Sidestep: The Pouto (2)

Our first post on Pouto was way back on 1st May 2016. It was specifically about the carved pou. About the time of writing it we thought we'd be inside our cave by the end of the year. How so very wrong we were! To be frank, the time delay has been a little depressing. Anyway, here's the link to the original Pouto article - http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2016/07/14/Sidestep-Rapanui-and-the-Hokianga. We've spoken to Maxine Stringer about the pou but what the exact location is she cannot remember. Noel Hilliam had the location noted by GPS but he is now dead. There might yet be a chance to check his notes yet. Today's post expands on the history and we are aware of some things that we cannot share openly about this place yet because others found them and understandably are very cautious about who they trust - as are we about the location of our dig.

The Pouto Peninsula has some fascinating history. It also has tall-skeletons reportedly hidden there and pre-Maori, Maori and Europeans artifacts everywhere. The coast and harbor is dotted with many shipwrecks are easily dated, some are meant to predate Cook. One is supposed to be Phoenician. That is something I struggle with personally but it's a colourful story none-the-less. And hey, if we open up the pre-history of this country with our tall skeletons that prove that the real history of these islands is different that the official history that is taught - then everything can be opened up for examination and proved or debunked once and for all. That can never happen unless physical evidence produced is so overwhelming than even our sucky NZ media have to sit up and admit there is more to things than first appears.

Lets look at some history of this peninsula and examine some of the explicit details until another post...

The geology of the Pouto is mostly undulating and runs south of Dargaville for 70 km. It is full of sand and fresh water lakes. The soils are recent coastal sands and include the mature stage Te Kopuru Sand a very infertile poorly drained acidic grey or white sand over a peaty subsoil supporting low gumland vegetation. Lignite (coal) cliffs exist. They are made up of well preserved remains of ancient kauri forests buried under sand.

Pouto means 'cut off' both in the old sources and the new translations. But cut off off from what? Was there a massacre here by Polynesians where the original tangata-whenua had nowhere to escape to? Or was it because it's was a peninsula was bound on three sides by water?

The oral history has it that those on the Māhutu crew settled around Pouto in the 13th century and it is said some of the Aotea canoe joined them in the 1400's. In the 1500's one of the descendants Arawa canoe settled there killing or driving away some of the original inhabitants. In the 18th century, Ngāti Whātua had by then occupied the area. That fours tribes claiming the one area. (Never ever assume traditional lands of tribes is in fact 'traditional' by means of first occupation).

In 1820, during the Musket Wars, Ngā Puhi laid siege to Ngāti Whātua's Tauhara pa near Pouto, but were unable to capture it. A truce was agreed, to be cemented by the marriage of a Ngā Puhi chief to the daughter of a Ngāti Whātua chief. During the festivities, Ngā Puhi and their allies suddenly turned on their hosts and massacred them. This is a fact and just part of the cultural history of Maori in this land. Let no one assume one race is better than any other when it comes to war, killing or deception.

In 1874, a customs house and pilot station were built at Pouto. Then a signal mast was erected in 1876, 5–6 miles west of the station. A lighthouse was built at North Head in 1884. The lighthouse was automated in 1947, and closed in the mid 1950s. The structure still exists and was renovated in 1982-84. It's now a tourist attraction.

Gum-diggers operated on the peninsula from the 1870s and lasting into the 1930s, although kauri trees no longer grew there. Dairy farming was established in the early 20th century. Sand from Pouto was used to build dams in the Waitakere Ranges. The southern part of the peninsula was slow to be developed, with the road only reaching to Taingaehe in 1930, and extending another 35 km to Pouto itself in 1931. Until then, contact with the rest of the world was by steamer. The road wasn't metalled until the 1940s.

Mysterious names such as the Valley of the Wrecks and The Graveyard pay tribute to a seafaring history that left 150 shipwrecks entombed in the dunes and sandbars.

Many claim the Portuguese and Spanish were the first European explorers in the area. One of our arguments that support that possibility, is that we know Captain Cook found NZ by one undeniable fact - (he got back to England to tell the tale!) What if others got here but never made it home, or wrecked on the coast and a few men survived and lived with the locals? (if they survived the ovens). What if they bred with the locals? That genetic strain would be seen in the local population. Many first observers said they noticed European strains in many natives. So were those looks from recent contact (150 years or so), or much further back?

Winston Cowie began searching for the conquistadors in 2006, travelling often to Dargaville and the Pouto Peninsula, where many seafaring secrets are buried in shifting sand, and where the Portuguese seem to have their firmest footing in New Zealand maritime history. Then he heard stories, like Trevor Schick who in the 1930s took a Portuguese or Spanish helmet he found in a local cave to show-and-tell at school. He was told to take it back where he'd found it and he did, wherever that was. In the 1980's another story did the rounds that some local Maori men had fished up a similar helmet - with the remains of a head inside - off Pouto, and buried it in the dunes. Sixteenth-century maps of New Zealand and Australia; shipwrecks; oral folklore of white voyagers coming ashore wearing armour; their massacre by natives; cannon, helmets, a ship's bell, ruins, stone crosses and other enigmatic artifacts found in the vicinity centuries later; red-haired and fair skinned Maori noted by the next wave of voyagers to New Zealand; buried treasure; pohutukawa trees on the far side of the world in Spain; lost caravels...there are many stories.

Did the Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors discover New Zealand and Australia between 1520-1524? Who knows unless all that evidence is produced and examined. The trouble is that many fear what they have will simply disappear like other questionable artifacts that simply disappeared without trace - or have they?

Recently we were told of another cave there with large skeletons in it, and the approximate location. This location is too far north from where they were supposed to live but who knows?