History
Explore the Māori and European history that has shaped the Hereweka landscape.
Māori History
Kāi Tahu have a long and enduring association with Muaupoko (Otago Peninsula) and with the mauka Hereweka (Harbour Cone). Permanent Kāi Tahu settlements were established around the coast, where the sea provided kai moana including tuaki (cockle), pātiki (flounder), red cod, and leather jacket. Sea lions were hunted seasonally from December through May. The practice of mahika kai, moving seasonally through the rohe to gather food and resources, was central to the lives of Kāi Tahu tūpuna.
The name Hereweka translates as "catch the weka" (or alternatively "swift weka"), a direct reference to the flightless weka that was once a significant food resource in this area.
Hereweka is also the setting for the Tarewai tradition, recorded in the oral histories of Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou. Following a skirmish with Kāti Māmoe rivals in the late 1700s, the Kāi Tahu warrior chief Tarewai escaped captivity and took refuge in the forested slopes of Harbour Cone, treating his wounds using rongoā (native herbal medicines) and the spring waters of Hereweka. After recovering his strength, he returned to the Kāti Māmoe camp and retrieved his prized carved whalebone patu, restoring his mana. It is a story of place, resilience, and recovery that the land itself seems to echo.
Numerous Māori archaeological sites are recorded in the surrounding area, including Little Papanui, Hoopers Inlet, Papanui Inlet, and Taiaroa Head. Kāi Tahu sites continue to emerge along the Peninsula coastline as erosion occurs. A recent excavation at Sandfly Bay uncovered a small wrapped bundle of bird spears.
Stephen Kilroy and Parry Jones working on a stone wall near the summit of Hereweka
Larnach Byre
Limestone Kiln
European Settlement
The 1844 purchase of land by the Otago Association included most of the Peninsula. The Hereweka Harbour Cone property was subdivided into land titles in 1863, at which time dense native forest still covered the landscape. European settlers cleared the land for small-scale dairy farming, typically running around twelve cows alongside hens, pigs, and kitchen gardens.
By the early 1890s, the Sandymount creamery was operating at peak capacity, servicing approximately 30 dairy farms. As sheep farming gradually replaced dairy, the number of farms declined, and the character of the landscape shifted accordingly.
William Larnach began purchasing Peninsula land in 1870 and by the mid-1880s had assembled the Camp Estate, incorporating smaller holdings from earlier settlers. Within the property, Larnach constructed his Model Farm: a complex of byre, stable, barn, dairy, and farm manager's house, accessed through a grand arched entranceway and designed as a model of the self-sufficient farm. Following his death in 1898, portions of the estate were sold to neighbouring landowners.
Forty-two historical sites and structures within the property are recorded on the New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme, including drystone boundary walls, derelict farmhouses, stone roads, and the ruins of Rutherfords enclosed farmstead. The property has been described in archaeological assessments as a "pristine archaeological landscape of historic occupation" (A. Middleton, Hereweka Harbour Cone: A Relict Landscape on the Otago Peninsula, November 2008).