POVERTY BAY TO EAST CAPE.

POVERTY BAY (TURANGA).

Is the first anchorage north of Hawke's Bay being
eight leagues from Table Cape; the bay is five miles from
head to head, and four miles in depth. The entrance
will be known by the heads being the first white pro-
jections from the land north of Table Cape; the south
(or Young Nick's) head is 520 feet high and has within
it, anchorage off the Wero Wero River, but it is ad-
visable to keep more than half a-mile from it as within
this the ground is very foul changing from
eight fathoms to nine feet, the bottom, however, is not
rock, but apparently composed of vast fragments of the
pipe-clay cliff which has from time to time slipped
away. (A very common occurrance on this part of the
Coast, upon which the sea is rapidly advancing, and
which is a so liable to smart shocks of earthquake.)
The North Head (fua-hini) bears N.E. from Young
Nick's Head, it also has foul rocky ground, extending
to the S.E. for two miles, at this distance we shoaled
suddenly from sixteen to eight fathoms.

On the north side of the bay is what appears
an island (Tua Motu) but it is joined to the main at low
water, off this a reef extends two cables to the south-
ward, between this peninsula and Turanga-nui River,
there are rocks half a-mile from the shore, the outer
ones of which are covered or awash at low water.

With the exception of the above, the bay is free from
dangers, and a vessel can anchor according to circum-
stances, but she should not remain if there is an ap-
pearance of a breeze from the S.E., for it freshens sud-
denly and vessels have been lost by waiting too long.
In all westerly winds, and in ordinary N.E. sea breezes
there is shelter. The bottom is sand and the soundings
decrease gradually from twelve fathoms across the en-
trance to five fathoms, half a mile from the beach.

The flood outside sets to the northward, ebb to the
southward, and their influence extends ten miles from
the shore. Within the bay the tide is scarcely per-
ceptible. At Wero Wero the high water at full and
change is 6 h. 5 m. and the rise and fall six feet.

There are three small rivers in this bay—the Tura-
nganui, the Kopututea, and the Wero Wero. The for-
mer is celebrated for being the first spot where Cook
landed in New Zealand, and from the untoward circum-
stances attending it, and their hopeless attempts to ob-
tain provisions be named the bay Poverty.

The Turanganui has about a fathom at the entrance at
low water, coasting schooners may cross the bar at
high water, when the channel within is a cable broad.
Half a mile above, the river branches off to the N.W.
and N.N.E. (at the fork there is ten feet at high water)
the former branch being the largest. This river ter-
minates a sandy beach of eight miles from the south
head.

The Kopututea has about the same water at the bar
as Turanganui, but is less easy to define, it is a much
larger River than the latter, and is a fine sheet of water
when the tide is in, it flows through one of the richest
valleys in New Zealand, where about 30,000 acres of
level land and excellent soil is very partially cultivated,
it affords pasturage to a great extent being clothed with
natural grass. The Church Mission Station is on the
west bank three miles from the river's mouth.

The Wero Wero is only fit for boats, it is just within
Young Nick's Head and runs for a mile parellel to the
beach (stretching through the Kopututea plain, at high
water a branch of it is connected. near the mouth, with
the Kopututea River.

ARIEL ROCKS.

Ten miles E. 1/2 N. from Tua-hini Point (North Head
of Poverty Bay) are the Ariel Rocks, it is a very dan-
gerous patch only breaking in heavy seas. At low
water spring here are two fathoms on it, it extends north
and south, and the dangerous portion is not half a mile
in length, we found it very steep to shoaling at one cast
from twenty-three to eight and six fathoms when within
half a cable of the shoalest portion. There are thirty-one
fathoms between it and the shore, green mud, and
twenty fathoms one mile north, from whence it shoals
more gradually than from the other sides.

34

Its vicinity may be known, the bottom being
coarse gravel, and stones within a radius of two miles.
If the soundings exceed thirty-five fathoms you are out-
side.

The following bearings give the position of the
Ariel:—

Cape Gable (a very conspicuous white cliff) N.15°
W. 12 miles.
Tua-hini, (North Head of Poverty Bay) S. 84°
W. 10 miles.
False Gable (the nearest point of land) N. 73° W.
8 1/2 miles.

The distance from the shore will render clearing
marks available only in very clear weather. Tua Motu
(in Poverty Bay) is shut in when north of it, when it
just opens like an island you are half a mile north of the
rocks. Again the top of the White Gable is nearly on
a level with the land behind it.

A vessel called the "Martha" struck on these rocks
and injured her keel, about fifteen years ago. The
"Pandora" visited them, and during three days could
not distinguish them until close to their position and
though the wind during the greater part of that time
blew very fresh from the N.E., yet there was no break,
but after a S.E. gale they were seen to break heavily
from the shore.

POVERTY BAY TO TOLAGA BAY.

Cape Gable (Pari-nui-te-ra) is four miles N.N.E. of
Poverty Bay, between it and the latter the shore is rug-
ged with sterile hills rising to six hundred feet.
Rocks extend a mile from the projecting points, having
sandy bays within, also faced by rocks. Reefs extend
two miles south from the Gable.

Cape Gable was so called by Cook from its having a
glaring triangular facing like a whitewashed gable-end
of a house, this appearance is contracted when within
three miles of the land but from the eastward it is very
prominent, there is a small islet one-third of a mile
S.S.E. of it with a reef extending half a mile in the
same direction, there are also detached rocks a mile
north of the Gable, about three-quarters of a mile
from the beach.

Between this and Tolaga, the rocks extend about half
a mile from the shore at low water. The Motara rocks
—above water—are three miles S.S.E. of Sporing's Is-
land, and a quarter of a mile from the point.

TOLAGA BAY.

Or more properly Uawa, is ten miles north of Cape
Gable, it is N.N.W. and S.S.E. from head to head, one
and one-third miles across, and about the same distance
depth, in it there is anchorage in all westerly winds from
north to south.

The North Head rises to 400 feet and the South to
890, both composed of the white marl so conspicuous
along this Coast. Sporing's Island (of the same nature)
has only a fordable depth between it and the South
Head, it is surrounded by rocks extending a cable
off.

The North Head has an island off it (Motu Heka)
surrounded by rocks, and outside again, N.E. from
it, is a reef always breaking, its outer limit being
one and a half miles from the head, in the passage be-
tween this reef and Motu Heka there is eleven fa-
thoms.

Tolaga Bay is clear of dangers, there are ten fathoms be-
tween the heads, shoaling everywhere gradually; there
is one part, however, where an anchor will not hold
well, the ground being shingle and rock, this small
patch is one-third across from the south to-
wards the north head. It is better to anchor within
this line.

On the approach of easterly winds vessels should
leave in good time for the outer reef renders the beating
out somewhat tedious.

Within the south head is a cove where Cook watered,
and beyond is to be seen the remarkable arch in the
cliffs which he speaks of, the natives shewed us several
initials cut out on the rock where the artificial well ex-
ists made by Cook's crew, there is, however, some dif-
ficulty in getting water in Tolaga during the dry season.