|
| |
Queen Charlotte Track - History
|
Long before the inter-island
ferries plied its waters, Queen Charlotte Sound (Totaranui) was an important
trade route for Maori, and provided good shelter and bountiful seafood for
the many Maori who lived there.
The early European explorer,
Captain James Cook, also took advantage of the shelter and natural bounty of
the Sounds, making Ship Cove (Meretoto) his New Zealand base. He spent more
than 100 days there between 1770 and 1777.
Since that time, the area has
been the scene of a diverse range of activities from gold and antinomy
mining, whaling and fishing through to tourism and forestry.
|
Cook at Ship Cove
Like thousands after him, Captain Cook was captivated by Queen Charlotte
Sound. No fewer than five times did he call at Ship Cove, there to careen
his ships, replenish stores and restore the health of his crew. It was while
he was here on his first visit, in 1770, that he climbed a hill on Arapawa
Island and for the first time saw open sea to the east. The passage the
Dutch explorer Tasman had missed in 1642 now bears the illustrious
Yorkshireman's name, though apparently not from his own choice. The modest
Cook does not once mention the strait as being named after him, though it
appears in a separate journal kept by Joseph Banks, the naturalist on board
Endeavour.
From Ship Cove, too, Cook crossed to Motuara Island where "we took [the
post] up to the highest part of the Island and after fixing it fast in the
ground hoisted thereon the Union flag and I dignified this Inlet with the
name of Queen Charlottes Sound and took formal possession of it and the
adjacent lands in the name and for the use of His Majesty, we then drank Her
Majestys hilth in a Bottle of wine and gave the empty bottle to an old man
(who had attended us up the hill) with which he was highly pleased." Cook
had claimed the land for his King, and named the Sound for his Queen. He had
also exceeded his instructions by making such a claim, and for generations
the British Government was careful to exclude New Zealand from the published
lists of its territories.
On his second voyage Cook made a rendezvous here with the Adventure in 1773,
and within 18 months had returned to Ship Cove twice more. Vegetable gardens
were established on Motuara (a group of Russian explorers harvested cabbages
from the plot in 1820), and at Ship Cove he landed the country's first sheep
- a ram and a ewe from the Cape of Good Hope - but inside three days they
had eaten tutu and died of poisoning. Here, too, Cook, who until then had
had doubts as to the practice among Maori, witnessed a cannibal feast at the
bay he named Cannibal Cove. On the debit side, a boat's crew of 10, sent
from Adventure to gather scurvy grass and celery, became embroiled with a
group of "natives", were killed and eaten.
After the Russians came the Frenchman, Dumont d'Urville, who "in order to
render greater services to geography" came to New Zealand to chart areas
that Cook had not visited. Much of the maze of the Marlborough Sounds he had
left uncharted, so it was Dumont d'Urville who gave the Sounds such names as
Cape Soucis, Croisilles Harbour (after his mother's family), French Pass and
D'Urville Island. Dumont d'Urville was not anxious to name the island after
himself, but French Pass (or Passe des Français) was the name he willingly
gave to commemorate an epic passage. The Endeavour Walk to Ship Cove. |
Natural History
|
The track passes through a
variety of vegetation types, from grassy farmland to undisturbed native
forests. At sea level, the forests are particularly lush. Ferns, tree ferns,
nikau palms, climbing kiekie vines and perching plants make up a spectacular
coastal forest.
Several forest birds are common
along the track, including the bellbird, tui, fantails and the weka.
Along the shoreline shags
(cormorants), gannets, terns and shearwaters can also be glimpsed.
|
| |
|
