Waiake

Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries.[12][13] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.[14] During his arrival in New Zealand, Hoturoa, captain of the Tainui, guided the waka to the Waiake Lagoon (Deep Creek), which was a safe anchorage for the canoe.[15]

Many of the early Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho.[16] While the poor soils of the upper North Shore hindered dense settlement,[17] traditional resources in the area included fish, shellfish and marine birds.[18] The headland near the Tor to the east of Waiake is a known pā site.[19]

The traditional name for the wider Torbay area is Waiake, meaning "Eternal Spring",[9][20] referring to a pool upstream of Deep Creek known as a good location to catch kahawai.[21] An alternative explanation of the name is that the name means "Waters of Akeake", referring to Dodonaea viscosa (akeake / broadleaf hopbush).[15] The mouth of Deep Creek is a kāinga site. Stone adzes have been found at the river mouth, and remains of waka and paddles have been found in Deep Creek.[15][9] Lonely Track Road was an overland ara (pathway), linking the Lucas Creek in the north-western Waitematā Harbour to the streams of the east coast, such as the Awaruku Creek.[9]

The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore.[22][23] After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa o Kahu ("The Greater Lands of Kahu"),[24][25] Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.[25][26]

By the 18th century, the Marutūāhu iwi Ngāti Paoa had expanded their influence to include the islands of the Hauraki Gulf and the North Shore.[27] During these events in the latter 18th century, Tipau Point to the east of Browns Bay was the location of Ōmangaia Pā, a defensive pā site associated with the Ngāti Tai Manawaiti chief, Te Hehewa.[28][29] After periods of conflict, peace had been reached by the 1790s.[30] The earliest contact with Europeans began in the late 18th century, which caused many Tāmaki Māori to die of rewharewha, respiratory diseases.[31] During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars. Most people had returned by the late 1820s and 1830s.[13][27][32]

A traditional story involving the Tor at Waiake involves Moeroa, the beautiful daughter of a local chief. Moeroa used to sit on the cliffs of the Tor, where she sung with tūī and korimako, and wove mats. One day, the cliffs gave way and she fell to her death, after which the island became tapu. The events likely occurred in the early 19th century.[15][9]

Ferry steamer at Waiake Beach, ca 1910

In 1841, the Crown purchased the Mahurangi and Omaha blocks; an area that spanned from Takapuna to Te Arai. The purchase involved some iwi with customary interests in the area, such as Ngāti Paoa, other Marutūāhu iwi and Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, but not others, such as Te Kawerau ā Maki or Ngāti Rango.[33][34][26][35] The Crown spent until 1873 rectifying this sale, by making further deals with stakeholders.[34][35]

The first European land owner in Waiake was John Logan Campbell, who purchased Allotment 189 (Ōkura to Browns Bay) in 1864, believing that there was coal in the area.[36][37] The search for coal was unsuccessful, so Campbell sold the land in the 1870s.[38] Early names for the area included McGowan's Beach, Rock Isle Beach, Oneroa Bay and Deep Creek.[39][40] Around the year 1880, a British farmer, Mr. Long, purchased 200 acres of land around Waiake and Torbay, naming his farm Rock Island and Waiake Beach Rock Isle Beach.[41] After he died, his land was sold to Captain Charles Cholmondeley-Smith,[41] who grew tobacco, until the market crashed and he established the Glenvar Wine Company.[42] Cholmondeley-Smith's sons established a sawmill, where kauri logs from the Coromandel Peninsula were processed,[42] and a flaxmill was established on the property.[39]

The first wharf on Waiake Beach was constructed circa 1880 by the Cholmondeley-Smith family, and ferries were the major means of transport well into the 1920s.[43] Waiake Beach became known as McGowan's Beach in the early 20th century, after Scottish resident Anstruther McGowan, who periodically lived in Waiake between 1908 and 1936.[44][45]