Wellington Harbour ( ), officially called Wellington Harbour / Port Nicholson, is a large natural harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The harbour entrance is from Cook Strait. Central Wellington is located on parts of the western and southern sides of the harbour, and the suburban area of Lower Hutt is to the north and east.
The harbour area bounded by a line between Pencarrow Head to Petone foreshore, was officially named Port Nicholson until it assumed its current dual name in 1984.
Toponymy The earliest known Māori name for the area, Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui, is derived from Māori legend and translates literally as "the head of Māui's fish". According to Māori legend, a giant fish was hooked and pulled to the surface by Polynesian navigator Māui and the fish turned into land which became the North Island. The older name is still used in some circumstances for the city or the region, such as the former Māori name of Victoria University of Wellington, which was Te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui until 2018.
Te Whanganui-a-Tara, another Māori name for the area, translates literally as "the great harbour of Tara". It is believed to refer to Tara, a son of the Polynesian explorer Whātonga, who was sent down from the Māhia Peninsula by his father to explore southern lands for their people to settle.David Allan Hamer & Roberta Nicholls, (editors). The Making of Wellington, 1800–1914, Victoria University Press, 1990
Captain James Herd is said to have named the harbour "Port Nicholson" after Sydney's harbourmaster Captain John Nicholson. However, while Herd is attributed as the creator of the first charts to ascribe the name "Port Nicholson" to the harbour, it is likely that Captain John Rodolphus Kent of the cutter Mermaid had entered the harbour in 1824, and named it after the harbourmaster, his superior officer. A further Māori name for Wellington, Pōneke, is said to be a transliteration of Port Nick (Port Nicholson).F. L. Irvine-Smith. The Streets of My City, Wellington New Zealand, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington New Zealand 1948.Tony Deverson and Graeme Kennedy (Ed.) The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2005,
An alternative suggested etymology for the name states that it derives from a shortening of the Māori phrase , meaning "the journey into the night", in reference to the exodus of Te Āti Awa after they were displaced from the Wellington area by the first Europeans. However, the name Pōneke was already in use by February 1842, earlier than the displacement is said to have occurred.
William Wakefield is thought to have named the harbour Lambton Harbour in 1839 in honour of the Earl of Durham, who had the family name of "Lambton". Alternatively, it could have been named for the Lambton, a cutter commanded by Captain Barnett, who in 1826 had produced one of the earliest charts of the harbour. The name Lambton Harbour is typically used to describe the area of Wellington Harbour close to the Wellington central business district.
Mythology Legend of According to legend, the harbour of Te Whanganui-a-Tara was created by two taniwha (nature guardian spirits), Whātaitai (or Hataitai) and Ngake. Whataitai lived in the north of the lake where the harbour now is, and was gentle. Ngake, who lived further south, was more violent."He korero mo nga Taniwha o Te Whanganui-Tara ". Wellington City Libraries.Grace, Wiremu. "Ngake and Whātaitai the taniwha of Wellington harbour ". New Zealand Ministry of Education. Ngake could hear the waters of Raukawa Moana (Cook Strait) pounding to the south, and decided to escape the lake to get to it. He went to the north of the lake to build up his speed for the attempt, then headed off rapidly towards the south. Ngake crashed into and through the rocks at Seatoun and headed out into the Strait. Barrett Reef is said to be the debris left from Ngake's escape. This was seen by Whataitai, who tried to follow Ngake out of the new entrance. The water was now running out of the lake, however, and Whataitai became stranded in the shallows. He stayed there for many generations before being lifted high onto the land by a great earthquake. The soul of Whataitai left him in the form of a bird, Te Keo, and his body formed the isthmus of land where Wellington Airport is now located. It flew high above the harbour and wept for the taniwha, whose body was lifted high onto the hills close to the harbour entrance. To this day, Mount Victoria is known to Māori as Tangi Te Keo, "The weeping of Te Keo", and the suburb on the hills immediately below it is named Hataitai.
History Pre-European history According to Māori oral history, Wellington Harbour was first discovered by the legendary explorer Kupe, who is said to have visited in the 10th century. A number of place names in the area commemorate Kupe, such as Te Tangihanga o Kupe or Te Raranga o Kupe (Barrett Reef), and Te Aroaro o Kupe or Te Ure o Kupe (Steeple Rock). Two islands in the harbour, Mākaro (Ward Island) and Matiu (Somes Island), are named after his daughters or nieces.
Kupe was followed to the area by Tara and Tautoki, sons of the legendary explorer Whātonga, who settled there. Tara is remembered in the names of both the harbour and the first iwi (tribe) to settle there permanently, Ngāi Tara.
Modern history
During his voyage on HMS Resolution, James Cook passed by the entrance to the harbour on 2 November 1773, and then put about, in an attempt to see what lay within the entrance. He anchored a mile from Barrett Reef, and made some brief observations noting that it appeared to be a sheltered harbour. A wind change led him to leave the area, and there were no further observations from European explorers for the next 50 years.
In 1826, Captain James Herd entered the harbour on the barque Rosanna, along with Captain Barnett of the cutter Lambton. Both subsequently made charts of the harbour.
The New Zealand Company established settlements in Petone and Wellington from 1840.
The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake uplifted the north-western side of the harbour. This led to reclamation in the harbour, which increased the availability of flat land for Wellington City.
In 1968, the inter-island passenger ferry Wahine grounded at Barrett Reef, near the harbour entrance, during a storm. Fifty-one people died at the time and two more died much later from injuries suffered that day.
Harbour defences
Coastal fortifications were constructed around Wellington Harbour as part of nationwide defence preparations in the 1880s as a response to fears of an attack by Russia, and then during World War II because of fears of invasion by the Japanese. Fort Ballance was built in 1885 on the spur between Mahanga Bay and Scorching Bay on the Miramar Peninsula. At the time, Fort Ballance was Wellington's main fortification, and was supported by coastal artillery at Kau Point Battery and Point Halswell. When fully armed, Fort Ballance had more guns than any of the other coastal fortifications nationwide. Fortifications to protect the inner harbour were also built at Fort Kelburne at Ngauranga, and at Fort Buckley above Kaiwharawhara, between 1885 and 1887.
HMS Poneke was one of four Defender class spar torpedo boats built by Thornycroft & Company in London. Poneke (yard number 171) was allocated for the defence of Wellington Harbour. It was commissioned in 1883 and shipped to New Zealand, arriving in Wellington in late August 1884. A Torpedo Corp was formed to operate the boat, but it never engaged an enemy vessel. The torpedo boat was declared obsolete in March 1899.
In the 1890s a minefield was laid between Ward Island and Point Gordon. The mines could be detonated remotely from a control point beneath Fort Ballance. The minefield was decommissioned in 1907 and some of the mines were detonated in public displays.
Fort Dorset was a defence site established in 1908 at Point Dorset, the easternmost point of the Miramar Peninsula and the narrowest part of the entrance to Wellington Harbour. The fort consisted of gun batteries, administration and accommodation blocks and a parade ground, and was in use by the army for most of the twentieth century. The military accommodation was closed in 1991 and the camp was demolished in 1998.
Additional defences were constructed during World War II. Fort Opau was a gun emplacement constructed in 1941 on a high headland above Mākara on Wellington's west coast, protecting Cook Strait and the western approach to Wellington Harbour. It never fired on any enemy vessels and was decommissioned in 1944.
In 1941 an anti-submarine boom almost two km long made from two rows of piles connected with wooden planks was built between Eastbourne and Ward Island. A steel net hanging from buoys was strung across the harbour from Ward Island to Miramar Peninsula to stop enemy submarines and mines. There was a gate to allow sea traffic to pass, but each vessel had to be checked by the "gate-ship". The net was removed at the end of the war, and the boom was removed in 1948. in conjunction with the boom, a minefield was laid out between Ward Island and Scorching Bay in November 1942, controlled from Worser Bay. The mines were detonated in July 1944.
In 1942, Matiu / Somes Island was fortified with heavy anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the summit, but they were never used. Wrights Hill Fortress is a hilltop coastal artillery battery built between 1942 and 1944 in the suburb of Karori, overlooking Wellington Harbour and Cook Strait. It is predominantly underground, with numerous tunnels linking the war shelters, gun emplacements, magazines, plotting rooms and engine room. The fort was intended to house three 9.2" Mk. XV guns, but only two guns were installed and the fort never saw action.
From 1940 to 1957, the coastal defence batteries around Wellington were controlled by the 10th Coast Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery of the New Zealand Army.
Geography and geology
Setting Wellington Harbour is a natural harbour with an area of around 76 km², with an entrance from Cook Strait at its southern end between Pencarrow Head and Palmer Head on the southern tip of Miramar Peninsula. The harbour has a maximum length of over 11 kilometres and a width of 9.25 kilometres, and the entrance is over 1.6 kilometres wide from shore to shore.
The shipping channel through the harbour entrance lies between Barrett Reef on the western side, and Pencarrow Head to the east. Barrett Reef is a cluster of rocks that is partly exposed even at high tide. It has been the site of a large number of shipwrecks. The most serious loss caused by impact with Barrett Reef is the sinking of the inter-island ferry TEV Wahine in 1968, with the loss of 53 lives.
Wellington Harbour provides sheltered anchorage in a region where wind velocities may exceed 160 km/h. The depth of water over most of the harbour exceeds 20 metres or 10 fathoms.A. H. McLintock, (editor). Port Nicholson (Wellington Harbour), An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, published 1966.
There are two main bays within the harbour, Evans Bay and Lambton Harbour. The small Oriental Bay to the north of Mount Victoria features beaches and cafes. The suburbs of Wellington city are spread around the low lying terrain immediately surrounding the harbour, and the hills overlooking the west and south-west of the harbour. Lambton Harbour is surrounded by the reclaimed land of Wellington's central business district and contains the majority of the city's port facilities. Evans Bay lies between Mt Victoria and the Miramar Peninsula, and is below the flight path to low-lying Wellington Airport.
To the east of the harbour lie several small bays, most of which are populated by small coastal communities. The largest of these suburban settlements is Eastbourne, directly to the east of the northern tip of the Miramar Peninsula.