Te Wahapu Point and Tore Tore Island

Tore Tore Island lies off the end of Te Wahapu peninsula separated by a shallow stony passage that is dry at low tide. There is a pleasant walk from a small reserve at the end of the road along the southern shore to the Point.

On the island itself a path leads from the sign shown at left through the forest to an elevated lookout at the far end of the island which offers views across to Paihia and up and down the channel leading from the open sea to Opua.

Location, Grade and Duration

At the far end of Te Wahapu peninsula the road drops down to a small parking area and reserve on the southern shore.

A pleasant walk westward along the stony beach gives views of the sheltered inlet, a little cottage and several bigger houses before another small reserve at the end of the peninsula.

After crossing the channel at low tide a track winds up through the small forest on Tore Tore Island finishing at a lookout point on the western tip.

Depending on the tide, alternative walks can be chosen around the several shore lines.

Restrictions

Access to Tore Tore Island is tidal. The tidal range in the Bay is moderate - about two metres - but use common sense to avoid an unwanted swim. Russell tide forecasts are available here: Russell Tides

There are no toilets or any kind of facilities or shops on or near this walk.

The foreshore is mainly unfenced so dogs must be controlled to ensure they don't trespass onto private properties on the peninsula.

Interests

Swimming, fishing, boating, sunbathing, strolling and photography.

The historic Mair settlement site is signposted in a small reserve at the end of the peninsula.

The bays around the north-east side of Te Wahapu peninsula from Toretore Island were named Te Wahapu Beach, Elephant's Head, Maori Chief and The Mint in that order. Elephant's Head got its name from its shape with three little islands forming its "trunk". Maori Chief was an ex-steamer from Thames which was moored in Pomare Bay and used as the engine of a mining bucket chain for the manganese mine on Mt Tikitikioure.

Mint Bay was named from an old yarn: When the Army was barracked at Te Wahapu, the coastal ship bring their pay anchored in Pomare Bay instead of Te Wahapu. While transferring the strongbox full of gold sovereigns, the box slipped and fell, hitting the gunwhale, bursting the lock and showering the pay into the shallows. No-one knows now how much was retrieved but we can imagine the diving that went on around the ship!

History

From 1830 the end of Te Wahapu peninsula was the home of Gilbert Mair, a young Scotsman: not only his home but a trading post, workers' shops and cottages and wharf. He assembled a team of carpenters, cobblers, shipwrights and other tradesmen and the community flourished. It even had its own schoolmaster and mail station! Gilbert and Elizabeth Mair's home stood above the beach at the end of the peninsula - and you can still see today a Norfolk Pine said to have been planted by Elizabeth - one of the oldest exotic trees in New Zealand. When mail arrived from overseas, a flag would be flown from a flagstaff on the point, and settlers starved for news from home would row in from all over the Bay.

Tore Tore Island - or Nobby - was part of Gilbert Mair's land purchase, but was not recognised by the government and he was told that the government wanted it for a naval base. This never came to anything. It is believed Gilbert's sons named the island Nobby.

An old sketch shows it having two buildings - one on the heights and one on the flat land above the beach. The latter was the fever hospital and the one at the summit an officer's home. When Mair moved to Whangarei the property was requisitioned by the Army at about the time of Heke's War. The Army occupied the buildings for eleven years until 1857. The buildings remained empty until 1865-66 when settlers from ships Mary Shepherd, the Dauntless and the Lancashire Witch settled there, waiting for their land at Whangae to be made available. They were referred to as the Whangae migration. In the 1870s scrub fires destroyed all the buildings.

One of the first and finest of NZ's early shipyards was also in the area. Lane & Brown were famous for repairs to whalers. When Lane left to set up on his own at Totara North, William Paine Brown continued at Te Wahapu.