Devonport

Devonport is a harbourside community only a few short kilometres from our apartment in Takapuna.  It is to New Zealand what Jamestown and Williamsburg are to America.  It is believed the first Maori landed in the vicinity.  A plaque commemorates their landing in 12 huge Tainui Waka (canoes); English settlers arrived five centuries later in 1840.

Devonport lies on a peninsula on the north shore with Mount Victoria (volcanic promontory) overlooking the bay and the city of Auckland.

By means of timely zoning, it has avoided the higher density of other areas of Auckland thus maintaining the charm of the mid nineteenth century architecture reminiscent of early colonization. Quaint shops, elegant facades and a cinema, purportedly the oldest in the southern hemisphere in continuous use, is located on Victoria Road, the main street of Devonport. Streets are narrow winding and hilly.  We strolled along a number of them to take in the flavor of early house designs and sea side life.


A deep sea base and the home of the New Zealand Naval Yard is located on the right of the top picture.   We walked along the beach noting the remains of lava flows from Mount Victoria. Further along is the Devonport Yacht Club and also a Sea Scout Hall, a reminder of where Kiwis like to spend their time.

While in one of tourist shops I saw a beautifully carved Maori canoe called a waka.  Legend has it the first Maori arrived in 12 large waka.  A little research revealed the Maori designed wakas for a number of seafaring tasks.  War canoes (waka taua) were large canoes manned by as many as 80 paddlers and were up to 40 metres in length. Some older designs had outriggers, many with sails, and all elaborate in design and craftsmanship.

Maori told missionaries during the Musket Wars battles between waka took place at sea with the aim to ram an enemy vessel amid ship at high speed. The object being to ram the enemy waka mid ship and sink her by riding atop the other vessel.  The enemies were either killed, left to drown or captured to be used in cannibal feasts and the females as slaves.

 We walked through a park near the beach front.  Arendje picked up a seed pod and asked what it was.  I thought it looked like a fig. Sure enough after a little research I identified the tree as a Moreton Fig. It is an evergreen that can reach heights of 60 m. and the canopy equally large. The trunk can be massive.  It has an unusual characteristic of dropping aerial branches, which upon reaching the ground serve as trunks for the very impressive canopy.  The fruit we saw can be found all year round. Although edible, these are not your first choice.

It is a rain forest plant which when the seed lands in a host tree it will send out a strangler vine and once the aerial roots are established the vines will strangle the host tree and taking over to then grow independently.  Also interesting it is pollinated by only one species of wasp.  It is apparently a symbiotic relationship as the wasp is dependent on this tree to reproduce.