History of Kāpiti Island
Kāpiti Island was not an isolated outpost. The island, its smaller neighbours and the mainland shore formed a connected maritime landscape, with waka traffic, settlement, trading and, in the nineteenth century, whaling operations. A history of Kāpiti therefore extends across the strait to Mana Island, Arapawa and Port Underwood as well as along the Kāpiti Coast.
The historical record
History of Kāpiti Island
History of Kāpiti Island
History of Kāpiti Island
A changing nineteenth-century shoreline economy
By 1839, a contemporary account counted six whaling establishments in the Kāpiti–Mana area, using 23 boats and producing 466 tuns of black oil. Those figures capture one season rather than every station that ever existed. Archaeological remains, period illustrations and later surveys document a changing pattern of occupation at Waiorua, Tokomapuna, Long Point and other nearby places. Source: Ernst Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand (1843), vol. I, p.109, as discussed by Nigel Prickett (2002), pp.83–97.
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