Kōrero: Hauraki–Coromandel places

Skippers Ridge, in the background of this photo from the mid-1970s, was – along with nearby Sarahs gully, out of the picture to the right – the site of archaeological excavations in the late 1950s which first found evidence of early Polynesian settlement in the North Island. The seagull-covered dunes in the foreground are the site of a midden – rubbish dump – of shells and other materials of archaeological interest. Tahanga (211 m), a hill out of the picture to the left, was the principal source of the basalt used for tool-making by Māori throughout the upper North Island.