Kapiti Island History

A film on Kapiti Island that focuses on the history of the Maori.

Historical island Kapiti: The Kapiti Nature Reserve

The Kapiti Island is the peak of a sunken chain formed by 200 million years of earthquake. Once upon a twilight, the valleys of the valleys between the hills led them to the remainder of the continent. For a while it was part of a country viaduct that stretched across today's Cook Strait.

Remaining is an island about 10 km long and 2 km broad with wind-blown slopes to the east and luxuriant moderate rainforests in the protected north. The full name of M?ori refers to the island as the place where the borders of Tara and Rangitane meet.

Both Tara and Rangitane were the sons and grandsons of Whatonga, who shared the area in 1150 AD, making a border from the tip of Kapiti Island to the eastern shore of the northern island. He gave the lands in the Jews' lands to Tara, and the lands in the Jews' lands in the Jews' lands to Tautoki, another of Rangitane's sons.

Between Kapiti Island and the continent, the water was once visited by the Rangitane and Muaupoko rivermen, and later by Te Rauparaha of Ngati Toa, who dominated Kapiti in 1823. Convinced of a vision, she went on her way with her subsidiary from Kapiti to alert on land to an imminent ally.

Well-known as " moorongonui " or "famous island" for pre-European M?ori, a number of strains have used kapiti. In the 1830s Kapiti was the capital of the famed Te Rauparaha and still a strategical place for warfare on M?ori. However, at that point the island was divided with Europe's whaling communities.

In the 1840' a lot of ground was grubbed up for agriculture and the introduction of ewes, geese, goats, hogs, roes, cats as well as canines. The number of cetaceans fell sharply and the island was handed over to agriculture around 1850. Whare is the oldest edifice on Kapiti Island and the oldest edifice in the area.

Presumably it dates back to the early 1860s, when it was constructed as a farm of the McLean familiy who used to farm the island. Much of the island was bought by the government in 1897 to protect its protected area. Whare became home to a number of island guardians, among them Richard Henry, the world's first state-sponsored conservationist.

In 1908 he was called to the island of Kapiti after having served on Resolution Island, where he did much of his work on fishing practices and effective ways of migrating fishes. Before retiring, he spent three years in the wares. Until 1924 another caretaker's house was constructed. Ever since, the share has been used as a basis for scholars, merchants, students and a large number of distinguished people and visitor.

This is a plain half-timbered house with a gable top.