MANAGEMENT PLAN

History

The Kaiwharawhara Pa, at the mouth of the Kaiwharawhara Stream was inhabited before and during early settlement days by a tribe of Ngati-tama who migrated through the Manawatu from Taranaki to eventually settle in the Kaiwharawhara area. Ngaio Gorge formed a natural access way between Wellington and the Coast, and was much used by the Maori on route north through the Te Wharou Range to Wanganui and Taranaki. The Trelissick Track, which generally follows the alignment of the Northern Walkway through Ngaio Gorge, was likely to have bee n used by the Maori and certainly by early settlers and residents of the areas. Ngaio Gorge was also used as a source of food and for hunting by the Maori. The tribal chief during the earliest settlement days was Taringa Kuri, or Dog's Ear who was hostile to the settlers and to the sale of Maori land. However, in 1839, Taringa Kuri's resistance was overcome and he sold his land to Wakefield's New Zealand Company for clothing a nd other goods. The Kaiwharawhara Kainga was principally a Te Ati-Awa settlement although Taringa Kuri was a Ngati Tama Chief.

In 1841, Mein-Smith, the prominent New Zealand Company surveyor who laid out Wellington, improved the Maori track through the g orge to form a pedestrian way between Kaiwharawhara and Khandallah. This was followed in 1845 by the construction of a road up the gorge which was commissioned by Captain Daniel, whose "Trelissic k Farm", named after his estate in Cornwall, was at the head of the gorge. This road became a popular by-pass for the early stages of the Old Porirua Road which was extremely steep. In 1846, the gorge access was again improved when Governor George Grey, with a militarists' appreciation of the old Roman Road idea, enlarged and upgraded the gorge road in order to send his troops to fight Te Rauparaha. Duncan Fraser who leased a 40-acre block for farming on the Hanover Street spur was another early settler.

By 1860, the Cobb & Company coaches were using the Gorge route to make their passages north. In September 1898, the Onslow Borough Council approved a plan for a new road to be surveyed and constructed. This road followed much the same path as the present Ngaio Gorge Road. The Wellington- Manawatu Railway Company established a rail link though the gorge in 1874.

The Trelissick Track between Hanover Street in Wadestown and Trelissick Crescent in Ngaio was a walking link since the late nin eteenth century. Early reports from the Onslow Historical Society record the park being used for picnics and swimming.