Moeraki is a small fishing village on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was once the location of a whaling station. In the 1870s, local interests believed it could become the main port for the north Otago area and a railway line, the Moeraki Branch, was built to the settlement and opened in 1877. However, the port could not compete with Oamaru and the lack of traffic as well as stability problems caused by difficult terrain led to the closure of the railway in 1879 after only two years' operation.
The village is best known for the nearby Moeraki Boulders.
Name 'Moeraki' is usually translated as a place to sleep by day. There are other places with the same name or versions of it, all along the path from the Polynesian homeland, Hawaiki.
History
Māori settlement
The south side of the Moeraki Peninsula has an Archaic Māori site at Waimataitai lagoon, which Atholl Anderson dated as 13th century, placing it in the second wave of New Zealand's early human occupation. Gavin McLean tentatively linked its occupants to Waitaha, conventionally the third iwi, or tribe, to arrive in southern New Zealand, after Kahui Tipua and Te Rapuwai. Waitaha's expedition leader was Rākaihautū.
However, as McLean notes, 'Waitaha' is also a name simply used to designate all the peoples preceding Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu ('Ngāti Mamoe' and 'Ngāi Tahu' in modern standard Māori) the last two arrivals before the European. It is safe to say Waimatatai is a 'Waitaha' site in that broad sense but there are no specific families it can be linked to.
The Moeraki peninsula terminates to the south in Kartigi Point ("Kātiki" in modern standard Māori) where there was a pā (fortified settlement) of the Classic period of Māori culture. Its traditional name was Te Raka-a-hineatua. Jill Hamel has reported that it was the best developed of any southern pā, with terraces, and rectangular houses with stone fireplaces. Radio carbon dating has confirmed it was occupied in the 18th century. According to tradition it was built by Taoka, a well-known fighting chief of the late 17th to early 18th centuries, who also built fortresses at the Ashburton River / Hakatere and near Timaru.
Shortly after it was built it was attacked by a party from Kaikōura who were successfully repulsed by Taoka in the battle known as Te Hakopa. Taoka was also in battle with chiefs further south at Huriawa (modern Karitane Peninsula), Mapoutahi, and Pukekura (modern Taiaroa Head). Taoka's principal opponent was Te Wera.
It used to be said Moeraki, like many other places on the east coast, was not a site of permanent occupation in pre-European times, but a major study, published in 1996, shows that is unlikely.
The residents of Moeraki regularly ate (frostfish) as a supplementary food, as Moeraki was one of the most common places in New Zealand where frostfish strandings occurred.
Arrival of the Europeans Moeraki was traversed during the Sealers' War, also known as the “War of the Shirt”, in 1814. In that year a party of eight men under Robert Brown including two other Europeans and five lascars, or Indian seamen, came up the east coast from Stewart Island / Rakiura looking for a group of lascars who had absconded from the Matilda, which was commanded by Captain Samuel Fowler. According to the Creed manuscript, discovered in 2003, they camped for the night by their boat at 'the Bluff eight miles from Moeraki to the north. However they were observed and attacked by Māori. Two of the sealers escaped and fled to Bobby's Head and Goodwood, south of Moeraki, taking two days to get there and where they were later killed and eaten. They will have passed Moeraki going north and fleeing south.
Establishment of a whaling station
Born in Sydney in approximately 1794 John Hughes was an experienced whaler who had first worked in New Zealand waters in 1822. In 1834 he took up an offer of employment with the Weller brothers' at their Otago whaling station. After completing his contract in June or July 1836 Hughes took joined on one of two American whaling ship on their way north to Peraki on Banks Peninsula. These were the Merrimac out of Newport, Rhode Island under Captain Potter and the Martha out of Newburyport under the command of Captain Peas. After catching a large number of whales in the waters around Banks Peninsula the two ships and sailed south, calling in at the Otago whaling station. Inspired by the money being made by the Wellers and the Americans Hughes had decided to establish his own whaling station. He purchased two boats and all of the equipment needed to catch and process whales from the Americans he recruited others to join him from Weller brothers’ workforce.
During the voyage of the Merrimac and the Martha either on the way to Banks Peninsula or on their return down the coast they must have explored Moeraki for Hughes decided to establish his base there.
Accompanied by his partners Peter Chevatt (often written as Chevat, Charbett, Chisnal, Chesval, Sivatt or Shavett) and John Thompson as well as by Richard Burn, William Issac Haberfield, John Knox and six unnamed Māori he disembarked from the 148 ton barque Magnet on Boxing Day, 26 December 1836. All were experienced whalers. The Maori members of the party were not only experienced seamen and, hard workers, but they also a protection against any trouble with the Maoris in the locality.
Within two days they had offloaded all of their equipment and supplies. Over the next three months the party established a whaling station where they had landed at Onekakara, on the northern side of the peninsula, the site of the present village of Moeraki.
Since that time European occupation has been continuous. When Hughes and his men arrived there were only nine or ten Māori living in the area, under Takatahara.
In their first season, which began in March 1837 the whalers caught 22 whales, receiving £8 to £10 a tun for the oil and £50 to 56 a ton for bone, with a single whale depending on size yielding 5 to 11 tuns of oil. In 1838 the station building burnt down, along with their provisions, but they caught 27 whales. In that same year a large heke (migration party) of Ngāi Tahu Māori from Kaiapoi arrived under Matiaha Tiramorehu. Following permission from Paitu, the rangatira of the Moeraki area, they established a permanent settlement about 3 km from what is now Moeraki township at Tawhiroko Point. Subsequently, it became known as the Kaika.
By their third season the number of whalers had increased to 32 with five boats in use with a number of Māori being employed at the station. Despite this increased number of boats the catch decreased slightly and then in 1841 rapidly dropped to nine, then two the following year as the whales moved away to avoid the persecution. Whaling ceased around 1847, although there was later a brief revival. Even so, some of the whalers stayed, making their living from fishing, and farming small plots of land. In 1844 it was reported that there were 17 Europeans were living at Moeraki, 11 living with Māori women and between them 13 children. While the whalers had trouble with raising pigs, to supplement their diet they had more luck with goats which they keep penned up on Maukiekie Island (which since then has been known locally as Goat Island). The island was also nesting place for muttonbird which were highly prized by the Ngāi Tahu.
Between 18 and 20 May 1844 Frederick Tuckett (having arrived on the Deborah) inspected Moeraki and the surrounding district as part of his survey to identify a location for the New Zealand Company’s New Edinburgh settlement. While the area had much to recommend, he considered that while its bay was a suitable anchorage for small draught coastal vessels it would not be suitable for the deeper draught of immigrant vessels. He continued his southwards journey and eventually selected Otago Harbour as being better suited for the settlement. As the rewards from whaling declined by 1848 the number of Europeans had dropped to at least 13, but among them was a Mrs Skidmore, who is believed to have been the first woman to reside in North Otago.
Hughes and Haberfield, stayed, taking up land grants in the surrounding district in 1853. Following the Otago Association's settlement based at Dunedin further south in 1848 a Moeraki sheep run was being leased by 1852. A 'Hundred' was declared in 1860, opening the area to closer rural settlement.
Development of the port Moeraki remained an isolated community making a living from fishing and small scale farming until increasing demand from the development of Dunedin led to the growing of crops on a commercial basis.
In about 1854 H.C. Hertslet established a landing service using Māori boatmen at Moeraki and later constructed a goods shed which started a period of rivalry with the port at Oamaru as to which should service North Otago.
In 1863 a long unmetalled road was constructed by a crew of 40 men from the Onekakara Inn to connect the settlement with the main trunk road. With Moeraki becoming by the 1860s the key port for the shipping of Oamaru stone work commenced in the winter of 1863 on a long-awaited wharf. Bad weather delayed its completion until the following year. Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that could only of water at low tide which was too shallow for large ships. In the same year that the wharf was completed moorings suitable for 600 to 700 tons ships were laid out in the bay at the seven-fathom mark. While Moeraki had the best natural harbour in North Otago with its inner roadstead partly protected by a bluff, by 1869 the existing wharf was in poor condition and as it did not extend far enough out to sea there were restrictions on the size of ships that could use it.
To resolve these issues work commenced in 1872 on what was estimated would be a £3,000 project to construct a larger wharf to service the increased trade now passing through the port. It was designed by the provincial engineer George Barr and instead of the traditional wooden piling used screw-in iron piles, which were prefabricated in England. It was found that the piles could not be persuaded to screw into the sea bed, which meant it was necessary to hammer them in. Dogged by construction difficulties, accidents and poor weather it took over a year to construct the wharf. Upon its completion in 1873 it was found that it was too high for use by smaller vessels, which were forced to use the existing wharf. Even so, the port was busy with materials being imported to construct the new branch railway line. In 1875 as part of the preparations to abolish the Provincial Council Moeraki was allowed to have establish its own harbour board. This made the port more popular but at the same time the increased traffic reduced the road to the port to an almost impassable state. In 1874 the cutter Glimpse became stranded at Moeraki. In 1876 the cutter Hope ran onto the rocks at Moeraki, but with no loss of life.
While the port was busy exporting stone and grain the £3,000 that the harbour board had been endowed with when it was created proved insufficient to pay for the necessary expansion of the port's facilities. This put it at a disadvantage compared with the better financially endowed Port Chalmers and Oamaru harbour boards.
To improve the safety of coastal shipping following several accidents on the dangerous reefs in the surrounding area the Marine Department commenced construction of the Katiki Point Lighthouse on the tip of Moeraki Peninsula in 1876. The light was lit for the first time in 1878. The station was automated, and the last keeper was withdrawn in 1975.
Railway