Houhora Harbour is located on the east coast of North Island New Zealand. The beautiful clear waters of the harbour are excellent for all kinds of fishing.

General Information

1Houhora Harbour is located on the east coast of New Zealand, 40 kilometres north of Kaitaia where the North Island projects a narrow peninsula northwards to North Cape and Cape 2Reinga. The narrow entrance has Mt Camel on one side, and East Beach stretching some 15kms on the other. Houhora Harbour is an enclosed estaurine harbour with areas of mangrove and salt-marsh at the head of harbour. On Houhora shores reside the towns of Houhora,
3Pukenui, 5Ngataki, 6Waihopo, 7Te Raupo, Raio and 8Motutangi.

Houhora Harbour is listed by the Department of Conservation (1990) as a site of international importance as a result of habitats used by international migratory waders. The area is important for migratory waders such as Turnstone, Knot, and Godwit. Other birds recorded as using the harbour and surrounds include the New Zealand Dotterel, Reef Heron, Bittern, Banded Dotterel, Wrybill, Black Stilt and in the coastal shrub, large numbers of Fernbird.

The intertidal flats have mud whelks, bivalves, wedge shell, and cockles. Crustacea are relatively scarce, but are represented by the snapping and mantis shrimp, and pill-box crabs. Parore, snapper, John Dory, flounder and stingrays frequent the harbour. The coastal vegetation of the harbour is varied. Pasteral farming is the widespread land use on the western shore, and the eastern shore is dominated by an extensive salt-marsh, grading into a freshwater marsh and into scrubland. Extensive areas on the eastern peninsula are utilised for forestry.

Attractions and Activities

The beautiful clear waters of the harbour are excellent for fishing. The harbour has a fast flowing deep water channel where snapper, john dory, kingfish, kawhai, and trevally can be caught right up to the wharf. Fishing can be done from the shore or boat, and plays are major part in the attraction of this harbour. In the middle of March the Annual Houhora One Base Game Fishing Tournament takes place.

Shore activities are mixed with bowling green, tennis courts, bushwalks, golf course available. In Houhora you will find the Wagener Museum and Pioneer Park which has many exhibits, detailing life in Victorian and pioneering times in New Zealand.

Some of the interesting displays include the world's largest collection of seashells, Victorian arcade games, musical instruments, Māori artefacts, weapons, and a bullock team typical of those used to haul kauri logs from the forest. Houhora Harbours towns restaurants, shops offering many forms of retail, but Houhora has the most northern hotel bar in New Zealand.

History

There are two stories given for the origin of the name Mt Camel. The first refers to the preparation of special birds feathers laid out on a rock to dry. The second concerns the chasing up the Ninety Mile beach of a young chieftain who had been a member of a raiding party against the people at the southern end of the beach, and when in desperation, ran across the peninsula and swam across to the Pa on the mount side, he was caught and slain and his wet headdress subsquently laid out to dry. Even today fortifications of the pa are plainly visible on the ridges of the mount.

Maori Translations

1 Houhora:
   Hou – feather
   hora – scatter over a surface
2 Reinga - Place of leaping
3 Pukenui – Big Hill
4 Te Rerenga Wairua – Cape Reinga
5 Ngataki - The flocks of whiteheads (species of    bird)
6 Waihopo:
   Wai - water
   hopo - to be apprehensive
   River that one fears to cross
7 Te Raupo:
   Te - the
   Ropu - bulrush. A rushlike water plant used for    weaving
8 Motutangi:
   Motu - island
   tangi - weeping, mourning