Te Paki Station – Far Northern New Zealand

Te Paki Station – Northland, New Zealand. A brief history and a glimpse of pioneer life early last century in the isolated far north of New Zealand.

Te Paki Station, 20kms below New Zealand’s northern most point at Cape Reinga, is now owned and managed by the crown, but it was orginally a wedding gift made by Maori to Sam Yates and his new bride, the Maori chieftaness, Ngawini. The couple whose new lands comprised 42,000 acres extending north from Te Kao to Tom Bowling Bay, became known as the King and Queen of the pioneering north.

Te Paki Station Supplies Meat for Gumdiggers

Sam Yates sold the land to Rex Keene’s grandfather, Richard, in 1913. Richard owned a kauri gum operation at Pauarenga (Paua) on Parengarenga Harbour, and wanted a supply of meat for the gumdiggers. He kept two bullock teams to haul the the gum from the fields back to Paua, where it was stored in a shed on the jetty until there was sufficient to ship it to Auckland.

With the purchase of Te Paki Station, he was able to supply sheep and cattle for meat. AlthoughTe Paki was unbroken, mainly poor quality land, over 42,000 acres Richard was able to run approximately 1500 cattle and 7000 sheep. Every week a cow and several sheep were slaughtered and cut up, then taken around the gumfields and sold for sixpence a pound to the gumdiggers.

Maori Middens a Source of Calcium

Because Maori had inhabited this part of the country for many generations, their middens (rubbish pits) abounded. Richard Keene, understanding that his land was lime deficient and needing to repair it, dug the shell out of middens along Ninety Mile beach, burning and crushing it to extract calcium for use as fertiliser on Te Paki’s fields.

Rex Keene – Photo Theresa Sjoquist

In 1922, Len Keene, one of Richard’s seven sons, took over the management of Te Paki. Rex Keene, Len’s son and now 85, was raised on Te Paki station.

He says Len immediately mustered 350 four year old bullocks and sold them for three pounds ten shillings ($7) each. Included in the price was the delivery of the beasts to Auckland, a distance of almost 500kms. While motorised transport existed in the 1920’s, roads into the north were constituted of little more than clay bullock tracks, so the cattle had to be driven down Ninety Mile Beach to Kaitaia, and on from there.

Tung Oil Venture at Te Paki

In 1930 Te Paki Station was sold through a complicated deal to the Tung Oil Company. The Keenes maintained a share in the property and moved to a home at Paua. The Tung Oil company was set up to grow tung trees which were native to China. The fruit, approximately the size of a medium apple, bore half a dozen nuts and these were crushed to produce tung oil. By the late 1920’s, the depression had begun to set in and the bottom had dropped out of the kauri gum market and tung oil was touted as the replacement for gum as a cash crop in the north.

As it turned out, labour to harvest the nuts was too expensive and crushing them required an industrial plant. With neither of these costs factored into the project, it failed and the Tung Oil Company went into receivership. The Keene’s resumed ownership of Te Paki in 1934.

The carrier basket coming from the main land to Motupao Island – Photo courtesy Far North Regional Museum

Lighthouse – Motupao Island

On Te Paki Station’s coast, the off-shore island of Motuopao was host to the Cape Maria van Diemen lighthouse. The island was linked by a cable and winch to the mainland and every week Te Paki employees delivered mail and meat to the island via a large wicker basket. In return the lighthouse keeper sent back his mail and a hot bottle of tea for the mainlanders to enjoy before riding their horses back to the homestead. The lighthouse was moved in 1939 to Cape Reinga.

Arrival of the carrier basket at Motupao Island – Photo courtesy of Far North Regional Museum

Te Paki station was host to most travellers to the remote north because there was no other accommodation. Apart from the meat they grew, they also had a ready supply of fish. Fat mullet could be netted off the beach in February, and at Scott’s Point, good schnapper abounded. Coming back along the beach, the fishermen could supplement their catch with toheroas (shellfish) for fritters.

Richard Keene left Te Paki Station to Len and his brothers. In 1966, it was sold by the estate to the crown and the Keenes moved to Kaitaia in 1967.

Rex Keene – Photo Theresa Sjoquist

Sources: Rex Keene (2010)

Far North Regional Museum

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