Mangemangaroa Reserve

 

The Māori word Mangemangeroa means ‘valley of the Mangemange’. Mangemange (lygodium articulatum) is a twisting climbing fern used by Māori to tie rapo thatch to their manuka framed whares (huts). The Europeans used it for soft mattresses.

 

The valley includes archaeological sites. These include midden of shell and hangi stones as well as several pā (fortified villages) and kumara (sweet potato) storage pits used by Ngatai and Ngatipaoa iwi in pre-European times. Both iwi are of Tainui waka (canoe) descent. Māori have lived in this area since the 14th  century.

 

The reserve was part of missionary W T Fairburn’s Old Land Claim of 1836. His son, Edwin, with members of the Maraetai Mission station visited the valley in 1837 to gather titoki berries to use for jam and jelly making. The Māori used the oil from the titoki in their hair.

 

In 1849, the land was sold by the Government to Fencible soldier-settlers. William McAuley and Peter Searles for £1 an acre. McAuley and Searles had arrived in Howick two years earlier on the ‘Minerva’ (one of the first four immigrant shoips). William McAuley’s sod cottage was close to the site of the present barn. The arum lilies below the barn are escapees from his garden.

 

In 1870, George Somerville, from Ireland, bought the farm. The Somervilles grew oats, wheat and hay on the arable areas. In the 1900’s they turned to dairy farming for both butter and milk production, their cattle being Shorthorn and Fresian breeds. Occasionally, they grew barley for the breweries. Later dry stock (sheep and horses) grazed on this land.

 

George Somerville’s grandson, Archie, died in 1992. Manukau City Council bought the reserve in 1994 at the request of the Howick branch of the Forest and Bird Society.

 

The reserve was officially opened by Sir Barry Curtis, Mayor of Manukau City, on the 25^th November 2000. Since then, a northern coastal and southern extension to the walkway has been added and further extensions are planned.