Timing

The walkway is close for lambing from 1st August to start of Labour Weekend. No dogs are permitted.

Access

From Tolaga Bay, cross the bridge over the Uawa River and turn left into Wharf Road. This leads to a grassed parking area on the right.

The nearest public toilets are 300 metres further on at the wharf.

Track

The track is well-formed and climbs through a tea-tree canopy before crossing a stile. Follow the marker posts over open farmland, cross another stile and continue to the wooden lookout (25 minutes).

The views from the 125 metres above sea level lookout take in the splendour of the small bay.

The track then descends through the low canopy of kanuka via a winding track with steps, before reaching the flats behind Cooks Cove, where there are toilets.

Once you’ve crossed the stile, turn left to the hole in the wall (5 minutes) or right to the monument (15 minutes). Or continue to Cooks Cove and its northern headland (from the end of which you can glimpse the Mitre Rocks).

European History

Endeavour anchored here between 23rd and 29th October 1769 and because the week was so refreshing and successful, Captain Cook’s name lingers in its European title. Previous encounters with Maori at Anaura Bay had led Cook to believe water and wood could be easily collected. Local fishermen often sheltered behind Mitre Rocks (so named because they resembled a bishop’s mitre) hidden from the easterly swell that often pounded the shores.

Cook was keen to establish some form of contact with Maori, as before departing England, Cook’s instructions from the Admiralty had been supplemented by James Douglas, president of the Royal Society. The enlightening advice included hints on the best methods for establishing trusting relationships with native peoples. These included patience, minimal use of firearms and the avoidance of bloodshed. He urged Cook to remember the ‘natives’ had the right to occupy their country and that defence of it would be likely by whatever weaponry they possessed. Indigenous peoples should be treated with “distinguished humanity”, he warned.

Earlier on the voyage, the natives of Tierra del Fuego and Tahiti had been friendly, in part because they were already aware of European’s superior weaponry. However the Maori were a fearsome and proud people, uninitiated to the devastating power of firearms, and prepared to defend their territory to the death with any weaponry at their disposal. Forging close relations was not proving to be easy. Cook’s previous encounters with the ‘natives’ in Poverty Bay had been less than cordial, although the meetings at Tolaga Bay and Anaura Bay had been more civil. Moreover the Admiralty’s instructions had explicitly stated that any territorial claim was to be made only with ‘consent of the Natives’.

At high tide on Tuesday 24th, the crew came ashore for water and wood. Trading took place with fish being exchanged for cloth, beads and nails. Cook’s men were able to load 12 tons of fresh water and 3 boatloads of wood.

On 25th October Cook made various astronomical observations of the sun and moon to determine his latitude and longitude. His armourer set up set up a forge to repair the tiller braces and Cook’s men dug a well to cool the iron worker’s forge. It remained for over 100 years after Cook’s visit and was named Te Wai Keri a Tepaea, and by later visitors as ‘Cook’s Well’.

Banks and Solander collected plant specimens and conducted a series of botanical experiments, including the boiling of manuka to make tea (tea-tree). A ti kouka was felled and the cabbage-like head apparently ‘ate well boiled’. Hence the ‘Cabbage tree’ received it’s European name. Bunches of scurvy grass were collected to aid the crew’s health.

Nearby Pourewa Island was also explored by Banks and Spöring, who examined the prow and stern of a war canoe. They were equally impressed with the carving on a large house.

On another trip Banks described ‘a most noble arch or cavern through the face of the rock’. Today there are still views of Tolaga Bay through the opening. Strata of sandstone glow in the sun and the amplified sounds of the breakers echo through the cavern. To Maori this hole in the wall was known as Te Kotere-o-te-Whenua and was used as a shortcut to commute between the two bays.