Gisborne, New Zealand

The Gisborne region has been settled for over 700 years.[3] For centuries, the region has been inhabited by the tribes of Te Whānau-a-Kai, Ngaariki Kaiputahi, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. They descend from the voyagers of the Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru, Horouta and Tākitimu waka.[4]

East Coast oral traditions offer differing versions of Gisborne's establishment by Māori. One legend recounts that in the 14th century the great navigator Kiwa landed at the Tūranganui River first on the waka Tākitimu after voyaging to the region from Hawaiki[5][6] and that Pāoa, captain of the waka Horouta, followed later. An alternative legend recounts that Kiwa waited so long for the Horouta canoe to arrive that he called its final landing place Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (the long waiting place of Kiwa).[7]

A more popular version of events is that Horouta preceded Takitimu. In 1931, Sir Āpirana Ngata stated that Horouta was the main canoe that brought the people to the East Coast and that Ngāti Porou always regarded Takitimu as "an unimportant canoe".[8] Māori historian Rongowhakaata Halbert affirmed this account, stating that Paoa's crew on the Horouta were the first inhabitants of the East Coast after migrating from Ahuahu or Great Mercury Island.[9][10] Paoa gave his name to various places across the region, most notably the Waipāoa River (Wai-o-Pāoa).[4]

During the 14th century, Māori tribes built fishing villages close to the sea and built pā on nearby hilltops.[6]

Memorial for Te Maro

Gisborne's Kaiti Beach is the place where British navigator Captain James Cook made his first landing in New Zealand upon the Endeavour.[11] Cook had earlier set off from Plymouth, England, in August 1768 on a mission bound for Tahiti. Once he had concluded his duties in Tahiti, Cook continued south to look for a large landmass or continent, before heading west.[7][12] Young Nick's Head was thought to be the first piece of New Zealand land sighted by Cook's party, and so named because it was first observed by cabin boy Nicholas Young on 6 October 1769.[13]

On 9 October, Cook came ashore on the eastern bank of the Tūranganui River, accompanied by a party of men.[7] Their arrival was marred by misunderstanding and resulted in the death and wounding of nine Māori over four days. It was also on the banks of the Tūranganui River that first the township of Turanga, then the city of Gisborne, grew as European traders and whalers began to settle in the river and port area.[6][14]

The landing site was commemorated by a monument in 1906, on the 137th anniversary of Cook's arrival. In 1964, the Gisborne committee of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust registered the land around the monument as a historic reserve, and in 1990 it was designated a National Historic Reserve and put under the care of the Department of Conservation.[12][15]

In 2019, a memorial was erected by Ngāti Oneone on Titirangi, a local hill, to honour Te Maro, who was one of the first casualties of the arrival of the ship Endeavour.[16]

Starting in the early 1830s, traders such as Captain John Harris and Captain George E. Read set up the first trading stations along the Tūranganui river and are attributed to the founding of the town. Over the next 30 years, many more European traders and missionaries migrated to the region. In 1868, the government bought 300 hectares of land for a town site. The town was laid out in 1870 and the name changed from Turanga to Gisborne, after the then colonial secretary, and to avoid confusion with Tauranga. In 1872, Gisborne's first public school was opened and its first newspaper, the Poverty Bay Standard was established.[10] A town council was formed in 1877.[2][6]

The region is sheltered by high country to the west. Gisborne enjoys a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb - Köppen climate classification) with warm summers and cool winters, temperatures rarely drop below 0 °C (32 °F) and occasionally rise above 30 °C (86 °F)[29] with a yearly average of 2,200 sunshine hours. The annual rainfall varies from about 1000 mm near the coast to over 2500 mm in higher inland country.[30] According to the NIWA dataset for 1981–2010 normals, Gisborne narrowly edged several other cities to have the warmest summer maxima of official stations.[31]

Winters are slightly cooler than more northerly areas, rendering that over the course of the calendar year, Gisborne is not the warmest station in the country.[32] Even summer mean temperatures are lower than in northerly areas, despite the highs due to the cooler nights. Despite this, yearly mean temperatures are still some way above average for New Zealand as a whole.

Gisborne Airport serves as the domestic airport for the Gisborne District. Regular flights between Auckland and Wellington are serviced by Air New Zealand under the Link brand, while the smaller Air Napier provides services to Napier and Wairoa. For 25 years Sunair operated from Gisborne to Hamilton, Rotorua, Napier, Whakatāne, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Paraparaumu and Wellington but those services were suspended in 2022.[42] In 2023 Sunair announced it would give Gisborne another chance with services from Hamilton and Tauranga.[43]

State Highway 2 connects Gisborne to Tauranga via Ōpōtiki and Whakatāne to the northwest, and to Napier and the rest of Hawke's Bay via Wairoa to the south. SH 2 travels towards Gisborne from the northwest from Te Karaka, a settlement 31 km northwest of Gisborne. SH 2 passes through Makaraka, a suburb on the outer fringes of Gisborne. It then crosses the Waipaoa River and makes its way south through Manutuke and Wharerata before it enters the Hawke's Bay Region towards Nūhaka, Wairoa, and eventually on to Napier.

State Highway 35 (part of the Pacific Coast Highway network) begins at a junction west of Gisborne with SH 2 just before SH 2 crosses the Waipaoa River on its way south to Manutuke. SH 35 borders Gisborne Airport to the south and enters Gisborne city on the southwestern fringes. It makes its way through the city out to the east, and continues up the coast, connecting Gisborne to the East Cape.

1916 bus and bullock team outside the Post Office

Public transport is poorly developed in Gisborne, with only 0.2% of trips made by bus in 2013/14. This compares with 2.3% nationally,[44] which itself is amongst the lowest proportions in the world.[45] Go Bus is contracted to the council to run 22 services a day on 6 routes Monday to Friday,[46] using 2 buses.[47]

From 1913 to 1929, Gisborne had battery-powered trams. Since then, public transport has declined to about a fifth of the usage then. In 1930, the municipal buses travelled 6,631 mi (10,672 km), and carried 28,531 passengers in 2 weeks.[48] In 2012/13 the city buses carried about 78,000 passengers in 52 weeks, at a cost of about $120,000 a year, with about another $85,000 from fares.[49]

Gisborne is the northern terminus of the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line railway, which opened in 1942 and mothballed (track kept in place, but all services cancelled) in 2012. The permanent way has since suffered storm damage including bridge collapses and the line is believed unlikely to re-open for economic reasons. Prior to this, an isolated section of line operated from Gisborne to Moutohora – intended to be part of a line to Auckland via Rotorua, and later part of the East Coast Main Trunk Railway line. This connection was never completed, and the Moutohora Branch line closed in 1959.

Rail passenger services were provided between Gisborne and Wellington until 1988, when the Endeavour express was cancelled north of Napier. Today, only the Gisborne City Vintage Railway operates limited heritage train rides out of Gisborne.

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