A Place Called Home

A picture-perfect day at Koukourarata on Banks Peninsular.

This pretty jetty juts out into the bay just in front of the marae.

You can read much more about this gorgeous, somewhat isolated location by clicking on Koukourarata in the label line below this post. www.nagitahu.iwi.nz

On the Peninsular

I thought I'd just run this pretty scenic shot from Port Levy on Banks Peninsular today. Known as Koukourarata in Maori it's home to an idyllically-place Tutehuarewa Marae that sits on the rise just to the left of the land end of this wharf. I've written about Koukourarata a good number of times before and you can see those postings by clicking on the word Koukourarata in the label line below this post. www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Mussels and Memories

Kutai or Toretore = Mussel
One of the favourite traditional Maori foods.
I wrote about mussels and their traditional harvest at Tutehuarewa Marae at Koukourarata -Port Levy on Canterbury’s Banks Peninsular, about three years ago, for Ngai Tahu's TE KARAKA magazine. The marae, a cluster of buildings on a grassy slope, is perfectly placed overlooking a stony beach and a pretty jetty. Koukourarata is well known for producing some of the fattest, juiciest toretore around – mussels up to six inches long have been harvested from the bay over the years. Koukourarata was the largest Maori settlement in Canterbury in the mid-1800s with a population of around 400 people. Back then, Maori from Koukourarata bartered shark and other kai moana for eels caught by hapu from Waihora and Wairewa over the hills; and tons of dried fish were carried inland to trade.

Mussel patties courtesy ex-Executive chef of Blanket Bay, Jason Dell.
I recall Matapi Briggs, then 75, telling me how she remembered a Koukourarata childhood that revolved around the sea. “The sea was our life. It meant everything; it was where we played and where we found our food. We knew where all the best kaimoana was and we only had to walk along the beach to pick cockles, paua and mussels off the rocks. We never needed a boat.” She talked about the times they made fires on the beach, slipping fat mussels in their shells into the ashes and eating them there and then. One of their jobs as children was to gather mussels for family meals but they were taught from an early age only to ever take what they needed, unless the family were taking kaimoana as koha for another runanga. “Our mussels have always been sweeter and juicier. I think it’s because there are a lot of freshwater creeks running into the sea here,” she says. “It’s common for them to grow to four or five inches long.” In the old days - “when my parents were young” - mussels were preserved in seaweed by the tahu method. They’d split the seaweed, put the mussels in and fill the pouch with hot bird fat. They also did that with paua,” Matapi says.

Matapi’s younger sister, Tokerau Wereta-Osborn also has vivid memories of a happy Port Levy childhood. She was just 18 months old when she arrived in the bay and now, her great-grandchildren are the sixth generation of her family to enjoy everything the bay has to offer.
‘The bay has never changed in my opinion. It’s always been a wonderful place to live and the kaimoana has always been plentiful. We used to walk out to the island at low tide to collect mussels, paua, oysters, cockles and conga eel. Our favourite way of eating mussels was simple - they were just opened, scalded in their shells, drained and then eaten with a bit of vinegar and onion. Sometimes our mother would make patties, or she battered the mussels whole but I always preferred them plain with vinegar,” Tokerau says. “I always loved making a fire on the beach and cooking the mussels in the ashes, or on a piece of hot tin and eating them fresh. When we needed to store them we would make a circle of rocks just offshore and keep the live mussels there. It was like our fridge and it saved us going out hunting for them each time we wanted a meal.”

Marine Bounty

Mussels - Kuku, Kutai

Seafood - Kaimoana
At Koukourarata
By the Sea, Banks Peninsular

An Island Legend

Horomaka Island, Port Levy, Banks Peninuslar, Canterbury. March 2009. Ajr

This is little Horomaka Island in Port Levy on Banks Peninsular – a place of special significance to the Maori of Koukourarata Runanga. It’s a small, pine-covered island that, according to legend provides shelter for a giant octopus that lives beneath it, guarding the coastline between Banks Peninsular and the Marlborough Sounds. Horomaka was named after the great war canoe, Makawhiua that headed a Ngai Tahu contingent into Canterbury seeking revenge against Tutekawa, who had killed the wives of Tuahuriri. The initial assault failed (horo) hence Horomaka. Today the Department of Conservation in consultation with Koukourarata Runanga, is drawing up a Restoration Plan aimed at replanting native vegetation on the island. An archaeological report has already been carried out and discussions are underway with the local community to assess the best approach. www.doc.govt.nz

School's In!

After School Lessons for Koukourarata Tamariki. Image Supplied by Koukourarata Runanga

Te Runanga o Koukourata, based at Port Levy on Banks Peninsular, have taken proactive steps to ensure that their young people are getting the educational help they need to enable them to map a path to a brighter future. They’ve funded an after-school programme of extra tuition for their tamariki (children), collecting them after school, driving them to the Kip McGrath Educational Centre in Christchurch and then returning them directly to their homes afterwards. The programme is now in its third year and those involved say the benefits have been numerous and the children have made significant gains in their learning. “We’ve been delighted with the results,” says Koukourarata project manager, Peter Ramsden (Ngai Tahu, Rangitane) pictured above (centre rear), with a group of the runanga children. “It’s been a real success story.”

Koukourarata - On the Edge of the Bay

Koukourarata-Port Levy. 2007. Ajr

You come upon Koukourarata -Port Levy - quite suddenly; up and over the high winding roads of the north face of Banks Peninsular and down to a sleepy spread of tiny houses hanging on to the pebbly shoreline of a tranquil bay. Koukourarata Marae sits at the far end of the road - a cluster of buildings on a grassy slope overlooking a stony beach and a pretty jetty. It’s home to the people of Te Runanga o Koukourarata. Koukourarata was the largest Maori settlement in Canterbury in the mid-1800s with a population of around 400 people. Back then, Maori from Koukourarata bartered shark and other kai moana for eels caught by hapu from Waihora and Wairewa over the hills; and tons of dried fish were carried inland to trade. It was also the site of the first Maori Anglican church in Canterbury (Te Whare Karakia Mihinare ki Puari) and the first Native School, which operated from 1924 to 1932. The Tutehuarewa Hall (whare) was built in 1924-25 and named Tutehuarewa after an ancestress. It is rare for a woman’s name to be bestowed upon a whare tipuna; it is customarily a male privilege.

Making a Meal of Mussels

Top: Baked Mussels. Bottom: Mussel Patties. 2007. Ajr.

Koukourarata, or Port Levy as it is commonly known to Pakeha, is well known for its delicious mussels. When we visited the marae about eighteen months ago to do another contemporary kai feature for Ngai Tahu's TE KARAKA magazine, chef Jason Dell created a feast for the kaumatua (elders) that included baked mussels and tasty mussel patties.