According to Te Tai Tokerau tradition , Kupe , the legendary Polynesian navigator and explorer , settled in Hokianga in approximately 925 AD , after his journey of discovery from Hawaiiki aboard the waka ( canoe ) named Matahorua . [ 1 ] When he finally left Hokianga he declared that this would be the place of his return and left several things behind including the bailer of his canoe . Later , Kupe ' s grandson , Nukutawhiti returned from Hawaiiki to settle in Hokianga . In the 14 th century , the great chief Puhi landed just south of the Bay of Islands . The tribe of Puhi , Ngapuhi , slowly extended westwards to reach the west coast and colonise both sides of Hokianga . Hokianga is considered to be one of the oldest settlements for the Māori , and is still a heartland for the people . Rahiri , the 17 th century founder of the Ngapuhi iwi was born at Whiria pa to the south of the harbour , where a monument now stands to his memory . In this process of expansion the Ngapuhi created and maintained over centuries a complex network of walking tracks — many of which evolved into today ' s roads . Wesleyan and later Anglican missionaries were guided along these ancient routes to make their own discovery of Hokianga and its accessible time resources . Their reports soon reached merchant captains in the Bay of Islands . Captain Herd of the Providence was the first to respond , and with disgraced missionary Thomas Kendall as guide and translator , crossed the bar and entered the harbour in 1822 ( the first European ship to do so ) and sailed away with the first Hokianga timber shipment . His success inspired a strong following — the deforestation of Hokianga had begun and would be completed by the turn of the century . The only disincentive to Hokianga ' s exploitation was the harbour bar . Of the hundreds of ships that successfully negotiated it , the records show that sixteen were lost . Most came to grief when leaving fully laden and became caught in the wind shadow cast by South Head where the deep water lay . A temporary lull or change in wind direction could cause a sailing - ship to lose steerage way and be swept onto the rocky shore . The last recorded shipwreck was the schooner Isabella de Fraine which was lost with all eight crew in 1928 . In 1837 a French aristocrat with delusions of grandeur , Baron Charles de Thierry , sailed with sixty settlers into this hive of export activity to claim an immense tract of land that he believed he had purchased for thirty - six axes , fifteen years earlier . He was eventually granted about 1 , 000 acres ( 4 km ²) at Rangiahua where he set up his colony declaring himself ' Sovereign Chief of New Zealand '— a title which failed to endear him to Ngapuhi . His project collapsed and he left behind him a few ancient fruit trees and a lot of gouty DNA . His visit at least inspired the Colonial Service to get on with a treaty in the face of this implied Gallic threat . The year after de Thierry arrived another French connection , Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier , sailed in to establish a Catholic mission . He found the southern shores firmly in the hands of Methodist and Anglican missionaries , but the northern side was ripe for conversion . His remains , recently claimed by Ngapuhi , lie buried where the mission began . Today the harbour , like the Reformation , stands between Protestant and Catholic . The car ferry at Rawene , Hokianga HarbourThe communities of Horeke and Rawene are the second and third oldest European settlements in New Zealand . Rawene is still the most important of the coastal settlements in the Hokianga and is where the base of Hokianga ' s community owned health services ( Hauora Hokianga ) is located , on top of the hill at the Hokianga Hospital . Within six days of the Waitangi signing , Governor Hobson , keen to secure full Ngapuhi support , trekked across to the Mangungu Mission House near Horeke where 3000 were waiting . This was the second signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 12 February 1840 . With the appropriate signatures ( and a few inappropriate entries ) he could immediately claim support from the biggest tribe in the country . While the fate of the nation was being signed into history , the axemen of Hokianga scarcely missed a beat . At any one time , as many as twenty ships could be loading Hokianga timber . Whole hillsides , suddenly bared of vegetation , began to slip into the harbour choking its tributaries with mud . The relationship between Māori and Pākehā ( European ) settlers was frequently tense , never more so than during the Dog Tax War of the 1890 s , which was largely centred around Hokianga . By 1900 , the bulk of the forest had sailed over the bar and the little topsoil that remained was turned to dairy farming for butter production . Most of the cream delivered to the Mokukaraka Dairy Factory was carried there by a fleet of about fifty locally built launches that criss - crossed the harbour daily , creating in the process a service for both passengers and freight . For half a century , the communities on both sides of the harbour were linked internally by sea transport , before improved roads in the 1950 s finally displaced this energetic flotilla and the harbour once again divided the community . By 1914 , a rustic telephone system linked some of the Hokianga communities with each other and the outside world . A government - subsidised , weekly coastal shipping service ran between onehunga and Hokianga bringing in freight and taking away butter . Opo the dolphinOpononi became famous throughout New Zealand during 1955 and 1956 due to the exploits of a bottlenose dolphin ( nicknamed " Opo "). Opo was a wild dolphin who started following fishing boats around Opononi in early 1955 after her mother had been killed , and would swim daily in the bay close to town . She was originally named " Opononi Jack ", based on Pelorus Jack , since she was presumed to be male . Unlike the majority of dolphins , she had no qualms about human company , and would perform stunts for locals , play with objects like beach balls and beer bottles , and allow children to swim alongside her and make contact . The dolphin became a local celebrity but news of her soon spread , and visitors from throughout the country would come to watch her . on 8 March 1956 official protection for Opo , requested by locals , was made law , but on 9 March she was found dead in a rock crevice at Koutu Point . It is suspected that she was killed accidentally by fishermen fishing with gelignite . Her death was reported nationwide , and she was buried with full Māori honours in a special plot next to the town hall . Waterline Cafe , Kohukohu .