Unique Wildlife of New Zealand


		Poverty Bay

overty Bay was settled centuries ago by the Ngati-Porou and, when Cook arrived in October 1779, their settlements and pa were scattered over a large area of the East Coast. Cook’s encounters with the locals were not happy ones, and after a few days of trying to establish friendly relations with the Ngati-Porou, he set sail noting:

... we weighed anchor and left this unfortunate, inhospitable place, on which we bestow the name of Poverty Bay, as it did not afford a single, article which we wanted, except a little firewood.

'Poverty' was a massive misnomer as the bay is now the centre of one of our most productive agricultural and horticultural areas. This development has not been without its cost, however. Pioneer farmers, anxious to make their land productive, removed large areas of bush with disastrous consequences. The steeply sloping land, denuded of its cover, was unable to hold the soil after heavy ram and now shows the scars of enormous erosion.

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