the site's early occupants and are now in the Otago Museum
Otago museum
The Otago Museum is situated in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was founded in 1868 and has a collection of over two million artefacts and specimens from the fields of natural history and ethnography...
, Dunedin. The site's lowest levels have been estimated to have been occupied some time between 1150 and 1300 A.D. Another peninsula site, at Papanui Inlet, is thought to have been occupied in the same period, as was the extensive one at Harwood Township. Little Papanui and Harwood are considered to have been permanent settlements, not temporary camps. A single radiocarbon date for Harwood suggests it was also occupied in 1450. Three magnificent greenstone adzes, said by H.D. Skinner to be the finest of their type, were found nearby and are dated to the same time. They represent a form already archaic when they were made. They are in the Otago Museum.
Southern Māori oral tradition tells of five successively arriving peoples and while the earliest, Kahui Tipua, appear to be fairy folk modern anthropological opinion is that nevertheless they represent historical people who have become encrusted with legend. Te Rapuwai were next and seemed to be succeeded by two Waitaha
Waitaha
Waitaha is an early historical Māori iwi . Inhabitants of the South Island of New Zealand, they were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest first by the Kāti Mamoe and then Ngāi Tahu from the 16th century onward....
tribes but it has been suggested this was really one with 'Waitaha' also being used as a catchall name for all earlier peoples by some later arrivals. 'Te Rapuwai' may perhaps also have been used like this. Nevertheless some middens, such as those on the peninsula, have been identified traditionally with Te Rapuwai. Anderson's later, or tribal Waitaha, arrived in the south in the 15th century.
Moa and moa hunters went into decline but a new Classic Māori culture evolved, characterised by the construction of pa, fortified villages, and new peoples arrived on the Otago Peninsula. People here at this time practised what has been called a foraging economy. Increasing reliance seems to have been placed on harvesting the root of the cabbage tree (cordylline australis) and 'umu ti', cabbage tree ovens, proliferate over some parts of the Peninsula showing intensive use of the land.
Kati Mamoe (Ngāti Mamoe in modern standard Māori) arrived in the late 16th century. Kai Tahu (Ngāi Tahu
Ngāi Tahu
Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori iwi of the southern region of New Zealand, with the tribal authority, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, being based in Christchurch and Invercargill. The iwi combines three groups, Kāi Tahu itself, and Waitaha and Kāti Mamoe who lived in the South Island prior...
in modern standard Māori) came about a hundred years later. Pukekura
Pukekura
Pukekura is located near Lake Ianthe in the West Coast region of the South Island. State Highway 6 passes through Pukekura on its route between Ross and Harihari, and the settlement is roughly 35 minutes south of Hokitika and an hour north of Franz Josef Glacier...
, a fortress on Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head is a headland at the end of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand, overlooking the mouth of the Otago Harbour. It lies within the city limits of Dunedin...
, was built about 1650. Nearby villages on Te Rauone Beach perhaps date from the same time. Pukekura's terraces are still visible some of them co-opted into later European defence works.
Many traditions survive from this period concerning figures such as Waitai and Moki II who at different times both lived at Pukekura pa. One of the best known concerns Tarewai who is difficult to place chronologically but was of Kai Tahu descent. He gained possession of Pukekura, was in conflict with Kati Mamoe at Papanui Inlet and made a famous escape back into Pukekura by a cliff still known as Tarewai's Leap. There had been an argument about Kati Mamoe fishing rights on Papanui Inlet. A particularly fine, talismanic, whale bone fishook of the 18th century was found there and is now in the Otago Museum.
The arrival of the Europeans
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
was off the coast in February 1770 and named Cape Saunders
Cape Saunders
Cape Saunders is a prominent headland on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand's South Island. It is home to the Cape Saunders Lighthouse....
after the Secretary of the Admiralty. His chart showed a bay at what is Hooper's Inlet, which may have been explored and named by Charles Hooper chief officer on Daniel Cooper's English sealer, Unity, in the summer of 1808-9. Sealers used the harbour from about this time, probably anchoring off Wellers' Rock, modern Otakou, where there was an extensive Māori settlement or settlements. The Sealers' War
Sealers' War
The Sealers' War, also known as the "War of the Shirt", was a conflict in southern New Zealand started in 1810 by a Māori chief's theft of a red shirt, a knife and some other articles from the sealing vessel the Sydney Cove in Otago Harbour, and the excessive revenge of unidentified Europeans from...
(also known as the War of the Shirt) was sparked by an incident on the Sydney Cove in Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...
late in 1810 while her men were sealing at Cape Saunders. This incidentally produced James Kelly
James Kelly (Australian explorer)
James Kelly , Australian mariner, explorer and port official, was born on 24 December 1791 at Parramatta, New South Wales. He was probably the son of James Kelly, a cook in the convict transport Queen, and Catherine Devereaux, a convict transported for life from Dublin in the same ship.Kelly was...
's attack on 'the City of Otago', probably the Te Rauone settlement(s) in December 1817 after William Tucker
William Tucker (settler)
William Tucker was a British convict, a sealer, a trader in human heads, an Otago settler, and New Zealand’s first art dealer....
and others had been killed at Whareakeake (Murdering Beach) a few miles north. Peace was re-established by 1823. 1826 saw the visit of the Rosanna and the Lambton, ships of the first New Zealand Company bringing the first recorded European women and producing Thomas Shepherd's pictures of the Peninsula, the oldest now known, held in the Mitchell Library
Mitchell Library
The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the public library system of Glasgow, Scotland.-History:The library was established with a bequest from Stephen Mitchell, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer, whose company, Stephen Mitchell & Son, would become one of the constituent members...
Sydney. In November 1831 the Weller brothers
Weller brothers
The Weller brothers, Englishmen of Sydney and Otago, New Zealand, were the founders of a whaling station on Otago Harbour and New Zealand’s most substantial merchant traders in the 1830s.-Immigration:...
, Joseph, George and Edward, established their whaling station at Wellers Rock.
In the course of a turbulent decade the Wellers' Otago establishment grew to be the largest in the country and the harbour became an international whaling port. European women were present at the station from the beginning. There was conflict with Māori who suffered epidemics of measles and influenza in 1835 and 1836. Whaling collapsed in 1839 and Dumont D'Urville, a visiting French navigator, described the Peninsula's European and Māori communities both trafficking in alcohol and sex, in March 1840. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on the Peninsula in June, although the South Island had already been annexed by 'right of discovery'. The first Christian service was preached on the Peninsula later that year at Otago by Bishop Pompallier. In 1841 Octavius Harwood and C.W. Schultze took over the Wellers' operation.
Various European visitors in the 1840s made records. In 1844 Māori reserved the land at the Heads when they sold the Otago Block to the Otago Association for its Scottish Free Church settlement. Charles Kettle
Charles Kettle
Charles Henry Kettle surveyed the city of Dunedin in New Zealand, imposing a bold design on a challenging landscape. He was aiming to create a Romantic effect and incidentally produced the world's steepest street, Baldwin Street....
, the Association's surveyor, laid out suburban and country blocks in 1846-7. The arrival of the first migrant ships in early 1848 saw the focus of settlement move to Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
while Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers is a suburb and the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with a population of 3,000. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast from Dunedin's city centre....
on the other side of the harbour succeeded Otago as the international port. In December William Cargill
William Cargill
William Walter Cargill was the founder of the Otago settlement in New Zealand, after serving as an officer in the British Army. He was a Member of Parliament and Otago's first Superintendent.-Early life:...
, secular leader of the Otago settlement, successfully petitioned the government to re-instate 'Otago' as its original name. The old whaling village and adjacent Māori settlements had now become 'Otakou'.
The growth of modern settlement
As Dunedin developed the Peninsula's southern end became a city recreation ground and then a suburb. Native bush was cleared over most of the terrain in a massive transformation of the landscape. Settlements were formed on the harbourside and on the Highcliff Road on the spine of the land mass, but in the early phase of European settlement, also on the more exposed Pacific slopes.William Larnach
William James Mudie Larnach was a New Zealand businessman and politician. He is known for building Larnach Castle and for his suicide.- Early career :Larnach was born in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, Australia...
acquired the land for his big house at Pukehiki
Pukehiki
Pukehiki is a small locality on Otago Peninsula, within the city of Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the ridge which runs along the centre of the peninsula, from Dunedin city centre, at a junction between Highcliff Road, which runs along the peninsula's ridge, and...
, 'Larnach Castle
Larnach Castle
Larnach Castle , is an imposing mansion on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula within the limits of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, close to the small settlement of Pukehiki...
'. A lighthouse was built at Taiaroa Head in 1864 and work began using prison labour, sometimes including Maori prisoners of war, to build the winding harbourside road, with its distinctive seawalls of the local stone. Across the cleared land settlers built dry stone walls, following the pattern of 'Galloway Dykes', another conspicuous and distinctive feature of the landscape whose only other examples in New Zealand are across the harbour on the opposite heights. Stone lime kilns were built near Sandymount in 1864.
The land was used for mixed farming and later focused on dairying. This produced New Zealand's first dairy co-operative, at Springfield on the Highcliff Road, in 1871. The peninsula was made a county in 1876, the administrative centre being Portobello. In the 1880s, following fears of a Russian invasion, Taiaroa Head was extensively fortified. An Armstrong Disappearing gun was installed in 1886. Ferries linked the peninsula's harbour coast with the city and Port Chalmers.
In 1904 a marine fish hatchery was established at Aquarium Point, Portobello. Another sign of changing attitudes to wild life was the self-establishment of the Royal Albatross colony at Taiaroa Head in the 1920s which was now carefully nurtured for its scientific interest.
The 20th century saw land use change as the draining and development of the Taieri Plain eventually led to that area eclipsing the Peninsula's dairying and mixed farms gave way to extensive grazing. The rural population, especially on the Pacific coast, dwindled, leaving abandoned steadings and roads decaying slowly behind macrocarpa and hawthorn plantings. The re-made, Europeanised landscape now took on an air of mellow decay, and started to look 'natural', unusual in a recently colonised country like New Zealand. This attracted the attention of visitors and artists. Colin McCahon
Colin McCahon
Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist. During his life he also worked in art galleries and as a university lecturer...
, New Zealand's most celebrated painter, first worked out his 'vision' of the New Zealand landscape with studies of the peninsula, the most developed being that of 1946-49 now owned by the city and on display in the central Dunedin Public Library.
Radio masts appeared at Highcliff and rural depopulation was compensated by the growth of the harbourside settlements. Improving roads saw the demise of the ferries. After World War 2 the Taiaroa Head garrison was withdrawn and the lighthouse automated. The University of Otago
University of Otago
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...
took over the hatchery as a research facility as its commercial purpose waned. The City of Dunedin absorbed Peninsula County in 1967, promising to extend water and sewerage reticulation.
In recent decades there has been growing suburban occupation of the townships, some 'lifestyle' developments on the harbour slopes and an increasing tourist traffic.
The Otago Peninsula is one of the few places in New Zealand where there is everywhere visible evidence of the long human occupation of the land. In a magnificent but compact setting the challenge is to maintain its balance of human and natural in the face of growing residential and tourist development.
Natural history
There is a diverse flora and fauna on the Otago Peninsula. Avafauna observed include the endangered Yellow-eyed PenguinYellow-eyed Penguin
The Yellow-eyed Penguin or Hoiho is a penguin native to New Zealand. Previously thought closely related to the Little Penguin , molecular research has shown it more closely related to penguins of the genus Eudyptes...
, Megadyptes antipodes, Little Blue Penguin, shag
Shag
Shag may refer to:*Collegiate shag, a swing dance that originated in the 1920s *Carolina shag, a swing dance that originated in South Carolina in the 1940s*St...
s, Jewelled Gecko
Jewelled gecko
The jewelled gecko, Naultinus gemmeus, is a species of gecko endemic to the South Island of New Zealand.There are two main subgroups of jewelled geckos: those living in Otago and those living in Canterbury...
s and the Royal Albatross
Royal Albatross
Royal Albatross may refer to:* Northern Royal Albatross* Southern Royal AlbatrossNote: Some authorities have yet to split this species such as the SACC or James Clements, in that case, Royal Albatross refers to both Species....
. Seal and sea lion colonies have regenerated during the 20th century. A number of New Zealand Fur Seals and Hooker's Sea Lions
New Zealand Sea Lion
The New Zealand Sea Lion also known as Hooker's Sea Lion or Whakahao in Māori is a species of sea lion that breeds around the coast of New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura to some extent, and to a greater extent around the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, especially the Auckland...
currently breed around Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head is a headland at the end of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand, overlooking the mouth of the Otago Harbour. It lies within the city limits of Dunedin...
. Southern Elephant Seal
Southern Elephant Seal
The Southern Elephant Seal is one of the two extant species of elephant seal. It is both the most massive pinniped and member of the order Carnivora living today...
s and Leopard Seals are also known to occur.
In 1975 a whale was seen in Otago Harbour for the first time since the whaling days and the number of sighting of larger whales in this area is increasing. Southern Right Whales are the most frequent of all large cetaceans in the area, followed by Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
. In addition, two Blue Whales were sighted just offshore from Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head
Taiaroa Head is a headland at the end of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand, overlooking the mouth of the Otago Harbour. It lies within the city limits of Dunedin...
in March 2008. Minke Whale
Minke Whale
Minke whale , or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its official designation by Lacepède in 1804, who described a dwarf form of Balænoptera acuto-rostrata...
s also visit the area. Several species of dolphins or small whales also occur constantly around the peninsula: Dusky Dolphin
Dusky Dolphin
The dusky dolphin is a dolphin found in coastal waters in the Southern Hemisphere. Its specific epithet is Latin for "dark" or "dim". It is very closely genetically related to the Pacific white-sided dolphin, but current scientific consensus is that they are distinct species...
, Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
, Common Dolphin
Common dolphin
The common dolphin is the name given to two species of dolphin making up the genus Delphinus.Prior to the mid-1990s, most taxonomists only recognised one species in this genus, the common dolphin Delphinus delphis...
, and endangered Hector's Dolphin
Hector's Dolphin
Hector's dolphin is the best-known of the four dolphins in the genus Cephalorhynchus and is found only in New Zealand. At about 1.4 m in length, it is one of the smallest cetaceans....
. Orca, the Killer Whale are occasionally seen. Sperm Whales and some species of beaked whales can be found further offshore and rarely stranded.
Tourist attractions
- Fletcher House, an Edwardian cottage museum, Broad BayBroad Bay, New ZealandThe settlement of Broad Bay is located on the Otago Harbour coast of Otago Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is administered as part of the city of Dunedin, and is technically a suburb of that city, though its isolation and semi-rural nature make it appear as a settlement in its own...
. - Otago Peninsula Museum & Historical Society Museum, Peninsula social and agricultural history, PortobelloPortobello, New ZealandPortobello is a village beside the Otago Harbour halfway along the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin City, New Zealand. It lies at the foot of a small peninsula between Portobello Bay and Latham Bay....
. - Otago University Marine AquariumPortobello Marine LaboratoryThe Portobello Marine Laboratory is located on the end of a short peninsula close to the township of Portobello, within the limits of the city of Dunedin in New Zealand's South Island...
, Aquarium Point, Portobello. - Larnach CastleLarnach CastleLarnach Castle , is an imposing mansion on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula within the limits of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, close to the small settlement of Pukehiki...