Nearly three centuries ago, a massive greenstone gong belonging to a powerful chief was hidden near Maungawhau. Where is it now? Joel MacManus investigates.<\/p>\n
Down a long garden path, behind some suburban houses, there is a hole in the ground. Go down the hole and you\u2019ll find yourself in a muddy pit, surrounded by jagged rocks. Crawl along a low passageway, then cling to a rope as you lower yourself down a perilous drop. There, you\u2019ll find something special: an expansive, airy chamber, with bioluminescent bacteria sparkling on the walls and p\u014dhutukawa roots dangling from the surface like delicate stalactites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is Stewart\u2019s Cave in Mt Eden. Underneath Auckland\u2019s streets there are hundreds of caves like this formed by ancient lava flows from the city\u2019s volcanic cones. In one of them, some say, there is buried treasure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A massive pah\u016b pounamu, a greenstone gong, is said to have been hidden around 1740 before a battle to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Nearly three centuries later, it is still lost. If it could be found, it would be one of New Zealand\u2019s most important archaeological discoveries; a symbol of Auckland\u2019s first great civilisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
P\u014dhutukawa roots dangling from the roof of Stewart\u2019s Cave. (Photo: Joel MacManus)<\/p>\n
The pah\u016b pounamu belonged to Kiwi T\u0101maki, the most significant chief in the history of T\u0101maki Makaurau. At the peak of his power, about 20,000 people lived in p\u0101 complexes across the Auckland isthmus, enjoying a sustained and prosperous peace within their strongly defended borders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Kiwi T\u0101maki wanted to summon a war council or call the people to shelter in their p\u0101, he would beat the pah\u016b pounamu, which was said to have made a noise that carried for several kilometres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its name was whakarewa-t\u0101huna. Whakarewa means to float or launch, while t\u0101huna refers to a beach or shore (or possibly a specific location: Queenstown, which was used seasonally to gather pounamu). Transporting a notably large, heavy slab all the way from Te Wai Pounamu to T\u0101maki Makaurau by waka must have been a significant feat worthy of being remembered.<\/p>\n
The pah\u016b pounamu disappeared around the same time Kiwi T\u0101maki was defeated and his iwi, Te Waiohua, lost their military control of the region.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kiwi T\u0101maki\u2019s downfall began when he received false information, possibly fed to him by an enemy, that Te Tao\u016b, a hap\u016b of Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua based around Kaipara, was planning to attack. In reality, Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua were preoccupied by holding a tangi for a senior chief. Without waiting for clarification, Kiwi T\u0101maki attacked, killing dozens of Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua.<\/p>\n
It was a grave insult that demanded utu. Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua gathered a large army and invaded south, killing Kiwi T\u0101maki in a battle at Paruroa, on the edge of the Wait\u0101kere Ranges and going on to conquer all of T\u0101maki Makaurau.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Te Waiohua fled south to Waikato and wouldn\u2019t return for several generations. Before they left, a woman put the pah\u016b pounamu in a secret hiding place which has since been forgotten. Some people say it was dropped in the harbour. Some say it was hidden in a cave. Others are unsure it ever existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A sign on Maungawhau shows what the p\u0101 looked like during Kiwi T\u0101maki\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n
Kelvin Tapuke (Ng\u0101i Tai k\u012b T\u0101maki), a senior research fellow at Massey University who serves as a cultural advisor on work related to Auckland\u2019s caves, is a pah\u016b pounamu sceptic. \u201cI think it\u2019s an absolute myth,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were lots of stories in the 19th century about lost treasures. Indiana Jones-type mysteries that justified people exploring our burial caves,\u201d he says. Museums across Europe still hold vast collections of weapons, jewellery, and k\u014diwi (human skeletal remains) raided from urup\u0101 (burial sites).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tapuke doubts that it\u2019s possible to make a gong out of pounamu that could be heard for kilometres around \u2013 and even if it is, why not use it for tools or weapons? \u201cIt seems like a bit of a waste of a resource, especially when you have those big massive trees you can hit with a big stick.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A smaller, modern example of a pah\u016b pounamu. (Source: The M\u0101ori instruments project)<\/p>\n
Karen Wilson, the great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Kiwi T\u0101maki and the current chair of Te \u0100kitai Waiohua Settlement Trust, believes the pah\u016b pounamu is real.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a story to us,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is true, from our perspective.\u201d The pah\u016b pounamu is mentioned in the iwi\u2019s statement of claims, part of the treaty settlement process that shows their ancestral connections to Maungakiekie and Maungawhau.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wish we could put more investigation into it,\u201d she says. \u201cLong story short, we are aware of it, it\u2019s well known. But no action has been taken at this stage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The internet is frustratingly light on information about the pah\u016b pounamu, but there are a handful of clues buried in old legal documents and academic texts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s mentioned by Justice Francis Fenton in an 1868 Native Land Court case brought by a chief named Hetaraka Takapuna.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch was made of a greenstone slab called Wakarewhatahuna, which it was alleged carried with it the mana of Tamaki, and possession of it was evidence of the ownership of the land,\u201d Fenton wrote in his judgement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hetaraka Takapuna, who brought the Orakei lands case in 1868.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt belonged, Hetaraka tells us, to Teke, a wife of Te Hehewa. She was the last person seen with it, and she hid it \u2013 Hetaraka does not know where.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fenton was wary of suggesting that the person who eventually found it would own all of Auckland. \u201cIt was buried last century, and with it must be taken to be buried whatever mana it possessed. Nor do we hold that the title to Tamaki will be revived for the benefit of the person who may happen hereafter to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pah\u016b pounamu appears several times in The Ancient History of the M\u0101ori, a six-volume collection of oral histories by government historian John White, published in 1891.<\/p>\n
There is a description of the slab having had sections chipped out. \u201cWhakarewa-tahuna, this block of greenstone, is of very ancient days, because it had been in the possession of many generations of our ancestors, and many meres and many kurukuru and heitiki had been cut from it by our ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two accounts mention a woman named Peke (not Teke) who was the wife of Te Hehewa, while a third names one of Te Hehewa\u2019s other wives, Rangi-ika-ketu. That means there are multiple sources telling roughly the same story.<\/p>\n
One informant told White the pah\u016b pounamu \u201cwas hidden by Peke, and she hid it for fear it should become the property of our enemies, as it was a keepsake of our ancestors.\u201d <\/p>\n
A second source gave more details: \u201cPeke had it till it was lost, and she hid it, and it was lost near Maunga-whau on the west side of that Pa, it was in the days when a war party attacked the Pa, and a charge was made by the enemy on the Pa, Peke took the block of greenstone and hid it a little below the ditches of the Pa in a cave of the scoria on the west side toward the south of the Pa, and it is lost still.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an incredibly specific description. So, what caves are there on the south-western edge of Maungawhau?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Exploring near the entrance of Stewart\u2019s Cave. (Photo: Joel MacManus)<\/p>\n
Professor Jan Lindsay from Massey University\u2019s school of environment isn\u2019t aware of any caves that fit the description. Neither is Kate Lewis, a natural features specialist at Auckland Council. <\/p>\n
Many of Auckland\u2019s caves have been destroyed by property development or covered up to prevent people falling in and hurting themselves. Some property owners hide their caves because they don\u2019t want the hassle of dealing with the council\u2019s heritage rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peter Crossley has been caving since 1968 and has been inside \u201cabout 250\u2033 of Auckland\u2019s caves. \u201cThere\u2019s not many that I haven\u2019t been in. Or at least not that you can still get into,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peter Crossley inside Stewart\u2019s Cave. (Photo: Joel MacManus)<\/p>\n
Crossley suggests it could be in Rangi\u2019s Cave or Nga Ana Peka Rau (\u201cthe cave of many bats\u201d) located around Windmill Rd, Mt Eden. These caves were near the old Epsom Mill, a site with some dark history. Opened in 1844, and initially used to grind corn, it was later used to grind animal bones for fertiliser. The Mt Eden Borough Council\u2019s history of the area notes that when animal bones were scarce, owner Robert Robertson would raid the nearby M\u0101ori burial caves for bones. \u201cThousands of skeletons apparently went through but it\u2019s difficult to know the truth,\u201d Crossley says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good theory, but it still doesn\u2019t quite fit. Rangi\u2019s Cave and Nga Ana Peka Raudue are about a kilometre from the edge of Maungawhau, due south. Not on the south-western edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crossley\u2019s second theory is more disappointing: that the pah\u016b pounamu could have been hidden in a hole in the ground surrounded by scoria; not a literal cave, but something that could have been described as one. If that were the case, it\u2019s almost certainly lost.<\/p>\n
But what if we\u2019re looking at the wrong maunga? The sources which mention the pah\u016b pounamu have conflicting details: some say it was kept at Maungawhau, others say Maungakiekie. Perhaps the same mixup could apply to its hiding place?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crossley immediately recalls a cave on the south-western side of Maungwhau, right where the edges of the p\u0101 would have been. But it\u2019s one of the few he\u2019s never been inside. In fact, he\u2019s never been able to find it. He only knows about it from a 1907 story in the Auckland Times, and a photo which shows men climbing into it down a ladder. \u201cI\u2019ve tried standing on the slopes with the photo in hand to work out where it was, but no such luck. I haven\u2019t got a clue where that one is,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The entrance to the caves under Maungakiekie, One Tree Hill (Weekly News, Sir George Grey Collection, Auckland Libraries)<\/p>\n