Forgotten Islands of the Abel Tasman
Tonga, Adele and Fisherman Islands today are well appreciated as an integral offshore part of Abel Tasman National Park. But few appreciate the two Tata Islands of Motu and Ngawhiti around in Golden Bay are included as well.
Perhaps this is because they are outliers to the park itself, situated to the west of Abel Tasman Point and Wainui Bay, and are more a focal point for Golden Bay residents, and in particular the residents and boaties of Tata Beach itself.
These significant limestone landforms, each around 30m high, protect not only significant remnant coastal vegetation, but are also roosting habitat for several thousand spotted shags, quite feasibly this country’s last significant population of these birds that once inhabited our coast in their hundreds of thousands if not millions.
DOC and particularly Project Janszoon have made it their business to spend millions of dollars on highly visible projects along the Abel Tasman’s eastern flank. But concerned residents of Golden Bay struggle to get much recognition and assistance for protecting the Tata Islands.
They’ve battled on for years, suspecting too as one told me, the onerous paper trail that would ensue if they did get the ‘‘big boys’’ in to help with the job. Local artist Peter Geen is one such local hero, setting some 29 older traps (150s) which he sets across the two islands and checks monthly.
It’s a big job, getting out there in his little tender with an electric outboard, his catch steady at around 10 rats a month with an overall tally of 211 over the two and a half years he’s been doing it.
Working on the mainland around the islands, Tata resident Lisa Savage caught 14 stoats over a three-year period: ‘‘It’s almost a losing battle. Stoats are such great swimmers and with the islands being so close. The shag colony roosting there means there’s potentially plenty of food for them.’’
If anyone keeps an eye on the two Tata Islands it’s Lisa Savage and partner Tony Bateup who run Golden Bay Kayaks from their house at the end of Tata Beach.
Check any guidebook, and you’ll see their business is a highly viable and well recommended alternative to the ‘‘mayhem’’ now associated with the mass kayaking scene from Marahau. The Abel Tasman may be our smallest and arguably most beautiful national park, but it’s also become our busiest.
Golden Bay Kayaks has been around for about 20 years. It was started by Nigel Marsden at Pohara and was called Planet Earth Adventures back then. Explains Lisa: ‘‘We took the business over in 2011. Change has been brisk, especially legislation which has been introduced without much forethought. It taken a lot of fun out of this game.’’
Despite the changes, Lisa and Tony have chosen to grow their business slowly. They now have 18 double kayaks, with the latest addition to their fleet paddle boards to keep up with the new fad. They even sell coffees and icecream from their little hut.
Most people hire their kayaks (freedom or guided options) to explore the amazing rock formations around the Tata Islands, the cliffs all packed with nesting seabirds which streak the rocks with their guano. From here it’s only a short paddle around to the intriguing sculptured granite coastline of Abel Tasman Head with its offshore rocks, stacks and arches, a favourite haul out for seals too.
Wainui Bay is just around the corner, or beyond to Taupo Point and Separation Point. Golden Bay Kayaks are the only company licensed to operate around the whole Abel Tasman National Park. Mother nature keeps the business in check though, with unpredictable weather patterns occasionally not allowing them to operate for days on end.
The Tata Islands were early recognised for their potential to provide the only real shelter and relatively deep water anchorage for larger ships into Golden Bay.
In his 1851 letter to Nelson’s Superintendent, John Tinline wrote: ‘The only place in the Bay where a vessel of 200 tons or more can find shelter is under the Tata Islands, and the importance of this has been remarked on by everyone who has visited … it has been suggested that a port be established at Tata so that coal mined at Motupipi could be loaded there, and limestone taken from the islands could be shipped aboard vessels moored alongside the islands at the same time.’’
Limestone did get extracted from Southern Tata or Ngawhiti Island by the Picton Lime and Cement Company, the quarry scars of that operation still evident on this closest island when looking out from Tata Beach.
The Government took the islands under the Public Works Act around 1908 when the newly formed Golden Bay Cement Company were investigating the possibility of a port at Tata, the fear being that the island would be levelled by the quarryman and take away the only shelter that did exist. One of the plans mooted in the investigation study was to blast the top off the 151m-high hill at the top end of Tata Beach and push all the spoil out to form a breakwater harbour, but luckily for Tata residents today the site at ‘Tera-Kohi’ (as it was known back then) won out in the end.
Botanist Philip Simpson says it’s quite possible southern Tata island (Ngawhiti) was burnt off in pre-European times as it’s likely to have been cultivated, with Maori sites evident.
This island has a limestone endemic five-finger (Pseudopanax macintyrei), but most distinguishing feature, visually, is the conspicuous limestone stack at the southern end which some suggest gave the islands name Tata because it looks like a handle of a ta – or waka bailer.
Another meaning of Tata is ‘‘close’’ or ‘‘nearby’’, referring to the islands’ proximity to the beach or each other.
The northern Tata island (Motu) retains greater diversity, but no rata, totara or matai like you find around Abel Tasman Memorial. It’s typically large milktree (same on Tonga Island) interspersed with nikau.
Both islands do have karaka trees, but none are ancient, indicating they were planted by Maori.
Also there’s titoki which is typical of rich guano soils, along with kohuhu and wharangi (Melicope ternata), the latter also only existent elsewhere around this coast on Tonga Island.
Cliffs surrounding the islands render them fairly inaccessible, so it’s not surprising it’s the patch of rich seas around these islands that seems to interest people most.
Nearly two decades ago, a group of locals including Bob Butts, Hika Rountree and Anne Sheridan (formerly Department of Conservation) did some basic ground work towards setting up a marine reserve in Golden Bay. They looked at four sites – Onekaka Wharf area, Tata Islands, Taupo Point and Separation Point – but the Tata Islands/Abel Tasman Point area was finally settled on.
Using the highly successful ‘‘Goat Island’’ marine reserve at Leigh, north of Auckland, as a model, rough boundaries were drawn up to minimise effects on interested parties, namely Tata residents, beach users, water skiers, marine farmers in Wainui Bay and others.
But the advocates encountered opposition from the commercial fishing industry and some recreational fishers who wanted access to the Tata Island’s food basket that had always been available, even on a rough day.
The group pulled their plans, acknowledging they were just too far ahead of the times.
Looking back, Butts reckons the opposition was short-sighted. ‘‘The whole area around the Tatas and Abel Tasman Head is a huge nursery area for fish. To protect it would have been good for replenishing fish stocks in the whole bay. It still needs to happen in my opinion, the benefits of marine reserves are more known now, perhaps it’s time to dust off the old plans.’’