Photo A: A local resident and friend walk to Smugglers Bay in evening light. |
I wonder what one would have to pay for a section with a view like this? Photo A shows two people enjoying an evening walk over to Smugglers’ Bay with Urquhart Bay and Manaia in the background. How come a piece of prime coastal land like this has avoided being snapped up by developers? How come we have public access to it? Away back in late January this year, a number of us gathered here with Jono Carpenter of DoC, to listen to him talk and conduct a field excursion on the archaeology of the western end of the Bream Head Scenic Reserve. At that gathering, Geoff Pike, chairman of the Bream Head Restoration Committee, told us that one Len McCullough of Urquhart Bay (Photo B below) was responsible for much of this area being classified as a reserve. I decided to visit Len and get his version of the story.
According to Len, the original European settlers here were Ken and Alex Urquhart. Alex’s farm included Woolshed Bay, Home Point, Home Bay and Urquhart’s Hill, the knob above the gun emplacements, known to Maori as Tuta; it bears the remnants of terraces and pits of a substantial pa. Busby Head and Smugglers’ Beach had already been set aside for the Whangarei Harbour Board as a reserve for a light signal. It was Alex’s son, Lorne, who surveyed off the Urquhart Bay residential sections.
At some point a Mr. Clarry McGregor purchased the Urquhart farms and onsold them to the Golden Bay Cement Company as a potential site for quarrying limestone. Len McCullough used to holiday at Urquhart Bay as a boy in the late 1920s. In 1958 he and his wife, Shirley, bought a bach there in which they still live today. At about that time, he and two other gentlemen, Mr. George Tiller of Reotahi (a member of the Whangarei County Council) and Mr. Yo Sands (bach owner at Urquhart Bay), became aware of a proposal to subdivide the area from Woolshed Bay to Home Bay. They realised that such a move would deny public access. They put forward a counter proposal that the area should be made into a public reserve. After five years of discussions, Yo Sands eventually went to Wellington and talked with the Commissioner of Crown Lands. He must have argued a pretty good case because within six months Land and Survey purchased the block and classified it as a public reserve, with leasing rights for grazing. Len is the sole survivor of this trio. Through their vision and advocacy we have today the opportunity to wander at will over this exquisite piece of coastal land. For this we are perpetually grateful. Thank you, Len!
For those of you who don’t know, there is a lovely circular walk to be had at this end of the Bream Head Scenic Reserve.
The car park at Urquhart Bay is to the left of Woolshed Bay in Photo C below. A DoC information board shows maps. You need good foot wear because the track can be muddy and slippery at certain times. I carry a hiking stick. My preferred route is in a counter-clockwise direction from the car park, walking more or less parallel to the coastal fence line. Just past a pohutukawa sapling planted by Sir Edmund Hillary is a gate which allows you to walk across the beach of Woolshed Bay (centre in Photo C). From the far end of the beach a track leads around the outside of the fence to another gate and on to the gun emplacement on Home Point (extreme right in Photo C; you can just see the gun emplacement on the sky line). If you continue beyond here you come to a stile and the track goes under some big old pohutukawa to Home Bay where planted flax and cabbage trees struggle against the kikuyu. A steep climb takes you up to the ridge running east through bush towards Busby Head. Just above the Frenchman Island the track turns north and follows the coast to Smugglers’ Bay. From here you return to the car park over the low saddle, shown towards the left in the Photo C. It’s a beautiful walk at any time and in any weather, but particularly now, in spring and on a fine day, because there are so many native plants in flower. There’s a lot of clematis, and the manuka is a mass of large white blossoms often carrying a blush of pink. Hangehange and mingimingi, their flowers so tiny and insignificant, fill the bush air with an almost pungent fragrance. Kowhai is a mass of yellow. Photo D below shows a particularly fine display of clematis. Also below (Photo E) is Smugglers Bay. You can see the track just above the boulder beach on the left. In the centre, separating the two beaches are some rocks. Walking round these at anything other than high tide is the easiest approach to Smugglers’ Beach from this direction. Walking over the low saddle takes you back to the car park. It’s a great walk. Enjoy!
Best wishes, David Monro
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