Words by Alex Stone , Photography by Tony Hards and Alex Stone
It’s said in New Zealand that if you haven’t worked on, refined and perfected your own signature manu, then by rights your residency should be revoked.
Hearing this again recently, I felt a twinge of guilt. I hadn’t done an extravagant dive bomb from a bridge into a river for quite some time. I resolved to use our Matariki Up the Creek adventure to get up to muster.
A few days after the mid-winter solstice, it was going to be pleasantly cool. Ah, well. I had boasted myself into it. Me old shipmate Tony Hards agreed to come along and get the photo. No swimming for himself mind. He brought slippers and
a hot-water-bottle on the boat for the cruise. Clever fellow.
I remember the classic scene from what feels like lifetimes ago: a bunch of cheery kids bombing off a bridge on a remote Coromandel country road, laughter ringing into the hills. Hurrahs for the biggest splashes. I wanted to revisit, and also re-kindle memories of staying at Harataunga Rākairoa Marae there, and philosophising with Paki Harrison the tohunga whakairo (master carver) who had decorated the wharenui with daringly bold designs.
Kennedy Bay, an almost circular bay on the outside of the Coromandel Peninsula, opposite Colville and Coromandel town (they’re on the inside coast) has a fine creek to explore.
It’s also an extraordinarily sheltered anchorage; with the locals telling us there’s almost never any surf, and if so, just a wee lopple on the far southern side of the beach in an easterly wind. Tucked away anchoring a yacht in good sandy-muddy holding on the north side of the bay inside the mussel farms, you’re safe from almost anything. With a shallower-draft launch you could even venture up the creek a wee way. As the 51-foot steel charter-fishing launch Te Wairoa showed us, leading the way to possibly the most low-key marina in Aotearoa.
If there were stakes for the most beautiful anchorage in the country, I reckon Kennedy Bay would be a contender.
How come it’s so little known about, so little enjoyed? Perhaps because Kennedy Bay is an awkward distance from Auckland – a day and a half sail, maybe more, and through the often-testing Colville Channel. Perhaps it’s because, coming in the other direction, Kennedy Bay is a deep diversion coming from Whitianga around the long sticking-out peninsula that ends in Opito Bay. And from there, the allure of the nearby Mercury Islands offer a more natural destination. Whatever. We were the only visiting boat there on the long weekend. We had the superlative clear-water bay, its dramatic ring of bush-clad hills (with dusk and dawn tablecloths of cloud) to ourselves. I’d say the diversion is well worth it.
Tony and I set the anchor for Skyborne, and bundled into the dinghy. We followed Te Wairoa into the estuary mouth – which wouldn’t take a big boat at low tide – and were in turn followed by other locals in a well-equipped aluminium recreational fishing boat. But that was the sum total of river traffic for the day.
A woman walking this end of the beach – the only person to be seen – tells us to look out for a ‘tree in the shape of a moose.’ We couldn’t find it. Perhaps she was having us on.
No wonder the goat, far further up the creek, reacted as if we were the highlight of its day as we puttered past. He launched himself up onto a concrete block to get a better view of us, happy as. Both ways. I hope he wasn’t disappointed by the two greybeards in a tiny blow-up boat.
The first entrance to the estuary is deceptive, for straight ahead appears a wide expanse. But this peters out quite quickly; and way shallow too. The Harataunga Creek, the one worth following, is a sharp turn to the left. A caution: at this junction, there are powerlines across at an 8m height, leading to a fancy house among the trees on the point of the sandspit.
On the opposite northern shore are ancient exotic trees and derelict buildings, marking the site of the settlement established by John Kennedy in 1839.
A fulsome article on this era of history Who was the Kennedy of Kennedy Bay? by Kae
Lewis of the Treasury (a Coromandel history site) records: “He settled at Harataunga, the original name of Kennedy Bay, where the giant Kauris grew in profusion all over the hills behind the Bay. The sheltered harbour had a good depth of water at low tide, ideal for the Navy’s purposes. When John provided the Admiralty with an accurate position for the Bay, they named it Kennedy Bay on their new maps.
“Harataunga was then owned and occupied by the Ngati Tamatera under Chief Paora Te Putu who at about this time also offered the Ngati Porou shelter and land in the Bay.
“In 1839, John Kennedy bought 242 acres of land at Harataunga from the Ngati Tamatera in exchange for a large collection of trade goods, including muskets and gunpowder. He took a Maori wife, Chieftainess Rangirauwaka/Katerina (Katie) Taurangi and built a house with a good garden on the edge of the bay. The entire coast was rich in fish and shellfish and no-one went hungry. Then John opened the first trading store at Kennedy Bay. He also employed Maori and European sawyers to fell Kauri for the Admiralty.”
Kennedy also established a whaling station; and “…with the help of a skilled Maori whaler named Ropata, John built a twelve-ton schooner called The Three Bees for his trading excursions all along the East Coast from Bay of Islands to Tauranga.”
Kae Lewis’ article also has the full lyrics of a sea shanty about the voyages of the ship Buffalo to these parts to load kauri spars. It begins,
Things didn’t end well for John Kennedy. In 1843, on a trip to Auckland aboard The Three Bees he carried the fateful combination of all his gold taken from the hills, and three feral Australians. Timber workers from New South Wales. They mutinied, killed Captain Kennedy, scuttled the ship and scarpered to spend up large. They were caught, confessed to Kennedy’s and other murders, and were hanged. Some say John Kennedy hadn’t taken all his gold. Some say perhaps bits of it are still buried at the homestead site…
As we motored up the creek, we found that the clear water gave us a fine impression of the depth. We could see the bottom at all times. Which was useful, for there were few channel markers – apart from a few withies sporting re-purposed road cones like wizards’ hats. Which side to go was anybody’s guess. Except, I imagine, if you’re a local.
Going upstream, a smooth river bend to the right, and there’s the bridge. Perfect for the out-of-practice manu-bomber. A modest height above the water. And so well set up, that there’s even a gap in the bridge railing to step through to your launch platform. There was no getting out of it for me now. I clambered up. Disrobed quickly so as not to change my mind. Scared the one car on the road. Tony positioned the dinghy for the best angle for the shots.
The briefest moment of flying. Poor technique, I’ll allow, but a reasonable splash. And yes the water was seriously cold. Earlier while working on the motors on Skyborne, I had thought the sea temperature was bearable, but this freshwater creek straight from the hills – frigid as. I didn’t hang around. But then, photographer calls for a second take for the video.
Later I discovered it was the exact day for the Russell Manu Masters up in Northland. And looking at their pictures, I was not a shade on supreme champion Kree Smith, or Rob Williams who made the biggest splash (bigger puku), or a caped crusader known as Jack the Rat. Call me the lonely long-distance unknown entrant. Way outclassed on all fronts. Even Tony was unimpressed.
But he was quite taken, just a few hundred metres up stream, discovering possibly the world’s best rope tree swing. A characterful old pōhutukawa leaning over from the northern bank of the creek, with an easy access sloped walkway up its cantilevered trunk. Still, he wasn’t going to swing over and possibly into that water. And I was too cold to try again. We will have to come back in summer.
Then, curious thing, on the other bank, a gathering, a group, a convention, a tintabulation (is that the correct collective noun?) of tinnies. Well-loved. Bit battered. Our shiny white rubber dinghy looked distinctly out of place. It didn’t suit the epic mud berth the tinnies found themselves in either.
Our creek ran out of water for the dinghy right by the Harataunga (Rākairoa) Marae. Perhaps kayaks could get a few more kms upstream by sliding over the sandbanks?
The marae, unusually, is a Ngāti Porou establishment, far removed from the main iwi base on the East Cape. The marae was used as a staging post for voyages to Auckland, supplying produce for the growing city in the 19th century. And also, as the marae website notes, “the trade in and around Opito Bay is well documented in being one of the largest pre-European trading Ports in all of Aotearoa.”
I had visited the marae years ago in an arts-interested trip, as the wharenui there, named Rākairoa, is notable for its iconoclastic decoration of the interior. Brightly painted interwoven images of native wildlife replace the usual kōwhaiwhai panels of a more limited colour palette. The carvings too, carry insets of bright blue, as is Ngāti Porou custom. All this was overseen by the great carver Pakaariki ‘Paki’ Harrison, who lived just up the road with his wife Hinemoa, herself a renowned expert in tukutuku panel weaving. The remarkable paintings on the ceiling of the wharenui were completed by John Hovell.
But there were few people for me to talk to this time. Apart from Paki’s son-in-law who told me the community was mostly spending Matariki weekend in watersports activities down at the beach. And hosting cousins from the Cook Islands.
Skyborne’s sailing trip from home mooring at Waiheke Island to anchorage at Kennedy Bay and back had Tony and I pondering how we might grow into celebrating our new-ish public holiday long weekend. Perhaps not with sailing. In four days on the water, traversing the Tamaki Strait, Hauraki Gulf, Colville Channel and the outside Coromandel coast, we only saw one other sail. It is mid-winter, after all – but as we showed, still possible to go cruising (just bring slippers and a hottie!). The light winds and fine weather on the first few days were clearly appreciated by recreational fishing boats though. And I revelled in the crystal-clear star-scapes of the dark skies above Kennedy Bay.
All this changed on our way home. We had anchored, becalmed, on the last night near the Happy Jacks Islands only to awaken to a 35-knot northerly and fairly substantial seas within the Firth of Thames. Still, Skyborne got us home safely – with memories of a fine mid-winter Up the Creek adventure, and one mediocre manu, intact.
Gold of two kinds
This being the heart of the Coromandel, naturally there was much extraction of kauri timber and gold.
Messrs Smyth Brothers (kauri logging company) operated a bush tramway at Kennedy Bay 1897-1908.
Some tech specs of the cute lokey (above):
• a 0-4-0ST model saddle-tank steam locomotive
• Locally made; the first locomotive built in 1885 by A & G Price of Thames
• Two cylinders arranged horizontally, driving axles through spur gears
• Sold 1908 to the Public Works Department for railway construction at Picton and Otira
• Scrapped in 1917
Then in 1904 the good Smyth Brothers found gold in one of their driving streams, Omoho Creek, four miles north of the Royal Oak Mine.
The riverbed had been scoured clean by the logs’ drive, revealing a ‘reef leader’ that crossed the creek in a north-south direction. Gold was visible in the 15cm-thick reef.
So, of course it didn’t stay there.
Further Information
Websites
Who was the Kennedy of Kennedy Bay?
By Kae Lewis – The Treasury, Thames
https://www.thetreasury.org.nz/the-journal/who-was-the-kennedy-of-kennedy-bay
The “Three Bees” Mystery – The New Zealand Railways Magazine
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20210104000423/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov10_01Rail-t1-body-d16-d3.html
Kennedy Murder Details revealed – Coromandel Life
http://www.coromandellife.co.nz/flipview/spring_holiday_2014/files/assets/common/downloads/page0014.pdf
Crime of the ‘Forties Recalled – Evening Post, 25 June 1913
https://shorturl.at/ByEW6
Harataunga Rākairoa Marae
https://www.npkhrunanga.com/marae
Radio NZ: Competitors make a splash at Russell Manu Masters
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/520870/in-photos-competitors-make-a-splash-at-russell-manu-masters
Books
Tohunga Whakairo : Paki Harrison : the story of a master carver
By Ranginui Walker. Published 2008, Penguin.
The passing world, the passage of life : John Hovell and the art of kōwhaiwhai
By Damian Skinner, Published 2010, Rim Books
