Taiaroa Head

Taiaroa Head is a cape at the end of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand. It is located at the mouth of the Otago Harbour in the field of Dunedin city. The nearest settlement, Otakou located three kilometers south.

On the cape there is a Albatross Colony. A small beach, Pilots Beach, is within the harbor entrance just south of the Cape, New Zealand fur seals here regularly and New Zealand sea lions are sighted. The largest colony of dwarf penguin is on the Otago Peninsula at this beach. In the vicinity are important breeding areas for the endangered yellow-eyed penguin. Also Dusky Dolphin and nomadic southern right whales are spotted increasingly often. The part of the peninsula with the Albatross is managed by the Department of Conservation as a nature reserve with restricted access. In the surrounding areas of the Otago Peninsula Trust operates a visitor center and offers guided tours in the reserve to. Pilots Beach is managed as a recreation area of the city of Dunedin.

History

The cape is named after Te Matenga Taiaroa, a chieftain of the iwi Ngai Tahu from the 19th century. Pukekura, an important Pā Māori, lay on the Cape. It was built around 1650 and was inhabited until the 1840s. It is associated with the warrior Tarewai from the 18th century. Pilots Beach was formerly known as Hobart Town Beach to the over 1836 established by the Weller Brothers whaling station, the men of Hobart employed. Previously, she was Measly Beach, as it was for bathing visited by the Maori in a measles epidemic in 1835.

On the peninsula further whaling stations were later built and heavily exploited whale stocks.

In the vicinity are the ruins of an earlier coastal fortification, among which a restored position of a Disappearing Gun is notable that was built in 1886 out of fear of an invasion by the Russians.

At the cape, there is a lighthouse built in 1864.

Albatross

On the Cape, a 1919 colony is formed of more than 100 copies of the Northern Royal Albatross - the only colony in an inhabited part of the main islands.

The first egg was discovered in 1919, but not until 1938 was the ornithologist Lance Richdale, the first surviving cub. Since then, the number of birds increased, thanks to the intensive protection measures. This includes the control of cats, ferrets, martens and weasels. In the 1990s a new blowfly occurred and caused the death of a number of chick by in this they deposited their eggs, while the chicks were still trying to hatch. In addition, eggs were brought by young and inexperienced parents from their nests and hatched in incubators.