Muarangi te maunga                       Muarangi is our mountain

Te Wairoa te awa                            Te Wairoa is our river

Kaipara te moana                            Kaipara is our harbour

Pouto te wahi                                 Pouto is our place

Waikaretu te marae                         Waikaretu is our marae

Hakiputatomuri te tangata              Hakiputatomuri is our ancestor

Te Uri o Hau te hapu                       Te Uri o Hau is our sub-tribe

Ngati Whatua te iwi                        Ngati Whatua is our tribe

Radio Pouto is now launched and availible to you.

Please click this link -->. Radio Pouto 

Naumai Haere mai                           Welcome here

Ki te wahapu o te Kaipara               To the entrance of the Kaipara

Kaipara takahuri waka                     Kaipara that overturns ships

Kaipara whakarere wahine              Kaipara that makes women widows

Kaipara taniwha e                           Kaipara guardians here

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Welcome to the official website of Waikaretu Marae, Pouto.

Technology is a rapidly increasing part of this world. Thanks to the many people involved in creating and maintaining this site, we are totally pleased to be able to virtualy give you a piece of home, no matter how near or far you maybe.

Please feel free to scroll through, if you have any suggestions, comments or shout-outs, please do so by registering yourself in our Guest Book.

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So far we have managed to track down alot of friends and whanau through the use of this site. This has been an awesome result, something we initially hoped will happen.

If there is someone out there you maybe looking for or maybe a special family  occasion coming up, please dont hesitate to let us know, kohatuproductions(at)xtra.co.nz .

Hope this message finds you all in good health, Take care & safe surfing,

Pouto.Net Crew

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The Pouto Peninsula is a coastal peninsula of land some 55 km long, which is bounded on three sides by water. On the western side the Tasman Sea beats along an unbroken surf beach (Ripiro). The Coast here is a rounded line of broken sandstone cliffs and dunes, girded by an apron of sandy beach. On the eastern side the waters of the Kaipara Harbour ebb and flow over large tidal mud flats and sand banks and through deep inlets. On the southern boundary the peninsula forms one side of the entrance to the Kaipara Harbour, offshore, swift tides mark the meeting place for the harbour waters and rollers from the open sea.

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An energetic 15 minute climb up sand dunes leads to this three storey wooden lighthouse built in 1884 and now protected by the Historic Places Trust. The lighthouse is situated on the last outcrop of sandstone and is 278 feet above sea level. Erected in 1884 by Mr D Scott. First operated on 1st December 1884. The cost of building the lighthouse was 5571 pounds. To accommodate the lighthouse keepers two small cottages and tool sheds were built nearby. The lighthouse switched to automation on 17th November, 1947 and on that day the harbour was closed to ships

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Maori habitation of Pouto goes back to ancient times and in recent years relics have been found of a civilisation thought to pre-date Maori settlement of the area.

.At one time this harbour was the busiest in New Zealand with sailing ships carrying out the regions valuable kauri timber and gum.

Its infamous mouth and sandbar and the coast nearby were treacherous. An area of Pouto is called The Graveyard because of the many ships which went down there. In certain tidal and sand conditions, the remains of wrecks may be partially exposed offshore or in the sand.

Download our brand new Pouto.Net Toolbar. Get instant access, just at the click of a button on your web browser. --> CLICK HERE

Piripi, the 'Pouto.Net Website Developer' on top of a summit in his home land, Germany.

 The Hau-Kainga would like to take this opportunity to extend great thanks and gratitude to Philip for making our web-site become a reality.

We have been totally blessed to have you part of our community & absolutely proud to have you part of our family.

There is so much you have done for us in the short time that you've spent with us, that words just can not express.

Once again, Piripi, thank you very much for all your time, patience & aroha ( love ) you have shown & shared with us.

Arohanui,

Pouto

The Pouto Peninsula is a landform on the northern Kaipara Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. The Peninsula runs in the north west to south east direction and is approximately 55 km long. The width varies from about 5.4 km to about 14 km, with the widest part of the peninsula near its southern end. The Tasman Sea is to the west, and the Kaipara Harbour is to the south. The Wairoa River and Kaipara Harbour are to the east. Dargaville and State Highway 12 lie directly to the north east of the peninsula.

The most substantial settlement on the peninsula is Te Kopuru. The locality of Pouto, originally a Maori village, is in the south east of the peninsula.

Geography & conservation

Much of Pouto - over 600 ha - is covered by sand dunes, which are one of the largest unmodified dune systems in New Zealand. Many of the dunes rise over 100 m above sea level, and the highest reaches 214 m. There are also both permanent and temporary wetlands, and more than 20 freshwater lakes and swamps. The interior is planted in exotic forests.

Several threatened plants, birds, invertebrates and a freshwater fish are found on the peninsula.

Shipwrecks

There have been 113 recorded shipwrecks on the coast of Pouto, because the low-lying peninsula makes the north head of the Kaipara Harbour treacherous, and there are a lack of landmarks on the peninsula from which to take bearings. Tradition recounts that Rongomai, the captain of the waka (Canoe) Māhuhu, drowned when his canoe capsized near the entrance to Kaipara Harbour in the early days of Māori settlement of New Zealand. The first shipwreck in recorded history was of the Aurora, a 550-ton barque, in 1840, and the most recent was the yacht Aosky in 1994.

History

Descendants of the Māhuhu crew settled around Pouto and the South Head of Kaipara Harbour, possibly in the 13th century CE. Some of the crew of Aotea may have joined them in the 14th century. In the 15th century, Taramainuku, a grandson of the Arawa captain, settled at Pouto near the North Head, killing or driving away some of the previous occupants. According to tradition, the greater area of Kaipara is called after a hāngi that Taramainuku hosted, at which the para fern (Marattia salicina) was served. "Kai" means food in the Māori language.

In the late 17th century, or early 18th, Ngāti Whātua occupied the Pouto Peninsula as part of their move southwards. In 1820, during the Musket Wars, Ngā Puhi laid siege to Ngāti Whātua's Tauhara pa near Pouto, but were unable to capture it. A truce was agreed, to be cemented by the marriage of a Ngā Puhi chief to the daughter of a Ngāti Whātua chief. During the festivities, Ngā Puhi and their allies suddenly turned on their hosts and massacred them.

In 1874, a customs house and pilot station were built at Pouto. A signal mast was erected in the sandhills at North Head in 1876, 5–6 miles west of the station. The following year, a telegraph system was set up between the two.A lighthouse was built at North Head in 1884. The customs office was shifted to Te Kopura in 1903. The lighthouse was automated in 1947, and closed in the mid 1950s. The structure still exists and was renovated in 1982-84.

Gum-diggers operated on the peninsula from the 1870s and lasting into the 1930s, although trees no longer grew there. Dairy farming was established in the early 20th century. Sand from Pouto was used to build dams in the Waitakere Ranges, and was also barged around the Kaipara Harbour. The southern part of the peninsula was slow to be developed, with the road only reaching to Taingaehe in 1930, and extending another 35 km to Pouto itself in 1931. Until then, contact with the rest of the world was by steamer. The road wasn't metalled until the 1940s.