Helicopter Transport For Cook Monument On Arapawa Island

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 10

Helicopter Transport For Cook Monument On Arapawa Island

A helicopter may play a part in the bicentenary celebrations of Captain James Cook in New Zealand this year.

The Lands and Survey Department is considering using a helicopter to take in materials to erect a monument on Arapawa Island, Queen Charlotte Sound, to the famous navigator who circumnavigated New Zealand.

In the monument will be incorporated a trig station and a plaque erected by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. It was from Kaitapeha peak, height 1268 ft, on January 23, 1769, that Cook first saw the strait which now bears his name. Because of the steepness of the hill, a helicopter is believed to be the ideal method of transporting the stone and cement needed for the monument.

A bronge plaque measuring 18in by 12in will be set in the monument. The erection of the plaque is part of a programme by the trust to mark three of the landing places of Cook which are not marked. These are at Motuarohia Island, in the Bay of Islands, Cook Beach, at Mercury Bay, and Arapawa Island, Queen Charlotte Sound. In addition, a plaque will also be placed at Whareunga or Grass Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, where, on December 17, 1773, 10 members of the crew of Captain Tobias Furneaux, who commanded the Adventure, were killed while gathering greens. The Adventure accompanied

Cook's Resolution on his second trip to New Zealand. In 1940 the Government erected a monument at Shakespeare Cliff, Mercury Bay, overlooking Cook Beach, but the trust plans to erect a plaque on the shore from where it is believed Charles Green, astronomer in the Endeavour, observed the transit of Mercury on November 10, 1769.

The plaque on the 130-acre privately-owned Motuarohia Island will have the wording: “On November 30, 1769, H.M.S. Endeavour anchored off this beach and here James Cook, commander, first landed in the Bay of Islands.” Plaques have already been placed by the trust at Anaura Bay, near Gisborne where the wording is: “In this bay,

Captain James Cook anchored and watered his ship H.M.S. Endeavour, 20-22 October, 1769,” and at Tolaga Bay with the wording: “Here Captain Cook's Endeavour got wood and water. Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected plants, 23-29 October, 1769.”

At Pourere, Hawke's Bay, where Cook received some Maoris, the trust has placed a plaque with the following words: “On October 22, 1773, Captain James Cook in H.M.S. Resolution hove to off Pourere to receive Maori visitors from the shore. He presented them with spike nails and garden seeds, pigs and fowls which the chief Tuanui promised not to kill, so that the country might be stocked.” The plaques, which will also

bear the emblem of the trust, will be set in impressive blocks of solid concrete. The trust does not plan to erect plaques at Gisborne, or at Kopu, on the Waihou River, where there are monuments, or at Dusky Sound, where the brothers Drs N. C. and C. Begg, Dunedin, noted authorities on Cook, have placed a plaque. In addition, there are monuments at Ship Cove. Queen Charlotte Sound, and on Motuara Island in the same sound.

A typical plaque and obelisk erected by the New Zealand Historic Places' Trust to mark one of the landing places of Captain James Cook. This it at Anaura Bay, near Gisborne.