page_title: Te Ākau
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Te Ākau / History and culture / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: From South Head Trig Point to Whaingaroa bar, shell middens, Te Kaha Pt, Otehe Pt, Ngatutura Pt and the Waitakeres
context_page_description: Te Ākau is a small farming settlement in the North Island of New Zealand, located 62 km north west of Hamilton, 39 km south west of Huntly, 45 km south of Port Waikato and 47 km, or 19 km by ferry and road, north of Raglan. It has a hall and a school.
  Te Ākau is also the name of a beach in Marlborough.
context_section_description: The area has been inhabited since the 15C, but was greatly disrupted by war and colonisation in the 19th century.
  The archaeology map shows that most pre-colonial settlement was along the coast, especially around Whaingaroa harbour, with over 250 recorded archaeological sites along the coast between Port Waikato and the harbour and 151 in the proposed windfarm area. Carbon from a camp fire at Waikorea was dated to between 1400 and 1440. Fragments of stone tools have been found; most of the obsidian recorded came from Tuhua Island, chert from Te Mata and adzes of metasomatised argillite from Marlborough. Obsidian also came from Taupo and Coromandel and its distribution suggests transport over land, more than by river.
  In Māori tradition the Tainui waka sailed down the west coast from Manukau, where Poututeka, son of the leader of Tainui Hoturoa, was left behind, along with his son Hapopo. Their descendants, Ngati Pou, were defeated at Whakatiwai on the Firth of Thames and then settled in the Whangape - Te Ākau area.
  The name "Te Ākau" translates as "beach" (of which there are several on this coast), but doesn't seem to have been used to describe this area until a report in 1862. Prior to that, only Rangikahu, in the Waimai valley, a little to the north of Te Ākau, was shown on maps and no mention was made of Te Ākau when the Bishop of New Zealand walked down the coast in 1855. By the time of an 1883 trip through Te Ākau, Rangikahu was only a block of the station.
  Later history was investigated by a Te Ākau Commission in 1904. It reported that Ngāti Tāhinga were the original owners of Te Ākau Block, but Ngāti Koata acquired a right to a portion, until Waikato defeated Ngāti Koata. In 1817 Ngāti Koata were again attacked and about half fled to conquer both sides of Cook Strait. The other half (since called Tainui) went to Matakitaki, until Hongi Hika's 1822 musket war. Ngāti Māhanga then occupied Horea, though allowing some Tainui to live there, possibly because otherwise Waikato would have taken the land, or possibly as vassals. In 1849 C. W. Ligar, the Surveyor-General, paid £50 to Ngāti Mahuta. A 2011 Waitangi Tribunal report reached much the same conclusion as in 1904, saying, "The resulting payment to Te Wherowhero and Ngati Mahuta does not seem have subsequently been regarded by the Crown as a valid sale."
caption: Two shell middens are white mounds towards the right of this view along the Te Akau coast
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