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Kaikohe - excerpts from The Fruit of the Tree, by Rayma Ritchie.

Well over a century ago Hone Heke, the great Ngapuhi war chief and tactician, stood on Tokareireia thinking sadly of the past and of those who had departed. The view was different then. Thick forests spread their cover over most of the land he could see. An insignificant area on the western flats was planted in wheat, and the buildings of a tiny mission settlement occupied a small clearing below Kaikohe Hill. If the day was fine Hone Heke would have been able to see the high hills of Hokianga in the west, from where his people had come. If the weather was characteristically wet, as it had been in June 1845 during the fighting at Ohaeawai between the Ngapuhi of the central lands, and the British and Tamati Waka Nene of Hokianga, then the miserable view of swirling wind-blown rains sweeping over the land would have added to Hone Heke's sadness.

Today the various aspects of the northern weather remain much the same as before, but the face of the land has changed.

Centrally situated in the mid-north of the Northland peninsula and growing up around the meeting place of many roads, both prehistoric and modern, to all points of the compass, the Kaikohe of today has, with some justification, been labelled "The Hub of the North".

The town is situated on the slopes of Kaikohe Hill, a breached scoria cone set on a roughly circular shaped plateau formed by lava flows. Before the volcanic eruptions, however, the land was uplifted from the sea and subsequently suffered deep weathering form the action of wind, rain, sun, and the vagaries of climate. Then came a series of volcanic upheavals. At Kaikohe the younger Taheke basalts, derived from eruptions which occurred 1000 to 10,000 years ago, spread out on top of the older Horeke basalts.

Kaikohe Hill is surrounded by tongues of lava from both periods of volcanic action, which have formed extensive irregular terraces around the scoria cone. During the eruptions the rivers of molten lava lapped against the hills of clay which now remain as islands of sedimentary material surrounded by rich soils of volcanic origin.

Some 8 kilometres (5 miles) distant from Kaikohe lie Ngawha Hot Springs, still bubbling, boiling and steaming, a visible reminder of the volcanic origins of the area. From the viewpoint of Kaikohe Hill, where stands the monument to Hone Heke, Member of Parliament, the land is laid out for inspection. On three sides low, softly-contoured clay hills surround the town and its outskirts, with Mount Hikurangi visible away to the south. In the distance far to the west looms the higher more starkly-etched range behind Waima in the Hokianga district.

The buildings of Kaikohe spread out in orderly rows around Kaikohe Hill and climb its lower slopes. Around the town lie areas of clean farmland, and low hills, some of which are covered in scrub and secondary growth, while some are planted with exotic trees, such as pinus radiata. A few remnants of native forest can be seen on the hills to the north.

Kaikohe's name came from an incident involving fighting between inland and Hokianga groups. The paramount chief of the Kaikohe area was Hua and the land on which Kaikohe stands was Opango, as related by the elders. Kaikohe Hill was known to the Maori as Tokareireia, and was then covered with kohekohe trees.

Pakinga pa to the west of the town was one of the strongholds of Ngapuhi. While the warriors of this tribe were away waging war, Morunga and Te Karamu of Hokianga by way of revenge sent a messenger to Rewha Rewha, rangitira of Ngati Whatua, who with his warriors attacked the defenseless pa and slaughtered women and children including Hongi Hika's sisters. Among those who managed to escape were Tekona and her son Hone Heke.

They took refuge on Tokareireia hill, from where they later saw Rewha Rewha and his warriors attacking the inhabitants of Opango. Being without food they were forced to eat the bitter berries of the kohekohe trees. This was why the name Kaikohekohe was first used - thus Kaikohe.

The episode was not over, for Te Hotete and his son Hongi Hika left their pa, Tapurae Haruru, near Lake Omapere, and on their way to Pakinga observed smoke at Marino. They climbed a puriri tree and saw preparations for a feast. The picked out Rewha Rewha resting away from the party, and Te Hotete circled around and caught the chief who pleaded to be spared. He was allowed to return to the Ngati Whatua with his warriors.

The last of the kohekohe trees on Tokareireia remained until the late 1920s at the head of a gully running away below Taheke road just past the railway bridge. Erosion gradually undermined the tree and it slipped away during heavy rain.

****** Taiwhanga of Ngati Tautahi, Kaikohe.

Although a great warrior who accompanied Hongi Hika on several of his southern expeditions including the great battle of Te-Ika-a-Ranginui in 1825, he became a farmer in the European way. From 1819 he worked in the gardens of the mission at Kerikeri learning a great deal from the Rev John Butler, himself a competent and enthusiastic gardener. Taiwhanga, using the skills he had learnt in the blacksmith's shop, built a plough which, it is claimed, turned the first sod in New Zealand.

Having learnt the skills of gardening, farming, building and the forge, Taiwhanga returned to Kaikohe about 1834 and lived there until his death some time between 1875 and 1878. There on the Opanga block of 45 acres on the eastern side of Kaikohe Borough, Taiwhanga milked his small herd of dairy cows, and sold butter at a good price - two shillings and sixpence a pound - on a weekly basis. Taiwhanga had, therefore, a very strong claim to the title of New Zealand's first commercial dairy farmer.

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Updated March 23, 2002