Portages of New Zealand
Portages were extremely important for early Māori, especially along the narrow Tāmaki isthmus of modern-day Auckland, as they served as crucial transportation and trade links between the east and west coasts.
[1] The Albany portage was a path that connected the Lucas Creek, an arm of the Upper Waitematā Harbour, to the Okura River and Long Bay on the Hauraki Gulf.
[1][12] A natural tidal portage known as Kukuwaka linked Ngatarina Bay and Narrow Neck Beach,[1] at the location of the reclaimed land where the Waitemata Golf Club currently exists.
[1] The Whau portage, traditionally known as Te Tōanga Waka[13] and Te Tōanga Waka ki Motukaraka,[14] linked the west coast Manukau Harbour to the east coast Waitematā Harbour via a north-south route, following the Whau River, the Avondale Stream (Wai Tahurangi); which in modern times is marked by Portage Road.
[13] The Whau river and portage serves as a rohe (boundary) point between Te Kawerau ā Maki and the tribes of the Auckland isthmus: Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and in earlier times the Waiohua.
[17][18] In the latter 19th century, a canal was proposed along the Whau Portage, however this was abandoned after the North Island Main Trunk railway connected Auckland and Wellington in the 1910s.
Due to its short length and easy gradient, it was one of the most important portages in Aotearoa, and one of the main communication links between Northland and the central North Island.
[1] In addition to the Tainui, other migratory waka including the Matahourua of Kupe, the Aotea, the Mātaatua and the Tokomaru all have traditional stories associated with the crossing of this portage.
[21] The area was a settling place for Ngāi Tahuhu, an early Tāmaki Māori iwi, whose rohe (lands) extended to either side of the portage.
[17] The European township of Ōtāhuhu, which was established in 1847 as a fencible settlement,[24] flourished due to its strategic location at Te Tō Waka, linking to both the Manukau Harbour and the Tāmaki River.
[25] In 1886, WN Blair of the Public Works Department mooted the idea again, while also noting that the canal would need a lock to compensate for the different tides on the east and west coasts.
[25] Between the 1890s and his death in 1924, John Edward Taylor of the Auckland Harbour Board promoted the idea of a canal with locks at the Māngere and Panmure bridges.
[25] On 30 September 1911, Taylor formally petitioned the New Zealand Government to create the canal, and a second at Te Pai o Kaiwaka (Waiuku township), to connect to the Waikato River.
[17] The canal continued to be used in the early colonial era by Māori, in order to transport produce from the Waikato to be sold at Onehunga.
[29] In addition to Te Pai o Kaiwaka at Waiuku, a number of other portages existed, bridging the rivers of the Waikato region.
