Otago Peninsula

280px|thumb|Location of the Otago Peninsula (Muaūpoko) on New Zealand's South Island.

The Otago Peninsula () is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies southeast of Otago Harbour and runs parallel to the mainland for 20 km, with a maximum width of 9 km. It is joined to the mainland at the south-west end by a narrow isthmus about 1.5 km wide.

The suburbs of Dunedin encroach onto the western end of the peninsula, and seven townships and communities lie along the harbourside shore. The majority of the land is sparsely populated and occupied by steep open pasture. The peninsula is home to many species of wildlife, notably seabirds, pinnipeds, and penguins; several ecotourism businesses operate in the area.

Geography

right|thumb|280px|NASA satellite photo of Otago Peninsula and Otago Harbour. The city of Dunedin is located at the isthmus at lower left.

left|thumb|Hereweka / Harbour Cone

The peninsula was formed at the same time as the hills facing it across the harbour, as part of the large, long-extinct Dunedin Volcano. Several of the peninsula's peaks, notably the aptly named Harbour Cone, demonstrate these volcanic origins. These rocks were built up between 13 and 10 million years ago.

Much of the peninsula is steep hill country, with the highest points being Mount Charles (408m), Highcliff (381m), and Sandymount (320m). Two tidal inlets lie on the Pacific coast of the peninsula: Hoopers Inlet and Papanui Inlet. Between them is the headland of Cape Saunders. Nearby natural features include the 250-metre-high cliffs of Lovers' Leap and The Chasm.

At the entrance to the Otago Harbour, the peninsula rises to Taiaroa Head, home to a breeding colony of northern royal albatross, the only colony of albatross to be found on an inhabited mainland. The viewing centre for the albatross colony is one of the peninsula's main ecotourism attractions, along with other wildlife such as seals and yellow-eyed penguins. Most of the Otago Peninsula is freehold farming land, with increasing numbers of small holdings or lifestyle blocks. Some biodiversity sites such as Taiaroa Head are managed as sanctuaries for wildlife. Many species of seabirds and waders in particular may be found around the tidal inlets, including spoonbills, plovers, and herons.

The Pacific coast of the peninsula includes several beaches that are far away enough from Dunedin to be sparsely populated even in mid-summer. These include Allans Beach, Boulder Beach, Victory Beach, and Sandfly Bay.

Victory Beach, named after the 19th-century shipwreck of the Victory close by, features a rock formation known locally as "The Pyramids" for its resemblance to the ancient Egyptian monuments. Sandfly Bay, named not for the insect but for the sand blown up by the wind, is reached via a path through some of New Zealand's tallest sand dunes, which rise for some 100 metres above the beach.

Other tourist attractions on the peninsula include Larnach Castle, a restored Armstrong disappearing-gun coastal defence post, and a war-memorial cairn. There are views of the city and surrounding country from Highcliff Road, which runs along the spine of the peninsula.

The total population of the peninsula is under 10,000, with about half of these in the suburbs of Dunedin that encroach onto its western end, such as Vauxhall and Shiel Hill. Mostly, only the side adjacent to the Otago Harbour is populated, with several small communities dotting the length of the peninsula. The largest of these are Macandrew Bay (the peninsula's largest settlement, population 1,100), Portobello, and Ōtākou. Ōtākou was the site of the first permanent European settlement on the harbour, and of an early whaling station, commemorated at nearby Weller's Rock. There were several other whaling stations inside the harbour and outer peninsula, including the Middle Fishery Station at Harington Point.

thumb|center|800px|Panorama of Otago Peninsula from [[Mt. Cargill, looking southeast across Otago Harbour. On the extreme left are the harbour mouth, Aramoana and Taiaroa Head. Near the centre is Harbour Cone, and below it Broad Bay. Portobello and Macandrew Bay are to the left and right respectively. Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua is mid left above Port Chalmers.]]

thumb|center|800px|Panorama of the view from the smaller of the two Pyramids on Otago Peninsula.

History

Pre-European settlement

thumb|right|Ōtākou marae whare rūnanga

New Zealand was first settled by humans around 1300 AD, and in the South Island, people concentrated on the east coast. In the Archaic (moa-hunting) period, the Otago Peninsula was a relatively densely occupied area at the centre of the country's most populous region.

A map of recorded Māori archaeological sites for the Otago Conservancy shows many more on the Otago Peninsula than elsewhere in the region. Another showing only those of the Archaic period shows sites clustered on the peninsula and along the coast across the harbour to the west and north. This was one of three clusters on the South Island's south east coast: one from about Oamaru south to Pleasant River; another from Waikouaiti south, including the Otago Peninsula and tailing off near the Kaikorai estuary; another extending south from the Matau river mouth. The clusters contain a few larger sites. On the Otago Peninsula, the cluster at Little Papanui is of middle size while Harwood Township has one of the largest. These and numerous other smaller sites are clearly visible, though often not recognised by visitors for what they are.

Their occupants were Polynesians ancestral to modern Māori, who lived by hunting large birds, notably the now-extinct flightless moa, but also seals and by fishing.

Whale-ivory chevron pendants found at Little Papanui were made by the site's early occupants and are now in the Otago Museum, Dunedin. The site's lowest levels are estimated to have been occupied some time between 1150 and 1300 AD. Another peninsula site, at Papanui Inlet, is thought to have been occupied in the same period, as was the extensive one at Harwood Township. Little Papanui and Harwood are considered to have been permanent settlements, not temporary camps. A single radiocarbon date for Harwood suggests it was also occupied in 1450. Three pounamu adzes, said by H.D. Skinner to be the finest of their type, were found nearby and are dated to the same time. They represent a form already archaic when they were made, and are currently in the Otago Museum.

Southern Māori oral tradition tells of five successively arriving peoples, and while the earliest, Kahui Tipua, appear to be fairy folk, modern anthropological opinion is that they represent historical people who have become semi-legendary. Te Rapuwai were next and seemed to be succeeded by two Waitaha tribes, but it has been suggested this was really one with Waitaha also being used as a catch-all name for all earlier peoples by some later arrivals. Te Rapuwai may perhaps also have been a combinatory name.

Charles Kettle, the association's surveyor, laid out suburban and country blocks in 1846 and 1847. The arrival of the first migrant ships in early 1848 saw the focus of settlement move to Dunedin while Port Chalmers on the other side of the harbour succeeded Otago as the international port. In December William Cargill, secular leader of the Otago settlement, successfully petitioned the government to re-instate "Otago" as its original name. The old whaling village and adjacent Māori settlements had now become "Otakou".

Growth of modern settlement

As Dunedin developed, the Peninsula's southern end became a city recreation ground and then a suburb. As increasing numbers of immigrants began arriving, settlements were formed on the harbourside and on the Highcliff Road on the spine of the land mass, but in the early phase of European settlement, also on the more exposed Pacific slopes.

The discovery of gold in 1861 resulted in a massive inrush of people and capital into Otago. Over the next decade, millions of pounds' worth of gold flowed from the diggings, the majority passing through Dunedin. The rapid growth of Dunedin into the most prosperous city in New Zealand stimulated development on the peninsula, as farmers received higher prices for many of the goods that they supplied the city. The population of the peninsula had grown to 1,269 by 1864 and to 2,425 by 1881.

A lighthouse was built at Taiaroa Head in 1864, and work began using prison labour, to build the winding harbourside road, with its distinctive seawalls of the local stone. Across the cleared land, settlers built dry stone walls, following the pattern of "Galloway Dykes", another conspicuous and distinctive feature of the landscape whose only other examples in New Zealand are across the harbour on the opposite heights. Stone lime kilns were built near Sandymount in 1864.

thumb|left|Peninsula lime kiln

By the end of the 1860s, most farms were less than in size, with a total of fenced off and growing either crops or livestock. By 1880, about a third of the land area of the peninsula was being farmed (mostly in the form of dairying), with the rest still in bush, swamp, or sand. The toll gate was located near Macandrew Bay. During the 1890s, the Portobello Road became popular with cyclists, who lobbied the Road Board to reduce the toll. Cyclists were being charged 5 shillings for the round trip, which had been reduced by 1896 to sixpence on Sundays and reduced further to 1903 to sixpence return and then to threepence in 1904. In 1908, the toll was removed. It includes the southern part of the peninsula east of Ocean Grove, and also Harwood, Otakou and Harington Point, but does not include the northern coast of the peninsula, which is covered at Macandrew Bay and Broad Bay. It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km².