Motukawanui Island Track, Matauri Bay, Far North
Offshore from Whangaroa's Matauri Bay are a group of islands with a strange and incongrouous name, the Cavalli's. The story goes that Captain James Cook was becalmed here in the Endeavour in 1769 when a group of Maori paddled out to him with a gift of fish. He recorded the type of fish as Cavally, he probably meant Trevally which is plenfiful here and goes by the Maori name, Araara. It may be that they traded the food for European garments. The meeting turned sour with the locals throwing rocks at the ship, and the Endeavour firing muskets twice before they left.
The name stuck as did the name he gave, for reasons unknown, to the northernmost rocks of the reef 'True Love Reef', which already had a name 'Tokananohia'.
Motukawanui is the name of the largest island as well as the is the name of the DOC Park, track and the hut, easily accessible across the Cavalli Passage from Matauri Bay by small craft and even a kayak in the best weather. The reason for visiting here now might be the same, to fish for trevally, or for diving rather than tramping. The track, which traverses the island is fairly short, and the biggest hill 177m high.
The Department of Conservation's interest here is archaeological, they are managers of a multitude of archaeological sites here, dating from pre- European Maori occupation. Whakarara, Ngati Kahu ti Whangaroa had been resident before the Europeans arrived, but moved off during the 19th century. Pakeha (White and MacDonald families) had farmed the island in the 20th Centrury but gave up, though their homestead remains at Papatara Bay. The sites are a mixture of Pa, storage pits, fortified pa, and middens. Distinct Pa terraces are still evident in three locations on the island.
Between the Cavallis and Matauri Bay, 22m deep, is the wreck of New Zealand's most famous ship, the Rainbow Warrior. The Greenpeace protest ship was bombed by French Spies in Auckland Harbour in 1985, as she was being prepared for protest against French Nuclear Testing at Muraroa Atoll. The massive political fallout that followed when New Zealand Police arrested two of the spies within days, seems to have a nuclear-grade half-life and is not yet over. The ship however was well and truly over, and needed to be patched and towed here after Northland Politician Dover Samuels brokered her resting place with Northland Maori.
Nuclear testing in the Pacific was eventually over though, Greenpeace having used $13m French Francs compensation ordered by the United Nations to buy the Rainbow Warrior II and sailing to Muraroa to continue the protest. When the French commandos arrested the Rainbow Warrior II, international pressure saw them finally stop setting off nuclear bombs in the Pacific.
A land based memorial to the Rainbow Warrior, by Sculptor Chris Booth, is at Matauri Bay, and the wreck has become a superb diving spot.
Image Credit: Pseudopanax at Wikimedia
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