Page 20 - Riki and the Ship

Historical Note
‘This morn I was awakd by the singing of the birds ashore from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile, the numbers of them were certainly very great who seemed to strain their throats with emulation perhaps; their voices were certainly the most melodious wild mu- sick I have ever heard....’
This was how the botanist, Joseph Banks, described Meretoto (Ship’s Cove) on 16 January 1770. It was here that James Cook took on water and provisions and careened the Endeavour. Meretoto would become one of Cook’s favourite locations, returning on numerous occasions. His first visit would mark the beginning of great environmental change.
The scene described by Bank was the result of geological forces spanning millions of years. About 130 million years ago the superconti- nent, Gondwana, began to break apart creating a jigsaw of continents. Some 30 million years later, a small piece of the Australian conti- nent broke away, this was the beginning of what would become Aotearoa-New Zealand. These forces would over millions of years con- tinue to shape the land. Where cold and warm water collided ocean currents and winds were created. The Aotearoa-New Zealand that we know today began to take shape around 12 million years ago. Along the Alpine Fault, where the tectonic plates meet, land was uplifted, faster than it was eroded.
A consequence of these geological processes was that Aotearoa-New Zealand would be left isolated for millions of years. Absent of mam- malian predators, its fauna and flora evolved in a way that made its environment unique, although particularly vulnerable to humans and those species that accompanied them.
Around 800 years ago the Polynesian ancestors of the Maori arrived and settled at the Te Pokohiwi o Kupe (Wairau Bar). These first people brought with them the kiore (Rattus exulans), the Polynesian rat. The land they discovered was significantly different to their former home- land. The climate was not conducive to the propagation of tropical plants, but what they did find was a rich source of protein in the form of the moa. It is estimated that within 150 years the moa had become extinct.
Approximately 500 years later Europeans, first explorers, then whalers, sealers, and traders stepped ashore. These were the means by which Eurasian rodents, such as the Norwegian rat (Rattus norvegicus), arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand. The impact of the rat, and other mam- malian pests, on New Zealand’s invertebrates, lizards, and bird life is still evident today.
While we can only imagine the bird song noted by Joseph Banks, conservation efforts at islands such as Motuara provide some hope that we might, some time in future, hear the ‘melodious wild musick’ that once echoed through the forests of Totaranui.