A visitor describes the three small islands and their whaling crews
A letter published in May 1840 describes Motungarara as Lewis’s Island, Tahoramaurea as Mayhew’s Island, and Tokomapuna as Evans’s Island. The writer counted six whaleboats attached to Evans’s party and four to Lewis’s. Mayhew’s Island had a store. The account also describes sheltered anchorages and the difficult sandbar at the Waikanae River mouth. These are the visitor’s observations and names at the time, not necessarily enduring ownership or place-name designations.
Three small islands in the working seascape
Descriptions of the smaller islands off the Kāpiti coast help reconstruct a maritime landscape in which boat landings, temporary huts and whaling work occurred close to established Māori communities.
Motungarara as an example
Dieffenbach visited Motungarara in December 1839; Prickett records dry-stone huts and associates the place with Captain “Horse” Lewis and Te Hiko-o-te-rangi. These details place named people alongside physical evidence.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- Six stations, twenty-three boats and the whaling boom
- Wakefield describes whaling boats and island stations
- The changing names of the whaling islands
- Piopio and Te Kairākau pou
- Te Wai-o-Rongomai and Te Puna-o-Rongomai
- Waikanae naming traditions
- Whale Song, Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone (2025)
- Puketapu ki Paraparaumu — History and Living Connections
- Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone
- Eleven ships off Kāpiti in 1837
- 1839 Kāpiti–Mana station grouping