Waikokopu

Waikokopu is a small coastal settlement in northern Hawke Bay, New Zealand, where the Waikokopu stream forms a small tidal estuary between two prominent headlands. The name Waikokopu translates from Māori as "waters" (wai) of the "kokopu" [1], the kokopu being any one of three species of small native fresh-water fish. Waikokopu is about 40 km east of Wairoa, the principal town in northern Hawke Bay.

In Māori times Waikokopu was a landing place for waka (canoes) and the site of Māori settlements. By 1832 (8 years before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi) it was the site of the first coastal whaling station in the northern Hawkes Bay, run by an American named Ward [2]. Other whaling stations were established in the same general area, and the whales were soon depleted as an economic resource. By 1876 wool was being loaded out from Waikokopu to ships waiting offshore [3]. By 1910 volumes had increased to the point where a port company was formed to improve facilities for the loading out of farm produce. Mr EB Bendall was appointed Harbour master.

Wairoa's river harbour was difficult to access and had a dangerous bar. This prohibited its use by ships of any size, and prevented full exploitation of the region's economic potential. As Waikokopu offered the best port development potential in the region, Parliament in 1915 authorised a private railway from Wairoa to Waikokopu. Apart from a preliminary survey nothing was done about this line during the war years, or for two years thereafter because of the possible establishment of a rail link from Wairoa to Gisborne via an inland route.

However, by 1920 the Wairoa River harbour was virtually unusable because of silting of the bar at the river mouth. Due to the urgency of the situation, the lack of progress on the inland railway route, and the business community's inability to raise the necessary capital, the Government agreed to build the line to Waikokopu.

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